The road less travelled: A review of the recommendations to inform and improve social work practice in long-term child protection cases

Sue Robinson, Shelly Qualtieri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

There are enormous economic resources directed at the prevention of child abuse and neglect, and despite the huge financial investment in child protection, abuse and neglect does not appear to be decreasing. It is therefore essential that child protection agencies do everything they can to improve their effectiveness in protecting children. It is argued that learning from the recommendations made in child death cases, the management of long term, high risk child protection cases can be improved and made more effective. This paper reports on a study of three child death inquiries originating in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia where child protection agencies were already involved with the child. An analysis of the recommendations made in these cases was undertaken and the thematic areas of: “social worker and supervisor curiosity”; “child focused practice”; “child focused decision making” and “cautious case closure” were identified as the main areas that need to be improved if child death in long term high risk child protection cases are to be prevented.
Original languageEnglish
Article number1
Pages (from-to)8-30
Number of pages22
JournalCanadian Social Work
Volume20
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2019

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