Child welfare in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic—Emerging evidence from Germany

Abstract

Background The coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the situation and well-being of children and their families, while simultaneously affecting the ability of welfare services for children and youth to support vulnerable families. As measures of contact restrictions were introduced to contain the virus, and schools and childcare facilities closed, the potential risk to child welfare could hardly be overlooked. Objectives Focusing on Germany, this article aims to explore some of the effects of the COVID-19 measures on children and families. Furthermore, it examines a number of key challenges for child protection practitioners. These include identifying potential cases of child maltreatment without the support normally provided by teachers and child carers; and establishing and maintaining contact with clients under physical distancing rules. Methods The article is based on a review of German and English language scientific and journalistic articles, position papers from professional associations and other gray literature. It benefits from recently published (interim) results of empirical studies conducted in Germany, which explore child welfare issues in the pandemic. Conclusion Under COVID-19, the child welfare system faces unprecedented challenges and uncertainty (e.g. (partial) loss of cooperation opportunities with key partners) whilst showing signs of remarkable resilience (e.g. child protection workers’ ability to adjust to new conditions). While the potential of digitalising work processes in child protection has become apparent in the pandemic, the proven continuous face-to-face contact between practitioners and their clients is neither dispensable nor replaceable.

Collaboration of Child Protective Services and Early Childhood Educators: Enhancing the Well-Being of Children in Need

“…A global pandemic crisis poses increased vulnerabilities and higher risks to children who are typically in need of the protective measures of CPS (Toros and Falch-Eriksen 2020 ). These are challenging times for everyone, especially for vulnerable families and children (Kelly and Hansel 2020 ; Usher et al 2020 ).…”

“…In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Bérubé et al (2020) argued that supportive systems, including healthcare and CPS, could not meet the needs of children due to the closing of schools and childcare centres. Several studies (Toros and Falch-Eriksen 2020;Jentsch and Schnock 2020) found that one of the challenges of COVID-19 for CPS was the loss of collaboration opportunities with key partners, including nursery schools. Jentsch and Schnock (2020) reported that the lockdown did not support the reporting process.…”

“…Several studies (Toros and Falch-Eriksen 2020;Jentsch and Schnock 2020) found that one of the challenges of COVID-19 for CPS was the loss of collaboration opportunities with key partners, including nursery schools. Jentsch and Schnock (2020) reported that the lockdown did not support the reporting process. Similarly, Turner (2020) addressed limited collaboration from key partners due to COVID-19.…”

The Impact of COVID-19 on Mental Health: Psychosocial Conditions of Students with and without Special Educational Needs

“…The assumption of the pandemic's negative impact on childrens' wellbeing can furthermore be theoretically underpinned by findings that parental stress during the lockdown may be transferred to their children and that the lockdown situation might lead to a higher load of in-family violance, emotional neglect, or isolation (Clemens et al, 2020;Fontanesi et al, 2020;Mechili et al, 2020;Spinelli et al, 2020). Furthermore, it can be shown that the pandemic situation challenges the system of public child welfare -and although the child welfare practitioners seem to adjust to the new situation, it cannot be said which long-term effects the lockdown may have on public child welfare systems (Baginsky & Manthorpe, 2020;Jentsch & Schnock, 2020).…”

152 The impact of coronavirus on safeguarding referrals to a tertiary UK hospital

“…Mean GA were 36. 4 1. impact of coronavirus, and the public health measures taken to address it, on child protection referrals. 2. effect on child protection referrals following the re-opening of educational services.…”