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The objective of this paper is to inform a critical analysis of how the media portray family support in Ireland. Findings of a content analysis carried out on national and regional Irish newspapers between 2014 and 2017 are presented which describe communication about family support services provided by Tusla-Child and Family Agency. Results show that even though child protection was not used as a specific search term, news items on the Child and Family Agency and family support were usually focused on child protection and children in care. Results also show that family support activities are reported more positively in local papers compared to national papers. In the discussion, we argue that these findings are important as the media plays an important role in how the public understand, view, and engage with integrated child protection and welfare systems. We consider the implications of the research and advocate working with the media to inform their interpretation and understanding of family support. We suggest this is important as the manner in which the media communicate and frame family support as part of the overall child protection and welfare system is one of the main influences on public understandings and awareness of preventative family support and child welfare services.

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It is generally understood that administrative data at the level of the individual, family and wider population is fundamental to delivering client centred services which aim to support families and respond to and reduce child abuse. Such data is valuable to policy makers and practitioners and plays an important role in research. The focus of this paper is the potential use of administrative data from statutory family support and child protection and welfare services in Ireland for policy, practice and research. In the context of an evolving legislative and policy framework in Ireland, we provide an overview of the statutory family support and child protection services provided by Tusla, Ireland's Child and Family Agency. We suggest that this context provides an exceptional opportunity for developing administrative data sets in child protection and welfare and in family support. The benefits and challenges of developing such administrative data sets are discussed. The paper concludes with recommendations for developing and linking administrative data sets to better understand and respond to the needs of children and families presenting to the services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper was based on a framework for practice and supervision based on 'protective-support and supportive-protection' (PS-SP) that can be used to discuss and plan for practice in a way that maximises the capacity of workers in child protection and welfare (CPW) services to provide support and protection simultaneously. The framework is underpinned by a long-established assumption about social work in child protection and welfare as a socio-legal practice of mediation in the social. The PS-SP framework was initially developed within an ecological context with a focus on networks and networking. In this paper, we developed this framework further, framing practice supervision using four functions of supervision (management, support, development, and mediation) and including a fifth component on safety. We did this alongside a review of related considerations around safety in supervision in general and in child protection and welfare in particular. While noting the important contribution of this work, we identified ongoing gaps for supervision focused on safety when considered within an ecological context. Bearing in mind the well-evidenced stress, challenges, and vicarious nature of child protection and welfare practice, we argued the importance of a wider framework based on PS-SP for supervision and support to manage this complexity with a particular emphasis on 'safety' as a contribution to this. To illustrate our framework and discussion, we referred to a case study throughout. This case study is drawn from a high-profile child abuse inquiry in Ireland over a decade ago. This case was chosen as it demonstrates the complex interplay of needs for support and protection over extended time. We considered how the PS-SP framework may be used in the present (hypothetically) regarding such a case scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on findings from a psycho-social qualitative doctoral study, this paper considers the intimate and extraordinary emotional intensity, ambivalence and pain associated with the experience of mother social workers engaging with mothers and their infants in the context of child protection work. In this yearlong study undertaken with a group of female Irish child protection social workers, their role as mothers was an unanticipated emergent theme and was found to be inextricably linked to their work and their capacity for realistic decision-making. We consider the wider contexts of societal ambivalence about motherhood, mothering and social work itself, as a way of locating these experiences as fully psycho-social. The work discussion seminars offered as part of the research study afforded a rare opportunity for workers to talk about predicaments, failures and worries, in conditions of containment for anxiety, support for their learning, and a confidential reflective setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By June 2021, children and young people had experienced two periods of lockdown and home learning in Northern Ireland. The detrimental impact of these periods of indefinite confinement is wider reaching than reported educational stagnation, with the fundamental rights of childhood: play; rest; and leisure; all adversely implicated. Autistic children's experiences of Covid‐19 have been largely absent from current crisis and recovery discourse. This is the first published study to directly and specifically involve autistic children both as research advisors and as research participants in a rights‐based participatory study relating to the pandemic. Drawing on concepts of ableist childism and epistemic injustice, this article presents, through Photovoice, the emotional, social and educational experiences of post‐ primary aged autistic young people in Northern Ireland during the first 2020 lockdown of the Covid‐19 pandemic. The project