This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that focused on factors that facilitate professional judgement and decision‐making that is child‐centred. Appreciative inquiry informed the methodology that enabled four focus groups (n = 50) with child protection practitioners who worked with children and young people living out‐of‐home care. The study found that, firstly, child protection practitioners had clear conceptualizations of what child‐centred practice means and, secondly, articulated how functioning teams, effective organizational structures and relationships were crucial to child‐centred practice. The findings point to the importance of relationality in effective child‐centred professional judgement and decision‐making in child protection contexts.

The paper presents findings from a qualitative study of four child death reviews published in Australia. The study was informed by the theoretical concept of childism. A critical social research methodology facilitated the exposure of childist dynamics in statutory child protection. The transformation of child protection practices and systems has traditionally relied on the imposition of never-ending structural changes, policies, and procedures. This paper proposes that transformation and the erosion of childist dynamics is contingent on humane and ethical statutory child protection agencies.

Collaboration across child protection and domestic and family violence (DFV) sectors have long been sought despite the competing priorities found in these practice fields. This article describes a research partnership that aimed to explore the competing priorities by focusing on how workers interact across child protection and DFV specialist agencies. Using a Living Lab Approach, enabled twelve focus groups with child protection and DFV social workers (n = 100). Thematic analysis was conducted, and it was found that diverse understandings of DFV created tensions when trying to form collaborations. These tensions were often amplified when other intersecting issues were present in family lives such as drug and alcohol and mental health problems. Understandings of Aboriginal cultural safety, and religious and culture impacts for cultural and linguistically diverse families were unintentionally sidelined. However, practitioners also formed common understandings of opportunities to progress and sustain collaboration across the sectors. The Living Lab Approach facilitated the development of a policy and practice guide for child protection to support future work. This has implications for social work practice because the Living Lab Approach enabled a call for a consistent approach to DFV that should be gender sensitive, trauma informed and culturally safe, and collaboration at practitioner, team and organisational levels.

No abstract

No abstract