Policy Impacts on Individual and Social Responsibilities in Child Protection - Term Paper Example

Policy impacts on individual and social responsibilities in child protection Student name Course name Institution Date of submission Student Number Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Improved child welfare and human resources policy 3 Ensuring healthy development of children 5 Reduced discrimination of children 6 Eliminating unsafe environments 7 Mandatory reporting of child abuse 8 Conclusion 9 Reference List 10 Introduction Policy practice refers to the process of applying social work skills to recommend and modify policies, in order to attain the objectives of economic and social justice. It is a vital component of social work, which is practiced across various settings, such as national, state and local levels. Inclusion of policy practice in the day-to-day social work practice is an efficient means to promoting the missions and goals of economic and social justice (Gilbert & Terrell 2011). Hence, the central mission of practical social work is to enhance social justice through policymaking and social work practice. Children's development and the well-being are not exclusively parents and families' responsibility. Through the social policies, the society can be either neglectful or supportive of children (Healy 2001). Understanding the policy environment implications is significant for social work practice, especially in child protection. This paper discusses how policy environment has different implications on individual and social responsibilities in child protection. An underlying assumption guiding this assessment is that while policies aimed at addressing child abuse have been effective in instilling social responsibility towards child protection, few have specifically addressed child abuse by instilling individual responsibility. Improved child welfare and human resources policy Investing in the early childhood period is an effective strategy to achieving child welfare and human resources policy. In the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia, early childhood services are regarded as a public good. In return, past and current trends have been children being given significant investment from government, such as provision of subsidies to private childcare facilities and expanding public childcare services. As Sammut (2013) demonstrates, growing up in poverty has grave negative implications for children’s growth and development. The implications become more aggravated depending on whether the period of poverty is longer, as well as more frequent (Taylor & Daniel2005). This prompts the need for social and individual responsibilities. In terms of social responsibility, they provide a safe environment to recognize children’s experiences of living in poverty and the need for communities to engage in income-generating activities to eliminate poverty in order to provide quality childcare. In terms of individual responsibility, they provide a safe connection between children and their parents. In fact, significant empirical evidence shows that investing in the early childhood period has substantial and long-lasting positive impacts on increasing the income of the parents and the educational outcomes of the disadvantaged children and anti-poverty outcomes (Mitchell & Campbell 2011). In 2007, an EU-commissioned study on child poverty established that providing quality, inexpensive and universal childcare is crucial, as it reduces child poverty and prevents negative child outcomes. The study also found that quality, inexpensive and universal childcare provides an effective social responsibility means to avoiding intergenerational transmission of poverty. The study concluded that provision of subsidies to private childcare facilities and expansion of public childcare services should be given high policymaking preference (Hoelscher 2004). Therefore, childcare is vital not as an anti-poverty measure for children whose families are on low-incomes. Ensuring healthy development of children Efficient policy environment ensures healthy development of children. In Australia and Ireland, childcare has received significant attention from various interest groups, such as the government over the last two decades. Such attention has increased an understanding of the significance of childcare in ensuring healthy development of children (Richards 2011). This has led to increased public funding of childcare. Ireland has had greater landmark developments in terms of social responsibility and individual responsibility. Milestones include enacting regulations to facilitate starting of pre-schools in 1996, after first-ever Minister for Children was appointed in 1994. Other milestones include recommendations made by the first-ever National Childcare Strategy in 1999 (European Anti-Poverty Network 2007). Their key implications included increased access for parents to train in childcare and giving parents opportunities to work and earn income in order to improve quality of individual childcare at home. In the year 2000 in Ireland, the government launched a €500-million Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme (EOCP) that ran until 2006 (EAPN 2007). The fund increased individual responsibilities for childcare: parents became more aware of childcare through childhood training and parents had better employment opportunities to earn higher income in order to improve quality of individual responsibilities for childcare. The funding also had an implication on social responsibilities (Sammut 2013). For instance, it led to the development of an infrastructure that facilitated the synchronization of efforts by the state and local government to establish community organisations that enabled effective delivery of childcare, such as the County Childcare Committees. Additionally, the funding led to the creation of more than 33,500 new childcare places by 2006. EOCP also contributed significantly to social inclusion of children from minority groups in Ireland (EAPN 2007). Reduced discrimination of children The policies in Ireland have also reduced discrimination of children in terms of their social backgrounds and family income. These imply far-reaching social responsibility benefits than individual responsibility. For instance, after the closure of the EOCP in 2006, the government started a €575-million programme called the National Childcare Investment Programme (NCIP), which ran between 2006 and 2010 (EAPN 2007). The program provided an additional 50,000 childcare places at the end of its period. The major implication of these childcare places included reduced discrimination of children in terms of race and family income. Put differently, the social responsibilities include increased support for childcare facilities for the disadvantaged communities and the children in these communities. There was also increased awareness of communal responsibilities to report cases of child abuse and see the children as vulnerable groups that needed protection and education. Indeed, the NCIP launched another programme called Community Childcare Subvention Scheme in 2008 that aimed to reduce the fees for parents who received social welfare programmes (EAPN 2007). The individual responsibilities were different. For instance, it provided education initiative for parents across the board. Parents started to be more aware of child rights in order to stop child