was grounded in a child rights‐based approach and was guided by a group of four autistic young advisors aged 11–15. The paper concludes by arguing that government responses to the pandemic, as experienced by autistic young people, act as forms of oppression that prioritises and further embeds normative non‐autistic structures and responses under the guise of public health necessity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale reform of statutory child protective services in the Republic of Ireland is underway, prompted by adoption of the national strengths-based and safety-organised practice approach, known as 'Signs of Safety' (SoS). Despite the radical change it impels, critical commentary from the academy on the conventions of SoS remains conspicuous by its absence. One reading of the ecological systems approach is that to appreciate implications of SoS for children and families at risk, we must surpass a sequestered concern with child protection and welfare alone. To substantiate this, and embed a reconceived Signs of Safety, human scale development theory is critically deployed through an augmented, rather than exclusive focus, on the axis of protection needs within the typology of fundamental human needs. To aid this, critical application of theory is partially reworked and appropriated through a life course perspective, to better account for lifespan positioning. Overall, the sustaining proposition of the paper is that academic interrogation of SoS is both a practical and ethical imperative, and a necessary complement to large-scale organisational change underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The national child welfare agency in Ireland identified the integration of trauma-informed practices as a service need, in the current significantly challenging practice climate. A promising program that meets the need of child welfare professionals to support need has been developed and is reported on in this paper. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a newly developed post-graduate level trauma-informed care program for professionals in the national child welfare agency in Ireland. Study participants were 41 child welfare professionals that included front-line practitioners, supervisors, and senior managers. A pretest–posttest study design was used, data was collected over three-time points to measure the effects of the program on pre-defined outcomes of Trauma-informed Knowledge, Professional Self-efficacy, Professional Quality of Life, and Intention to Leave. Statistically significant positives effects were found in trauma-informed knowledge, professional confidence, burn-out and compassion fatigue/secondary traumatic stress, with effect sizes ranging from medium-large to large ( η 2 =. 133 t o η 2 =. 721) across the intervention time period. The positive impacts arising from the program were sustained for 3 months post-intervention. The results of this initial evaluation are promising in supporting child welfare professionals' capacity to integrate trauma-informed practices and addressing the need for trauma informed practitioners. The need for further research is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Permanency decisions in child welfare are recognised as being challenging. Nevertheless, society and the profession expect that professional judgements should be of the highest quality, consistent, reliable, fully justified and informed by evidence of what works, particularly where decisions are potentially life-changing. However, barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation exist, preventing practitioners from gaining the full range of knowledge they require, leading to permanency decisions being interventionist and protectionist in orientation (author, 2020). Think-aloud protocols and semi-structured interviews, in conjunction with a vignette, were used with social workers (N = 17) in statutory services to explore barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation in permanency decisions for children in state care. Findings: The main barriers to knowledge use were (1) misunderstanding or misuse of theory, (2) limitations in training and learning and (3) organisational issues. Applications: By developing a real-world understanding of the barriers and listening to the views of the professionals themselves, we can begin to realistically inform policy and practice, with the aim of decreasing the barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation in permanency decision-making. If we appreciate the barriers to knowledge acquisition and utilisation in permanency decision-making more fully, then perhaps we can reduce them, thereby facilitating more fully informed decisions that best serve the individual needs of children and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disabled children experience increased risk of abuse and neglect. Concurrently, serious concerns and practical impediments persist regarding the capacity of statutory child protection and welfare services to respond adequately to their needs. Specifically, the focus in this article is on the assessment stage of the social work process within child protection and welfare teams in the Republic of Ireland. Within this, critical commentary on the literature in this article sets out barriers to professional assessment. These include those associated with interviewing children with cognitive and linguistic impairments, negotiating resource constraints, and overcoming knowledge impediments. Following a thematic overview of literature, theoretical vantage points associated with ableism and derived from the broad field of disability studies, informs concluding analysis with focus on lessons learned for future practice. The proposition is, that theoretical perspectives associated with ableism may aid practitioners in seeking to overcome knowledge, attitudinal and social equality barriers to effective child protection, that existing literature alludes to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If children in child protection cannot be cared for by their natural parents, should they be adopted or live in foster home? Results from a study of representative samples of populations (n = 12 330), in eight European countries—Austria, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Spain—and California, USA, reveal that people would recommend adoption over foster care, if a child in public care cannot grow