Provision of Child Welfare Services

The termination of parental rights of parents with mental disabilities is a growing and crucial issue.  In 2010, an estimated 45.9 million adults in the U.S. had experienced a mental illness in the past year. This represents 20% of the adult population.  More than five million children in the U.S. have a parent with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.  Courts and child welfare systems too often assume that a parent is not amenable to treatment and is a danger to his or her child when strong symptoms of mental turmoil surface.  Some studies report that as many as 70 to 80% of mentally ill parents have lost custody.  Public systems are overwhelmed by this matter in an era of shrinking resources for such systems.  However, often parents with mental health needs are willing to accept treatment, are able to participate in programming, and are worthy of regaining custody. 
• There are gaps in federal and state law on this issue.  The federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) requires that state child welfare agencies and courts make “reasonable efforts” towards family reunification before the termination of parental rights (TPR) can take place.  However, federal statutes and case law provide little guidance to states about what “reasonable efforts” means, and states have been left to interpret that concept individually.  Many state statutes even enable a “bypass” of the “reasonable efforts” standard when “clear and convincing” evidence allegedly shows that a parent's mental condition cannot be changed.  Many states likewise place unjust, statutory and common law time limits on family reunification efforts in TPR cases. 
• Gaps in legal scholarship are also evident here.  Legal scholars have begun to discuss the inadequacy of reunification services for mentally challenged parents, the tenuous link between mental health services and child welfare agency action, the need for enhanced attorney and child welfare worker preparation in this arena, and a need for cultural competence in reunification services.  Others have even suggested that there be a rebuttable presumption in favor of family reunification.  However, those discussions lack a sound theoretical basis and a practical application of solutions. 
• As is featured in previous work of this author, a new theoretical framework of Family Systems Theory-- which is utilized in clinical behavioral health and human rights arenas-- must first be applied.  Under this theoretical framework, the vague and outdated “best interests of the child” standard, which is a legal standard used exclusively in family law cases, must be replaced with a more sound standard of “holistic family wellbeing.”  Vulnerability Theory can add credence to this theoretical framework.
• The discussion of reunification services for families featuring parents with mental disabilities should then be conducted utilizing Family Systems Theory and a legal standard of “holistic family wellbeing.”  Under these circumstances, the “family integrity” defended by our highest courts through the “reasonable efforts” provision should be upheld through the delivery of highly effective family reunification services.  The application of Family Systems Theory ultimately requires reform in the law, service delivery, and professional practice.  State and federal legislators must revisit the “reasonable efforts” standard, to include specific statutory language about the types of reunification services required and the need for flexible timelines.  Courts, child welfare agencies, and service providers need to deliver proven reunification services and coordinated mental health treatment.  In specific court cases, attorneys for the parent(s), the child(ren), and the state should focus on “holistic family wellbeing” utilizing collaborative family law and alternative dispute resolution, while advancing the agency of their clients.  Child welfare workers and practitioners likewise require training in advanced methods of conflict resolution and clinical practice.  These recommendations can ensure more effective family law practice and more successful family - serving systems.

The objective of this paper is to frame, understand, and draw implications from existing research on families screened out by child protective services (CPS) after a referral alleging child maltreatment. We review descriptive and outcome data together with emerging intervention research amidst a developing consensus that the current reactive role of CPS should be supplemented by supportive and preventative services that primarily address poverty. State-level data indicate that screened-out families are at high risk of re-referral and similar to higher risk families reported to CPS. Intervention research is scant and mixed, but there is indication that providing community-based services may reduce future CPS involvement. Considering that screened-out referrals present an opportunity to prevent future maltreatment, CPS should identify and collaboratively engage screened-out families in community-based services. More research on the outcomes of these community responses is needed to identify best practices related to engagement and service provision.

The precursors to and process of termination of parental rights (TPR) proceedings in parents with mental disabilities require examination because previous scholars have not approached this matter with the correct framework. The effects of mental illness on parenting must be explored because mental illness does not lead to de facto child abuse. An application of Family Systems Theory — which is highly utilized in clinical arenas and social work — requires the use of a legal standard of “holistic family wellbeing” in TPR proceedings, rather than the vague, outdated standard of “the child’s best interests.” An in-depth discussion of the origins, nature, and current human rights applications of Family Systems Theory reveals a natural fit with family law cases in general and with TPR in particular. Applying the “holistic family wellbeing” standard would make a more clinically and ethically sound determination about maintaining or severing family bonds, especially with the mentally challenged population. These concepts move the field towards cutting-edge family law practice.

