The Voice of the Child in Child Protection Decision-Making

Abstract

Children’s participation in all matters that concern them, particularly child protection decision-making, have many positive effects on children. It is also their right granted by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, in child protection practice there are many obstacles to including children in decision-making processes. First, the article reviews the policy and public discourse in England, Germany, and the Netherlands regarding children’s participation in investigations into suspected child maltreatment. Second, an analysis of 1,207 case files of investigations into suspected child maltreatment unfolds the extent of children’s participation and factors associated with participation within the three countries. Although all three countries grant the right to participate in decision-making to children, documented participation in child protection decision-making is very low even when older children are considered. Children’s participation in decision-making is closely linked to caretakers’ participation in decision-making. Thus, children are almost never included in decision-making when their caretaker is not. Children’s participation is associated with a higher likelihood for individual support for children in the Netherlands and Germany. The results point to the need for research on barriers of children’s participation as well as the need to provide more resources for case workers to be able to facilitate children’s participation.

Children’s Participation in Care and Protection Decision-Making Matters

“…Although various research studies indicate that child protection professionals seem to recognise the contribution of children's views in decision-making, a review of the Australian literature highlights the implementation gap between the rhetoric and practice of child participation. Consistent with findings from the international literature, the identified barriers to caseworkers seeking and involving children's views in decision-making include children's ages and perceived vulnerabilities (Harkin et al 2020;van Bijleveld et al 2014van Bijleveld et al , 2015Ogle et al 2022;Witte et al 2020;Woodman et al 2018), caseworkers' varying conceptualisation and implementation of child participation (Križ and Skivenes 2015;Woodman et al 2023), and the competing demands for caseworkers' time and attention and staff turn-over and whether and how the child's views were recorded on the child's file (Harkin et al 2020;Hoikkala and Pösö 2020;Kratky and Schröder-Abé 2020;Woodman et al 2018). Cultural factors may also play a role.…”