Professional Practice in Child Protection and the Child’s Right to Participate (The Focus On Series)

This book explains and discusses how a child’s right to freedom of expression is upheld through practice and decision-making in Child Protection Services (CPS). Using the right to expression as stipulated in Article 12.2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as a point of departure, it explains what CPS practices should look like and how they must operate to uphold and enforce the rights of the child by providing "the opportunity to be heard" in any administrative practice. Current research literature documents extensively, and across countries, how either the voice of the child is not heard or, alternatively, the existence of a pro forma/tokenistic approach to listening to the child throughout CPS practices. Taking a three-fold approach, this book establishes a clearer connection between rights and professional practice according to Article 12 extrapolates how rights-based practice is achieved during CPS practices provides a comprehensive answer to the challenge of implementing Article 12.2 through policy and legislation. This book explains and discusses how a child’s right to freedom of expression is upheld through practice and decision-making in Child Protection Services (CPS). Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Contributor Bios 10 Preface 12 1 Children’s Right to Express Themselves in Child Protection Casework 14 The Normative Bias to Professional Practices – The Case of Article 12 of the CRC 17 Article 12 and the Human Rights Standard 19 Human Rights Standard, the Fiduciary Role of CPS, and the Child’s Best Interests 21 Regulating CPS through Human Rights 22 Rights-Based Practice and Discretion 24 The Progression of the Book 25 2 Rights-Based Professional Practice: Situating the Academic Discourse 30 Decisions in the Best Interests of the Child 31 Meaningful Participation of Children and Participation Models 33 Children’s Participation in the Decision-Making Process 35 Professionalism in Children’s Participation in Child Welfare Practices 36 Acknowledgement 38 3 Professional Child Protection and the Child’s Freedom of Expression 44 Constitutional Rights, Optimisation Requirements, and Professional Practice 46 The Human Rights Standard 48 The Human Rights Standard and Indivisibility of Human Rights 51 Violation of Dignity as Violation of Best Interests 53 Child’s Best Interests and the Right to Liberty 54 Professional Practice and CRC Article 12 55 Conclusion 57 Acknowledgement 58 4 The Case of Assessment: Child Participation during Administrative Proceedings 60 Assessment Framework 61 Children’s Experiences of Participation in Child Protection Assessment 63 Concluding Thoughts on Meaningful Child Participation – Moving towards Rights-Based Professional Practice 69 Acknowledgement 70 5 Child Protection Workers Follow-up with Children in Foster Care and Emergency Units/Homes 76 What Follow-up Do Children Placed in Care Receive? 77 Rights and Follow-up through ‘a common third’ 78 The ‘Alex’ Case 79 The Different Follow-up Components 83 The Role and Importance of Article 12 in Relation to Follow-up 83 Safeguarding Human Rights and the Core Activity of Social Work. Two Sides of the Same Coin? 86 6 The Case of Social Rehabilitation 88 Rights-Based Practice in Rehabilitation 89 Rights-Based Practices through Child-Friendly Justice 90 Components of Interprofessional Collaboration in Social Rehabilitation through CFJ 92 Case Examples: Perceptions on Participation among Dually Involved Children 93 Concluding Remarks: Improving Participation for Dually Involved Children in Practice 96 7 Participation of Children in Residential Care 102 Residential Care 103 Rights and Residential Care 105 The Example from an Ethnographic Study in Estonia: The Need to Feel Loved 107 Child Citizenship in the Context of Residential Care 108 Conclusion 111 8 Conclusion: Making Rights a Part of Professional Practice 115 Article 12 and Professional Practice 118 Rights-Based Professional Practice 119 Child Participation – Some Key Notions 121 An Example of Active Child Participation: Active Listening through Storytelling 125 Conclusion: The Reality of Rights 125 Index 128 Children’s,Right;,Academic,Discourse;,Professional,Child,Protection;,Freedom,of,Expression;,Foster,Care Children’s Right,Academic Discourse,Professional Child Protection,Freedom of Expression,Foster Care This book explains and discusses how a child's right to freedom of expression is upheld through practice and decision-making in Child Protection Services (CPS). Using the right to expression as stipulated in Article 12.2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as a point of departure, it explains what CPS practices should look like and how they must operate to uphold and enforce the rights of the child by providing'the opportunity to be heard'in any administrative practice. Current research literature documents extensively, and across countries, how either the voice of the child is not heard or, alternatively, the existence of a pro forma/tokenistic approach to listening to the child throughout CPS practices. Taking a three-fold approach, this book establishes a clearer connection between rights and professional practice according to Article 12 extrapolates how rights-based practice is achieved during CPS practices provides a comprehensive answer to the challenge of implementing Article 12.2 through policy and legislation. It will be of interest to all students, academic and professionals working within child protection including social workers, probation officers, health and social care workers, lawyers and teachers. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. "This book explains and discusses how a child's right to freedom of expression is upheld through practice and decision-making in Child Protection Services (CPS). It will be of interest to all students, academic and professionals working within child protection including, social workers, probation officers, health and social care workers, lawyers and teachers"-- Provided by publisher