The termination of parental rights in parents with mental challenges is a growing and crucial issue. In 2010, an estimated 45.9 million adults in the U.S. had experienced a mental illness in the past year. This represents 20% of the adult population. More than five million children in the U.S. have a parent with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. Courts and child welfare systems too often assume that a parent is not amenable to treatment and is a danger to his or her child when strong symptoms of mental turmoil surface. Some studies report that as many as 70 to 80% of mentally ill parents have lost custody. Public systems are overwhelmed by this matter in an era of shrinking resources for such systems. However, often parents with mental health needs are willing to accept treatment, are able to participate in programming, and are worthy of regaining custody.

Parenting capacity assessments are a common tool used by child intervention programs. Their goal is to determine whether a parent is good enough to raise their own children, if intervention is needed to support parents to achieve that, or if it is probable that a parent cannot raise their child. The methodology used is based upon the Euro-centric definitions of family and uses elements that have not been normed on First Nations populations. Such an approach acts to extend the colonial position of child protection by imposing methodology that fails to consider cultural definitions of family. They also cannot measure capacity to parent when the socio-political realities of most parents, such as poverty and poor access to services, and the impacts of inter-generational trauma are not included in the approach. Assessments done in this context do not meet the Mohan (R. v. Mohan) 3 test for admissibility of expert evidence in Canadian courts. Alternative approaches are suggested.

The goal of this study was to analyze the decision by child welfare supervisors to remove children from their parents. This was accomplished by studying the effect that three specific factors have on that decision. The three factors were 1) physical abuse, 2) domestic violence and substance abuse, and 3) availability of services to help the family.

Decision theory provided the conceptual framework for understanding the microstructure and interplay of variables involved in a decision. Decision theory was viewed within the context of the current functioning of the child welfare system. The goal was to present an integrated approach that led to development of a scale that was used to rate specific factors that this research studied. Emphasis was placed on survey research methods to help determine decision making factors used by managers.

Eighty-seven child welfare supervisors were surveyed from the northeast region of the Massachusetts Department of Social services. The prediction that a combination of factors of physical abuse and domestic violence/ substance abuse would increase the certainty of a manager removing a child from his parents was confirmed by data. The prediction that the likelihood of managers removing a child from his/her parents is greater with evidence of severe physical injury to the child than with presence of only general domestic violence and substance abuse by parents was not supported by data. The prediction that certainty of managers removing a child from his/her parents increases with lack of services (such as daycare, in-home intensive counseling, and availability of the agency worker) was confirmed by data.

As a consequence of this study, useful information was provided for those interested in protective services for children, e.g., social workers, managers, students, lawyers, child advocates, and society as a whole.

Analysis of demographic and attitudinal variables indicated a relationship to decision making. The variables that were analyzed included the influence of manager's gender, number of children, attitude toward spanking, history of spanking, and their opinion on importance of problems 2 and solutions to challenges within the system.

Completion of the project has contributed to the knowledge base of the management of child protective services. A contribution to the understanding of how the system currently works, and suggestions for social change within the profession have been made. Findings of this study point to the continued need for the implementation of specific criteria to guide supervisory decision making. Formulation of sound decision making guides will not only increase the supervisor's competence when deciding to remove children from a parent(s), but will also help to improve the efficacy of decisions for both removal and non-removal interventions.

This study documents the child welfare experiences of youth who are LGBTQ and their perspectives on how these experiences influenced their housing instability and homelessness. Youth detailed incidents of gender segregation, stigmatization, isolation, and institutionalization in child welfare systems that they linked to their gender expression and sexuality, which often intersected with being a youth of color. The youth described these incidents as contributing to multiple placements and shaping why they experienced homelessness.

"The shortage of foster/adoptive parents being licensed to care for
children in the public welfare system prompted an evaluation of the Licensure and Home Study Process (LHSP). Ecological systems theory framed the barriers-to-resources interplay among kinship and non-relative caregivers who withdrew or completed the LHSP. This mixed-methods study examined differences in applicant characteristics and types of barriers experienced. Results indicated that applicants responsible for other children in the home paired with welfare system barriers served as a tipping point for withdrawal. Relatives encountered the most barriers and all grandparents with- drew from the LHSP prior to licensure.