abuse or report cases of child abuse. Parents also took the responsibility of educating their children or taking them to childcare facilities because of increased subsidies. This was enhanced by the National Childcare Strategy that was initiated in 2006. It was a non-taxable Early Childcare Supplement payment, intended for parents who received an annualised income of €1,000 towards childcare, for children below the age of 6 years (EAPN 2007). Eliminating unsafe environments Policy environment has led to reduced cases of child abuse in Australia by promoting social responsibility to protect and eliminate unsafe environments for children’s growth and development. In the United States for instance, close to 50,000 children are adopted each year to save them from abusive homes or parents. In Australia, only 200 children are adopted each year. Increased social responsibility to protect children is more intense in the United States, hence a greater willingness to report cases of child abuse leading to adoption of children. In Australia, individual responsibilities have failed to respond effectively to child protection service due to ‘family preservation’ approach to child-abuse. Founded on far-reaching parental rights programmes, focus has been placed on providing support to dysfunctional families through social service interventions to solve the personal issues inhibiting proper parenting, such as mental illness, domestic violence, and substance abuse (Healy 2001). In such circumstances, while the social responsibilities have strived to eliminate abusive environments in the communities in the United States, the individual responsibilities have failed to remove children permanently from unsafe environments and to provide stable and safe homes for children. In 2004, the Queensland made an inquiry into the state of child abuse across the foster care system. Cases of abuse due to race were identified. This led to remarkable reforms, such as the introduction of a department centred on tertiary child protection services called the Department of Community Services (Healy 2011). The department had a child protection agency, whose key approach was in enabling community services that would provide service delivery to vulnerable children and families, especially the Indigenous families. In 2007, Australian Prime Minister Howard launched the Northern Territory National Emergency Response to reduce the high rates of child sexual abuse and cases of neglect among the Aboriginal communities living in the Northern Territory (Healy 2011). While the social responsibilities in this regard were more concerned with reporting cases of child abuse and educating the communities on the significance of child protection, the individual responsibilities included enabling the parents to minimise child neglect (Taylor & Daniel2005). Mandatory reporting of child abuse Mandatory child reporting policies have also promoted mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect. While the social responsibility implications have been able to blame families who expose their children to violence or mistreat their children, the individual responsibilities have not been effective (Richards 2011). In terms of social responsibility, the policy environment ensures that the communities are aware that children have equal rights to protection from exploitation and abuse despite their race, age, gender, religion or mental and physical health. The individual responsibility ensures that children are aware that they have a right to live in safe environments and that parents have an obligation to offer their children safe and child-friendly environments (Richards 2011). The policies have also instilled social responsibility by increasing awareness of children’s exposure to domestic violence to be a form of child abuse and the need for intervention (Sammut 2013). In fact, mandatory reporting requirements in regards to exposing children to domestic violence are increasingly being criticised for their incapacity to hold adult female victims of domestic violence responsible for having allowed their children to witness domestic violence in Australia. In the United States for instance, several states have passed legislations that today recognise allowing children to witness domestic violence as a form of child abuse. While such policy places the burden on the community to report cases where both parents allow children to witness domestic violence, it ensures a less effective individual responsibility. For instance, they may discourage the parents to report their own victimisation or child abuse, as they fear they would lose their children (Sammut 2013). Australia has similar legislations and implications. For instance, New South Wales has the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007, Victoria has Family Violence Protection Act 2008, while Queensland has Domestic and Family Violence Protection Act 1989 (Richards 2011). Due to the limited individual responsibility in reporting cases of child abuse, the Australian Government initiated the National Council’s Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (NCRVWC) in 2009. The policy recognises the likely implications of exposing children to domestic violence and addresses needs of children witnessing and experiencing family and domestic violence (Richards 2011). Conclusion A range of child protection policies has effectively addressed their purpose by instilling social responsibility. However, few have specifically addressed child abuse through individual responsibility. Major milestones include Investing in the early childcare, healthy development of children, reduced discrimination of children based on their social backgrounds and family income, reduced child abuse and mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect. However, Individual responsibilities have failed to respond effectively to child protection service due to ‘family preservation’ approach to child-abuse that focus on providing support to dysfunctional families through social service, and failure to remove children permanently from unsafe environments. Reference List European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) 2007, “Childcare Benchmarking Paper,” EAPN Ireland Benchmarking Paper on Childcare Oct 2007 Gilbert, N & Terrell, P 2011, Dimensions of Social Welfare Policy, Allyne Bacon, Boston Healy, K 2001, "Reinventing Critical Social Work : Challenges from Practice, Context and Postmodernism," Critical Social Work vol 2 no 1, pp1-6 Healy, K 2011, "Scandals and policy making: Failure and success in child protection reform," Australian Review of Public Affairs Hoelsher, P 2004, “A thematic study using transnational comparisons to analyse and identify what combination of policy responses are most successful in preventing and reducing high levels of child poverty,” European Commission DG Employment and Social Affairs. Mitchell, G & Campbell, L 2011, "The Social Economy of Excluded Families," Child and Family Social Work vol 16, pp.422-433 Richards, K 2011, "Children’s exposure to domestic violence in Australia," Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no.419 Sammut, J 2013, “The Fraught Politics of Saying Sorry for Forced Adoption: Implications for Child Protection Policy in Australia," CIS Issue Analysis no 138, pp.1-20 Taylor, J & Daniel, B (ed) 2005, Child Neglect: Practice Issues for Health and Social Care, Jessica Kingsley, London Read More