Participation in Child Protection

Research into the levels of participation in child protection, where the child is living at home with their parents, is rare (Cossar, Brandon et al. 2016). Whilst participation and collaboration with Children in Care Councils or school councils is routinely celebrated there remains much secrecy around children on child protection plans, which can lead to idiosyncratic practices. The collection and interpretation of a child’s wishes and feelings during statutory social work practice should give insight into the child’s lived experience within their family as well as ensuring that the child’s rights are upheld; however there is no statutory guidance or model for such practice. With local authorities choosing to use a variety of social work approaches within child protection proceedings, the responsibility to share information with the child and invite their opinion falls to different people. This PhD research study will therefore examine how child participation is impacted by the knowledge and experience of social work practitioners, parental engagement or resistance, and the intervention framework adopted by the local authority. Interviews with children, parents, social workers and advocates within a variety of northern local authorities will allow for a comparative study but more importantly offer an insight into a child’s understanding of their child protection plan.