KEYWORDS  foster and adoptive parent, home study process, li-
ensure, barriers, kinship and non-relative caregivers
"

On behalf of the Los Angeles Civil Grand Jury (CGI), KH Consulting Group (KH) set up a Steering Committee composed of representative from the:
- County of Los Angeles, Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS)
- County of Los Angeles, Department of Mental Health (DMH)
- County of Los Angeles, Department of Public Health (DPH)
- District Attorney's Office
- Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
- Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect (ICAN)
- County of Los Angeles, Department of Coroner
- Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office
- County of Los Angeles, Sheriff’s Department – Special Victims Bureau
- Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Juvenile Division – Abused Child Section

KH facilitated a collaborative process with these participants to develop recommendations that would mitigate the number of children who die each year in the custody of the Department of Children & Family Services.  Besides a robust set of recommendations, new, cooperative working relationships were developed between these agencies that should bode well for future positive changes.

Building upon this author’s previous work applying the new theoretical framework of Family Systems Theory to termination of parental rights (TPR) cases in parents with mental challenges, New Jersey statutes and case law bear close examination as a focus jurisdiction. Too often, other states’ statutory presumptions of parental unfitness and statutory emphases on parental unfitness due to mental health can wrongfully lead to TPR. New Jersey’s legislature and courts are moving in the right direction by rejecting presumptions of unfitness due to parental mental health. In order for mentally challenged parents’ due process rights to be upheld, statutory schemes across the U.S. must be revisited to level the playing field.

The termination of parental rights in parents with mental challenges is a growing and crucial issue. In 2010, an estimated 45.9 million adults in the U.S. had experienced a mental illness in the past year. This represents 20% of the adult population. More than five million children in the U.S. have a parent with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. Courts and child welfare systems too often assume that a parent is not amenable to treatment and is a danger to his or her child when strong symptoms of mental turmoil surface. Some studies report that as many as 70 to 80% of mentally ill parents have lost custody. Public systems are overwhelmed by this matter in an era of shrinking resources for such systems. However, often parents with mental health needs are willing to accept treatment, are able to participate in programming, and are worthy of regaining custody.

This article presents a comparative analysis of client participation (CP) in child welfare and mental health and mental retardation systems. It identifi es three rationales for client participation (philosophical, pragmatic, and political), along with the limitations surrounding each rationale. It uses social construction theory to examine the historical and ideological underpinnings of organized, institutionally-sanctioned client involvement inside and outside government. In order to enhance the capacity of clients to infl uence service and benefi t systems, their role must evolve through the mutual efforts of government—strengthening client participation policies and independent organizing from the bottom up through community development and advocacy programs.

Key words: client participation, mental health system, mental retardation systems, social construction theory, child welfare, parent advocacy

The cement industries are among the most vital industries
for the Nigeria economy. Most of the workers engaged in
cement factories are low income earners, subjected to
rigorous and long working hours. They are exposed to hazards
such as burns, dust, noise water and air pollution, machine
injuries and toxic chemicals for the working population. This
paper highlights the level of healthcare services provided by
employers and how such services are utilized by the workers,
depend on the consumers’ perception of the level of quality of
care to prevent or ameliorate illness arising from occupational
diseases, and if employer perceives there is a threat of
occupational diseases that are severe enough to harm their
productivity and profitability. The paper therefore recommended
that employers of cement workers must ensure health education
section in the factory to increase safety awareness of the workers
and to ensure proper behaviours, emotional desires and make
the desired changes without upsetting the factory programmes.

This resource is intended to provide information on a set of principles that capture the essential core components of a high-quality playgroup. It is intended to be a starting point from which policy makers and those planning, delivering and coordinating playgroups can further develop and tailor their playgroups based on the local needs of the families attending and the communities they live in. Further Resources available at: https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/playgroups

The current thesis discusses how tools for analysing power are developed predominately for adults, and thus remain underdeveloped in terms of understanding injustices related to age, ethnicity/race and gender in childhoods. The overall ambition of this dissertation is to inscribe a discourse of intersecting social injustices as relevant for childhoods and child welfare, and by interlinking postcolonial, feminist, and critical childhood studies. The dissertation is set empirically within the policy and practice of Swedish child welfare, here exemplified by the assessment framework Barns Behov i Centrum. It aims to explore how Swedish child welfare, as a field of knowledge, modes of knowing and knowing subjects, constitutes an arena for claims and responses to intersecting social justice issues.

