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How can children protective services (CPS) have a finding of no fault when there is an injured child?
A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
February 2017
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DECLARATION
This project is my innovative work that has not been offered for a degree in any other institution.
Signed …………………………………… date…………………………..
This project has been submitted for examination with my approval as the supervisor.
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DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to all the university students and the child protection services and societies for their great contribution whose contribution to the society cannot be underestimated at any cost.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the almighty God for the gift of life, strength and grace He gave me the opportunity he granted me during the project.
Special gratitude goes to the lecturer who was my supervisor. Am also greatly indebted to you for your guidance, support and encouragement in the course of formulating this research proposal. May God bless you.
Special thanks goes to, the entire university fraternity for granting us an opportunity to have such a unit in our course of study. From the library, various departments, friends, course mates and all those who provided us with study materials and references, God bless you. Yours was an exceptionally job well done. Thank you all.
In a special way we would like to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation to all our families, relatives and close friends who provided us with moral support, company and encouragement during the time of coming up with this proposal. We owe you a great deal of thanks and appreciation. Thank you very much for your continued support.
Abstract
The primary intention of this study is to advance knowledge to the large uncultivated subject of how children protective services (CPS) can have a finding of no fault when there is an injured child. An investigation of child injury is of the most significant action in child protection service. Nevertheless, there are numerous challenges that face the implementation of the process. Consequently, this study focuses on providing insights on the challenges that are faced when delivering findings so to make available a framework of solutions. Previous studies on this topic have provided constricted approach to the highlighting the challenges in giving findings. This has left the topic uncovered especially in the context of children injury. As a result, this study takes an exclusive approach to the issue of child injury in the US. Also, the study will critically examine the main factors that are should be incorporated to ensure the findings are flawless. Secondary methods of data collection were used in conducting the research. Secondary data used this project was collected through journal, books and government websites in regard to the topic. The study finds that formulating methodologies to prepare the findings, conducting investigations, creating a body that deals with children injuries only, notification of subjects involved, evidence processing among other. Challenges faced include the lack of cooperation, poor evidence handling, and lack of proper legislation. The paper will also talk about employees turn over in agencies.
Contents DECLARATION 2 DEDICATION 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 4 Abstract 5 Chapter one 7 Introduction 7 Background of the study 7 10 Problem statement 10 Purpose and objectives of the study 11 Rationale of the study 11 Definition of terms 12 Limitations of the study 13 Research questions 13 Hypothesis to be tested 14 Significance of the study 14 Chapter summary 15 Chapter two 16 Literature review 16 Introduction 16 Challenges facing flawless findings at CPS 16 Solutions for CPS to have flawless findings for an injured children and turnover 26 Chapter Summary 32 Chapter three 33 Methodology 33 Chapter four 36 Results 36 Chapter five 37 Discussion, conclusion and recommendations 37 Future research 50 References 51
Chapter one
Introduction
This chapter will give the general idea of the study to be conducted and give explanation for its significance. A Child protective service is a name that is given to a lawmaking agency in numerous states in the United States, which is accountable for the provision of child protection services. These services may include urgent responses to child abuse or neglect cases as they arise.
The child protective services is mandated or tasked with a number of issues to handle which include, to act in response to any valid cases that occur of suspected child maltreatment, support and reinforce kinfolks whenever in their capabilities, to expedite services to families which would aid to ensure the safety of their children, curb occurrence of any anticipated future child abuse or neglect and also evaluate the degree of child safety. This chapter is separated into four subdivisions which include; background of the study, statement of the problem, research questions and significance of the study respectively. The background provides a epigrammatic review of the major notions discussed in the study. The problem statement provides details of the knowledge gap as well as a only one of its kind approach of the study compared to preceding studies. The research questions are the major areas which the study will focus as the researcher uses while conducting the study. They structure the background of the literature review in view of the fact that they act as guidelines.
Background of the study
It’s quite evident that in the recent years there has been an upsurge in the number of cases of children injuries. Child abuse has emerged to have majorly impacted the susceptible population with children of under the age of five years accounting for seventy six percent of victims experienced. Injury has hence forth been the leading killer among children and teens. For instance, in 2009, we experienced more than 13000 youths age 0-19 who died from intentional and unintentional injury (Child Protective Services, 2015).
