Children’s Participation in Decision Making From Child Welfare Workers’ Perspectives: A Systematic Review

Abstract

This article explores child welfare workers’ experiences of children’s participation in decision making in the child protection system. The systematic review follows the principles of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement and includes 12 peer-reviewed articles published in academic journals from 2009 to 2019. Findings indicate that children’s participation in decision making is generally limited or nonexistent. The age of the child is an important determining factor concerning whether the child is given the opportunity to participate in decision making. Potential harm for children that may result from participation is considered when deciding on whether to include a child in the decision-making process.

Authenticity, power and the case record: A textual analysis of the participation of children and young people in their child protection conference

“…The extent to which children are seen, heard and authentically represented at the CPC is mediated by a complex and nuanced interplay of individual (child and professional), organizational and structural factors (Bastian, 2020; Collins, 2018; Ferguson, 2016; Kosher & Ben‐Arieh, 2020; Toros, 2021; Vis et al, 2012) that are located within a child protection system that endeavours to act in the child's best interests and to promote participation within competing discourses of child protection. The production of an organization's frame of reality is founded on organizational discourses, which in turn serve to define and regulate the day‐to‐day local practices created through social relations.…”

Foster children’s perspectives on participation in child welfare processes: A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies

“…In this meta-synthesis, we summarize children’s perspectives on their participation in foster care processes and in particular their (non-) participation in the removal from home, foster family processes, and placement breakdown. The findings of this meta-synthesis will be useful to policy makers, who are increasingly requested to incorporate children’s voices into decision-making [ 16 , 24 , 25 ], and practitioners, who need to consider the nuances of when and how to include children’s voices in practice and decision-making [ 26 ]. The inclusion of children’s voices has a number of benefits to children, practitioners, and policy makers, such as affording children their inherent rights to participate, empowering children and reducing their confusion regarding services, and improving service delivery through more tailored, responsive services [ 24 , 26 , 27 ].…”

“…The findings of this meta-synthesis will be useful to policy makers, who are increasingly requested to incorporate children’s voices into decision-making [ 16 , 24 , 25 ], and practitioners, who need to consider the nuances of when and how to include children’s voices in practice and decision-making [ 26 ]. The inclusion of children’s voices has a number of benefits to children, practitioners, and policy makers, such as affording children their inherent rights to participate, empowering children and reducing their confusion regarding services, and improving service delivery through more tailored, responsive services [ 24 , 26 , 27 ]. As the authors of one review note, children’s “participation has both intrinsic (dignity and self-worth in terms of expressing views to influence decisions about their lives) and instrumental (policy and better outcomes for children in terms of supportive relationships with their workers and positive experiences at school and in CPS [children protection services]) value” [ 24 ].…”

“…As the authors of one review note, children’s “participation has both intrinsic (dignity and self-worth in terms of expressing views to influence decisions about their lives) and instrumental (policy and better outcomes for children in terms of supportive relationships with their workers and positive experiences at school and in CPS [children protection services]) value” [ 24 ]. This meta-synthesis adds to an important increasing focus in the literature on children’s participation across all aspects of child welfare processes [ 24 , 26 – 28 ], but with an explicit focus on how foster children speak about their participation.…”

Children's participation in child protection—How do practitioners understand children's participation in practice?

“…A recent systematic review found that while child welfare workers valued children's participation, children had limited involvement in decision-making, age influenced participation opportunities and workers considered the potential harm of participation (Toros, 2021a). Practitioners make different decisions about participation depending on their interpretations of children's maturity and age (Toros, 2021a). We need to find ways to engage all children rather than assessing their capacity to participate in adult-designed processes (Toros, 2021b).…”