The material consists of BBIC primers and selected samples from, a total of 283 case reports from a Swedish social service agency. The case reports address assessments of children. This dissertation is based on four qualitative studies using discourse analysis, as well as analysis inspired by thematic and case-study methodology. Two studies focus on child welfare discourses in BBIC documents involving social problems and violence, and two studies are based on child welfare case reports. Studies I­­-II address child welfare policy and practice by analysing the conditions required for children to participate, in terms of children’s moral status and in terms of status of ‘evidencing’ needs for protection. Studies III­­-IV explore this further from the perspective of intersecting and embodied social injustices in childhoods. Together, the studies interconnect child welfare as a field of knowledge, modes of knowing and knowers with child welfare as a moral arena for claims to rights, recognition, and social justice.

The synthesised findings point to child biowelfare, in which justice discourses are largely absent. Biowelfare is informed by a mode of knowing and ‘evidencing’ risks to children’s health and development, which are confined to scientific predicting-believing, seeing-believing by professionals and a moral economy of care, all of which constrain the idea that injustices are structural and intersecting. Biowelfare primarily responds to children as ‘speaking’ biological bodies, rather than as voices of justice. In this sense, injustices of an epistemological nature are interconnected with social injustices. When issues of justice are mobilised in case reports and policy, they come across as rather ‘unjust’, primarily confined to the sphere of the family home of racialised children and not connected to ‘general’ children. In addition to intersections of age, ethnicity/race and gender, class and health are fundamental to recognition and protection in biowelfare. Finally, the dissertation indicates the need for a moral economy which responds to intersecting social injustices such as racial, gender-based and ageist violence in childhoods, and violations of children’s bodily integrity. Key words: biowelfare, child protection, child welfare, critical childhood studies, critical social work, embodiment, epistemic injustice, epistemology, feminist theory, intersectionality, justice subjectivity, moral economy, moral subjectivity, participation, postcolonial theory, poststructural social work, social justice, violence

Care orders within the child protection system are some of the most invasive interventions a state can make. This article examines the discretionary space governments set out for child protection workers when they prepare care orders. We analyse the formalized framework for these decisions in England, Finland, Norway and the United States. We focus on knowledge, timelines, how children and parents are involved and accountability. We find that Norway and Finland have highly de-regulated systems with wide discretionary space, whereas England and the United States are highly regulated systems with narrow discretionary space. The United States differentiates itself with relatively little parent and/or child involvement in decision-making. England and Finland do not have defined deadlines for terminating the process, and Norway has few directives on what information to collect. Such differences will influence the quality of decisions as well as the principles of the rule of law.

This paper aims to define and clarify what trauma-informed service delivery means in the context of delivering child/family welfare services in Australia. Exposure to traumatic life events such as child abuse, neglect and domestic violence is a driver of service need. Policies and service providers must respond appropriately to people who are dealing with trauma and its effects in order to ensure best outcomes for individuals and families using these services. In addition to evidence-based programs or clinical interventions that are specific to addressing trauma symptoms, such as trauma-focused cognitive behaviour therapy, there is a need for broader organisational- or service-level systems of care that respond to the needs of clients with a lived experience of trauma that go beyond a clinical response. Some of the challenges identified in implementing and embedding trauma-informed care across services and systems are discussed.

In recent years, important strides have been made in the development of early childhood programs for the Arab Israeli population at large and for Bedouin society in the south of Israel in particular. While many organizations have participated in this development including the Government, local, regional and national NGOs, local authorities, the academy and others, the needs remain great and disparities are still wide.
Working together with different entities towards building organizational partnerships that will involve the pooling of resources, necessitates a thorough knowledge of current early childhood programs and services, as well as a focus on and prioritization of early childhood needs. JDC-Ashalim has embarked upon a mapping process to present the current reality regarding Bedouin early childhood needs and services and to identify the significant challenges in working with this population.
Made possible by a grant from The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco and the Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, the Early Childhood in Bedouin Society: Mapping Needs and Services document is the product of the first stage of an integrative process that will enable JDC-Ashalim and its partners to develop a comprehensive strategic plan for investment in early childhood within Bedouin society and to serve as a guide for effective partnership between the different organizations that work in this field.

The goal of this study was to assess whether child welfare
services were available and proximal in identified, predominantly
Black and Hispanic ZIP code areas of three southern cities. GIS
mapping of services contained in a state 2-1-1 community services data base revealed that there were no treatment services and/or no public transportation and/or lengthy public (bus) transportation times in 50% of the identified areas of one city and in almost 25% of the three cities combined. The authors suggest service availability and proximity should increase the likelihood of parent enrollment, attendance and completion which should increase parent dependency court compliance rates. Further, they suggest that court compliance rates should increase the rate of return of Black children to their parents and thereby reduce child welfare caseloads. Given, the logic of their argument, the authors go on to recommend that child welfare administrators annually perform GIS analyses of State 2-1-1 community services data bases to keep abreast of child welfare service availability and proximity. Additionally, they offer a number of recommendations for how to increase service availability and proximity in predominantly Black and Hispanic urban areas.