up with their natural parent(s). There are cross‐country differences between populations, and examining if institutional context such as type of child protection system explains differences, we find that child maltreatment‐oriented systems are more supportive of adoption than other types of systems. Citizens having little confidence in the child protection system were only weakly correlated with preference for adoption. In conclusion, people prefer adoption as placement options for children in care are more than foster homes, and possible this finding reflects a sort of refamalialization of children into the private sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disclosure of childhood sexual abuse is a process that is often laden with boundary testing, decision-making and, at times, risk. Disclosures tend to be delayed, often into adulthood and later life, with disclosures to authorities remaining relatively low. In the Republic of Ireland adults who disclose experiences of childhood sexual abuse are directed towards child protection services due to an interplay between jurisprudence, child protection policy design, and mandatory reporting obligations, requiring social work practitioners to balance the social and the legal. This article compares Foucault's concept of the confessional to current social work practices of engaging with adult victims and survivors of abuse. It is argued that thinking about these interactions as a confessional-like system highlights a process of knowledge creation that is taking place when a personal narrative of abuse is shared, willingly or via mandated reporting, with a child protection agency under the auspices of a modern state. This 'confessional-lens' helps us identify a tipping of the balance in this area of social work practice, away from provision of care and person-centredness, across a boundary, to legalistic practice. Narratives of childhood abuse are transformed into knowledge deemed necessary to assess current risk to children. A process that places the adult on the periphery, leading to a potential for harm and re-traumatisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study on safeguarding children supervision in Northern Ireland as of January 2023. Topics covered include the themes of the need to discuss concerns on such supervision, the supervision processes, and the value of supervision experiences by supervisees and supervisors. Also noted are the help of risk analysis on the reflection and focus of practitioners, and the importance of formal planned supervision in safeguarding children.

In Ireland, little is known about mothers and infants where child welfare and protection concerns arise during the perinatal period. This study explores, for the first time, perinatal child protection. A retrospective audit was carried out of a large maternity hospital's medical social work, neonatal and psychiatric files for a five‐year period from 2016 to 2020. The study identified 99 children, born to 86 mothers, who were either subject to a child protection conference; placed for adoption; discharged to someone other than the mother; or discharged home under supervision. The study found that two‐thirds of the children were discharged to their mother's care. When compared to national data, the health indicators for this cohort of mothers and children painted a grim picture. The maternal profiles identified high prevalence of mental health and addiction difficulties and domestic violence. The study found evidence of supports provided to the mothers to enable them to care for their infants while they remained in the hospital and during an initial discharge from hospital. However, a significant number of the mothers were not caring for their children when viewed across a longer time frame. Dedicated multi‐disciplinary clinics and improved data systems were identified as of importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All states grapple with the challenges of protecting children and ensuring their development. For minority world states, whilst there is a longer history of established systems focused on the protection and welfare of children, transformation and change are ever-present characteristics of such systems—reflecting the ongoing pursuit of greater effectiveness in meeting the needs of service users. Recent trends suggest an increased focus on prevention and family support amongst child protection systems, with some national and regional states re-organising services in this direction. Alongside these central policy and practice reforms, academic literature has emerged to support those considering and planning for system change and improvement in child protection. In this article, we first propose a conceptual framework for studying system change in child protection, building on the work of Coffman and Wulczyn, but incorporating three further orientations: system culture and climate; implementation science; and leadership. Secondly, using Ireland's experience of developing and strengthening the prevention and family support dimensions of its child protection system as a case study, we assess the value of the framework and possible revisions to it for future use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores ways in which gender equality, family policy and child welfare social work intersect in four countries: England, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. Over time, conditions for gender equality in parenting have improved, partly due to family policy developments removing structural barriers. These changes, however, vary between countries; Sweden and Norway are considered more progressive as compared with the UK and Ireland. Here, we draw on focus group data collected from child welfare social workers in England, Ireland, Norway and Sweden to compare these different contextual changes and how these are reflected in related social work practice decisions. The focus group discussions were based on a vignette, and thematic analysis was applied. Overall, welfare social workers are aware of the need to support gender equality in parenting, there is a heavy focus on mothers in child welfare practice decisions, and fathers are largely absent. Uniquely, we show that this is influenced by both a strong child-centred perspective, and a gendered risk perspective, in which fathers are seen to pose more risk to the children than mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]