This paper argues that child protection organizations intent upon tackling low retention rates and enhancing the services they offer to children and families must pay greater attention to the emotional life of the organization and to enabling workers to manage the intrusiveness of the work. Findings from in‐depth qualitative interviews with child protection workers and supervisors are reported in the form of a story about the insider's experience of the organization. The consequences of working in an organizational culture that denies opportunities for workers to understand and manage the emotional toll of the work are explored. While reporting on research and work undertaken with Australian child protection workers between 1997 and 2002, the view is expressed that these ideas have current relevance to many organizations in the health and welfare field whose core business involves workers coming into contact with individuals in complex, uncertain and ambiguous situations. The paper looks at what needs to change about organizational structures such as supervision to promote learning within a more healthy organizational culture. A clear message from senior managers and politicians to workers that the organization endorses the open expression of feelings, doubts and uncertainties is pivotal.

The process of reviewing deaths of children who had formerly been known to a child protection agency is emotive, and its value is often contested. This paper is written with the frontline practitioner in mind, and grapples with the complexities of how inquiries can make a difference in the world of all relevant stakeholders. It is contended that a goal of individual and systemic learning can be achieved if inquiries take place in a healthy, collaborative learning culture, if they are embedded in a multi-sectoral systemic framework, and if a reflective analysis is undertaken. Such inquiries would prioritise an understanding of the individual, organisational and systemic factors that influence thinking, feeling and doing. When constructed and experienced as opportunities for individual and collective learning, inquiries have the potential to add value to the whole service system and the practice of frontline workers, along with meeting the need for public accountability.