Child welfare literature provides ample evidence that decision making in child protection cases is often difficult, nuanced and time-sensitive.  Based on responses to a case vignette from 772 child protection workers in Norway, Finland, England and the USA (California), this paper examines their perceptions of time and institutional support for, and their confidence in, the decisions they make.  The paper analyzes differences and similarities between and within the service-oriented Nordic countries and the more risk-oriented Anglo-American countries.  The study identifies a high degree of work pressure across all the countries, lines of predominantly vertical institutional support and relatively high confidence in decisions. Finland stands out with higher perceived work pressure and with a horizontal support line, whereas England stands out with workers having a lower degree of confidence in their own and others’ decisions.  Timescales and perceptions of timeliness are shaped by overall welfare approaches, in particular whether these are oriented to broader issues of child well-being, or more narrowly to questions of risk.  The study highlights the importance of support for staff and the implications of workload pressure on decision-making, and encourages policy makers to recognize the subtleties of workers’ perceptions about timeliness and enough time for such demanding work.

Ben-David (this issue) introduced us to the complexity of the factors that courts consider in termination of parental rights (TPR). It is an opening to understanding which factors are taken into consideration and how courts make these challenging determinations. Yet there are other questions that must be asked before we truly understand the TPR decisions made by courts across a variety of legal jurisdictions. This commentary argues that we must take the inquiry deeper, asking questions that will unpack the complexity assisting researchers and clinicians. Thus, we will want to know how courts weigh such important issues as the credibility of the evidence. What is it about such factors as parental competence, failure of remediation, and other issues identified by Ben-David that cause courts to determine TPR is the best choice? Consideration is given to how Ben-David’s work might be extended using a Canadian perspective.

Lemay, R. A. (2012). Appui à la prestation des services de bien-être de l’enfance en français en Ontario : quelques implications de l’article 2 de la loi sur les services à l’enfance et à la famille et de la loi sur les services en français (LSF). Toronto : Association Ontarienne des Sociétés de l’aide à l’enfance.
ce document revoit les exigences des lois en vigueur en Ontario, et propose certaines implications.

This article theorises containment as a diplomatic response mode for states when faced with potentially harmful attacks on their international identity and reputation. Despite widespread agreement in International Relations (IR) scholarship that identities matter in the context of state security, studies of crisis management have paid little attention to ontological security crises. Scholarly literature on public diplomacy has concerned itself mainly with proactive nation branding and reputation building; work on stigma management has privileged the study of how ‘transgressive’ states respond to identity attacks by recognising, rejecting or countering criticism. Our contribution is two-fold. First, we make the case that states do not perform as uniform entities when faced with ontological security crises – government representatives, bureaucratic officials and diplomats have varying roles and action repertoires available to them. Second, we argue that containment is a key but undertheorised part of the diplomatic toolkit in crisis management. Unpacking containment as a crisis management response mode, we combine insights from IR scholarship on emotions and diplomacy with insights on therapeutic practices from social psychology. We substantiate our argument with a case study of how Norwegian government representatives, bureaucratic officials and diplomats responded to escalating international criticism against Norway’s Child Welfare Services following a wave of transnational protests in 2016. A key finding is that whereas the dominant response mode of government ministers and bureaucratic officials was to reject the criticism, diplomats mainly worked to contain the situation, trying to prevent it from escalating further and resulting in long-term damage to bilateral relations.

While there is a growing number of international population surveys about rates of child maltreatment there is much less data on legal, health and social services responses to maltreatment. Agency surveys are a cost effective method for assessing this response in countries where there is limited administrative data available about child maltreatment reports, investigations and services. The first step in conducting such survey is to map out the network of agencies and organizations tasked with responding to child maltreatment, as part of a multi-stage sampling strategy to identify a representative sample of child maltreatment reports and investigations. This endeavor can be complex as a diverse universe of agencies are involved in protecting victimized children and supporting their families—government-run child protective services, child protection teams at hospitals, not-for-profit helplines, psychotherapists at private practices, and community-based child welfare organizations, to name a few examples. This paper offers a framework for mapping child protection along the dimensions of levels of authority, functions and processes. Beyond high-income countries with well-established child protection systems, it gives special consideration to informal structures such as councils of community leaders and non-governmental organizations’ consortiums in low-income countries.

