Child welfare workers' perceptions of children's participation: a comparative study of<scp>E</scp>ngland,<scp>N</scp>orway and the<scp>USA</scp>(<scp>C</scp>alifornia)

Križ, Katrin; Skivenes, Marit

doi:10.1111/cfs.12224

Cited by 60 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…We carried out a thorough screening and analysing process, which makes it possible to provide further insight into the young person's participation process (e.g., Križ & Skiveness, 2015;Van Bijleveld et al, 2013;Vis et al, 2011) while staying in residential care. With this review, we assessed the young person's participation process while staying in residential care.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participation of youth in decision‐making procedures during residential care: A narrative review

Brummelaar

Harder

Kalverboer

et al. 2017

Child & Family Social Work

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Participation in decision-making procedures of young people in care is considered a key element that affects their current or future living circumstances and might improve the quality of decisionmaking on and delivery of provided services.This narrative literature review, covering the period 2000-2016, focuses on the opportunities of young people to participate, the challenges and facilitators to participation, and the outcomes of care related to participation.Sixteen studies met our search criteria. Several studies show that young people seem to have limited possibilities to "meaningful" participation in decision-making. Various challenges and facilitators in the participation process emerge with regard to the level of the young person, the professional, and the (sociocultural) context. None of the studies provides evidence for a connection between the "amount" of youth participation in decision-making and/or treatment during the care process and the outcomes of residential care. Implications for research and practice are reflected upon.

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Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participation of youth in decision‐making procedures during residential care: A narrative review

Brummelaar

Harder

Kalverboer

et al. 2017

Child & Family Social Work

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“…The assumption that the way in which child welfare workers' conceptualize that children's participation has a decisive impact on how they act was supported in a number of studies (Kriz & Skiveness, ). Similarly, social workers' views on children's participation played a crucial role in restraining its implementation in practice (van Bijleveld et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social workers' perceptions of children's right to participation

Kosher

Ben‐Arieh

2019

Child & Family Social Work

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Recent years have witnessed a growing worldwide recognition for the need to incorporate children's right to participate into the child welfare system. Yet studies show that most children in the welfare system do not feel that they are listened to or that their opinions are taken into account. This paper presents findings from a study conducted among 151 Israeli social workers, examining their perceptions on children's participation. The study explored to what extent they implement this principle in their everyday practice and whether there is a relationship between their perceptions and their actions. The findings revealed that social workers tend to endorse a protective position with regard to children's participation and that they only partially implement children's right to participation in their daily practice.

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“…For example, the Child Welfare Act, article 6-3, explicitly indicates that children shall receive information. There are several recent studies of children's participation in child protection that show front line practice in Norway diverging from legislation and notably different from practice in England and in California (Skivenes, 2015;Vis et al, 2012;Kriz & Skivenes, 2015). One explanation may be related to the interpretation of participation for children, and that Norwegian workers have a narrow understanding of the meaning of this concept (Kriz & Skivenes, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are several recent studies of children's participation in child protection that show front line practice in Norway diverging from legislation and notably different from practice in England and in California (Skivenes, 2015;Vis et al, 2012;Kriz & Skivenes, 2015). One explanation may be related to the interpretation of participation for children, and that Norwegian workers have a narrow understanding of the meaning of this concept (Kriz & Skivenes, 2015). Another may be related to a protective attitude towards children (Skivenes, 2015;Kriz & Skivenes, 2015), which sheds light on the reluctance to involve the 5-year-old and the reluctance to inform the child, whether he were 5 or 11 years old.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One explanation may be related to the interpretation of participation for children, and that Norwegian workers have a narrow understanding of the meaning of this concept (Kriz & Skivenes, 2015). Another may be related to a protective attitude towards children (Skivenes, 2015;Kriz & Skivenes, 2015), which sheds light on the reluctance to involve the 5-year-old and the reluctance to inform the child, whether he were 5 or 11 years old. This, of course, illustrates how the "street-level policy goals" (Magnussen & Skivenes (accepted for publication)) are dominating: the government may provide general instructions regarding children's participation, but workers ultimately determine the meaning and form these instructions take (Lipsky, 1980).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Children's involvement in care order decision-making: A cross-country analysis

Berrick

Dickens

Pösö

et al. 2015

Child Abuse & Neglect

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a b s t r a c tThis international comparative paper examines how child protection workers in four countries, England, Finland, Norway, USA (CA), involve children in decision making regarding involuntary child removal. The analysis is based on 772 workers' responses to a vignette describing preparations for care order proceedings. We examine children's involvement along three dimensions including information given to the child, information gathered from the child, and opportunities for their perspectives and interests to be considered. Results show that child protection workers weigh children's involvement differently based upon age. Staff in the four countries were more likely to talk with an older child, to provide information, to gather information, and to include in relevant decision making if the child were 11 compared to five in our vignette. Although the Nordic countries and England provide policy guidance regarding children's role in child protection decision making, we did not see consistently higher indicators of children's involvement from the respondents in these countries. Using child protection system frames to analyze the findings did not produce consistent differences between the family service systems and child protection systems included in this study. Findings highlight the wide range in practices concerning children's involvement in decision making, and the wide space for professional discretion in implementing practice with children at the local level.© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. IntroductionRemoval of a child from parental care to public care is a serious state intervention in the private relations of children and their parents. Children, the subject of removal, are sometimes involved in decisions about their separation, but they are not necessarily engaged as agents of their fate. Some states make explicit through legislation an expectation that children are involved in determining their future; others are silent on children's participation. And because we know that child protection workers, as street-level bureaucrats (Lipsky, 2010), sometimes employ wide discretion in their work with families, we do not know whether workers in various state systems are more or less inclusive of children's voice. This international comparative paper examines how child protection workers in England, Finland, Norway, and the US (California) involve children in decision making regarding preparations of a possible involuntary child removal. We refer to child protection workers as a common term across countries, even though each country may use different terms to describe front-line workers in their child welfare system. We use the term care order proceedings to refer to the court processes that authorize the separation of a child from his/her parent(s), and care order preparations for the agency-based policies and practices that help determine whether and when to make an application to the court. We examine children's involvement along three dimensions including information given to the child, inf...

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Child welfare workers' perceptions of children's participation: a comparative study ofEngland,Norway and theUSA(California)

Cited by 60 publications

References 19 publications

Participation of youth in decision‐making procedures during residential care: A narrative review

Participation of youth in decision‐making procedures during residential care: A narrative review

Social workers' perceptions of children's right to participation

Children's involvement in care order decision-making: A cross-country analysis

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