Ben-David (this issue) introduced us to the complexity of the factors that courts consider in termination of parental rights (TPR). It is an opening to understanding which factors are taken into consideration and how courts make these challenging determinations. Yet there are other questions that must be asked before we truly understand the TPR decisions made by courts across a variety of legal jurisdictions. This commentary argues that we must take the inquiry deeper, asking questions that will unpack the complexity assisting researchers and clinicians. Thus, we will want to know how courts weigh such important issues as the credibility of the evidence. What is it about such factors as parental competence, failure of remediation, and other issues identified by Ben-David that cause courts to determine TPR is the best choice? Consideration is given to how Ben-David’s work might be extended using a Canadian perspective.

Care orders within the child protection system are some of the most invasive interventions a state can make. This article examines the discretionary space governments set out for child protection workers when they prepare care orders. We analyse the formalized framework for these decisions in England, Finland, Norway and the United States. We focus on knowledge, timelines, how children and parents are involved and accountability. We find that Norway and Finland have highly de-regulated systems with wide discretionary space, whereas England and the United States are highly regulated systems with narrow discretionary space. The United States differentiates itself with relatively little parent and/or child involvement in decision-making. England and Finland do not have defined deadlines for terminating the process, and Norway has few directives on what information to collect. Such differences will influence the quality of decisions as well as the principles of the rule of law.

This article theorises containment as a diplomatic response mode for states when faced with potentially harmful attacks on their international identity and reputation. Despite widespread agreement in International Relations (IR) scholarship that identities matter in the context of state security, studies of crisis management have paid little attention to ontological security crises. Scholarly literature on public diplomacy has concerned itself mainly with proactive nation branding and reputation building; work on stigma management has privileged the study of how ‘transgressive’ states respond to identity attacks by recognising, rejecting or countering criticism. Our contribution is two-fold. First, we make the case that states do not perform as uniform entities when faced with ontological security crises – government representatives, bureaucratic officials and diplomats have varying roles and action repertoires available to them. Second, we argue that containment is a key but undert...

Whether on the basis of embodied categories such as race or gender, or through diagnoses and suffering bodies, the body is said to constitute the political battleground for social in- and exclusion. This study is inspired methodologically by moral anthropological approaches and draws on scholarship that foregrounds the pivotal role of the body for political recognition and rights claims in humanitarian and other ‘moral’ interventions. I examine two analytically separated moral economies, the moral economy of care versus justice, as they manifest in child welfare responses to bodily vulnerability. A sample of investigations from a Swedish municipality, all addressing violations of children’s bodies or integrity, are used as empirical material. The article shows the objectified psychosomatically damaged bodies being best ‘heard’ as vulnerable. I argue that in such a moral economy of care, children’s accounts of racial and gendered injustices are silenced. Furthermore, a differentiation in the moralities mobilized when different child bodies are addressed suggests that a version of a moral economy of justice, i.e. a juridical moral response, is being used in unjust ways that reproduce racialized othering while leaving institutional racism without response. While central for a critical social work, equality, social justice and rights issues are downplayed in assessments, and largely lack corresponding welfare measures. A concluding remark is a need of a radical shift within social policy towards structural power perspectives which would not only require a re-thinking of vulnerability but also the role of child welfare itself and its individualized services.

This paper aims to explore the differences between Norwegian and US welfare state ideologies, and if or how they are reflected in the respective foster care systems and in the daily practices of foster parents. Our analysis combines a review of policy documents and legal regulations, with interviews of 141 exemplary foster parents (87 from the US and 54 from Norway). The paper identifies clear differences in how these two states take responsibility and provide services for families in general and foster parents in particular, examining distinct differences in the conditions foster parents have for exercising their parenting tasks. The findings from the interviews show how the conditions play out in real life for foster parents and foster children in relation to recruitment of caregivers, time and resources available to children, and how caregivers negotiate and advocate for children’s needs.

In the 2004 CT General Assembly session, a bill was introduced to open to the public all juvenile proceedings, including cases involving child abuse and neglect.  While the bill was not approved, it would be re-introduced in the 2005 Session. To provide context for the discussion, we analyzed other states' positions on, and experiences with, this issue—including extensive statutory analysis and interviews with key stakeholders in states that have opened proceedings in whole, or in part.

(2012). Supporting the Provision of French Language Child Welfare Services in Ontario: Some of the Implications of Section 2 of the Child and Family Services Act and the French Language Services Act (FLS). Toronto: Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies.

Reviews the requirements of policy and legislation and proposes a number of action implications.