Additionally, approximately three million and five hundred thousand cases were reported by the Administration for children and families in the year 2004 who were involved in soundings of supposed abuse or neglect and an projected eight hundred and seventy two thousand minors were found to have been abused, or even worse neglected by their guardians and an estimated one thousand, four hundred and ninety cases of children died the same year either due to neglect or abuse. The leading cause of injury include motor vehicle crashes, falls, sports fires, poisoning, drowning suffocations and abuses. Child injuries are predictable and preventable. Nonetheless, they are one of the most unrecognized problems in the healthcare setting.
In 2010, there were over four hundred thousand children in foster care in the United States out of which thirty six percent of the cases reported were of children under the age of five. To add on this, in the same year, almost one hundred and twenty thousand children between age of birth and a five were enrolled into foster care programs while slightly below exited the foster services. According to research conducted by use of the national data on re-offense indicates that at least 22% of children were rerepeated within approximately 2 years and approximately 7% of these cases were authenticated.
Child injury progress has improved in the US for the last decade whereby the child death rate have decreased by 29% showing a major improvement. This is a significant step to ensure the safety of the children. The Center for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) has taken steps to reduce children injury. Consequently, they have developed the National Action plan for child injury prevention. This body aims at enhancing reduction of child injury (Child Protective Services, 2015).Lastly, the study will discuss about employees turnover.
The graph below represents previous statistics concerning cases of child abuse reported to child protective services under the age of seventeen.
For over the past eighteen years, many child protection services, parents, guardians, and other non-mandated stakeholders interested in the delivery of child protection services have become aware that the investigative response to child mistreatment which include both child abuse and neglect have been unbending and confrontational and did not bother in provision of adequate services to meet the demanding family needs.
Problem statement
In reference to studies previously conducted, it’s been noted and a lot of emphasis and energy has been directed towards cases of children injuries in general. Most of the studies conducted and statistical reports produced have focused on single aspect of injury and how to treat them. However, little is known and yet is to be revealed especially about coming up with findings that are flawless after injury investigation. This shows that if only we had some knowledge on findings that would be flawless after injury investigations, things would be better than they actually are. Therefore, this study adopts a holistic methodology by analyzing all concepts of any help or method that can be put into use by child protective services to ensure the injury findings are of no fault. At the same time, the study will add knowledge on impact and the possible consequences of employee turnover rate in the agency and the causes associated with the surrounding problem.
Purpose and objectives of the study
General objective of the study
The general objective of the research will be:-
1. To find out of any method or even aid that can adequately be employed by the child protective services in order to make sure that injury services are of no fault. This is by critical analysis of all the substantial facets of dealing with the issue.
Specific objectives
Alongside the main objective stated above, I also sought other specific objectives that will guide and streamline our research. These objectives include:-
1. To establish the concrete and most pressing challenges facing CPS to have faulty findings in children injury.
2. To find out the significance of flawless findings of children injury.
3. To gain knowledge on the main causes of turnover in the agency and the consequences in such scenarios.
Rationale of the study
The need for this research was motivated by the fact that there has been an upsurge in the number of cases of faulty children findings in injury by the child protective service. Though it has been noted the cases are on a decline mode, it would only be fair to come up with a lasting solution that would curb any loopholes surrounding the tragedy. This trend could be attributed to corporation between the service providers and the general public. Therefore, by the end of the project we would be able to establish if there is any a criterion or help that can be used by the child protective services to ensure that injury services are of no fault. This would only be feasible if we analyses all the facets of the problem which the researcher has all throughout the research aimed at establishing. This would involve but not limited to critical analysis of the problem encountered by the child protective services to meet its mandate. However, to meet its mandate, this is intertwined with significance of immaculate findings of children injury and employee turnover in the ages.
Definition of terms
Placement disability
Flawless. This is to indicate a state of being without any error or default.
Turnover. This the rate at which something occurs. In our case, we looked at staff turnover which is the average duration when staff stays in a particular job.
CPS Recidivism –this is repetition or re- reporting. This word includes referral or recurrence. Any of the two can crop up after a preliminary report of either child abuse or even neglect which is referred to as index report. Re- report would better be described as a succeeding report of child abuse or neglect or even neglect after an initial report, while recurrence is the act of being confirmed re-report which occurs after the initial report of child abuse or neglect by the guardian.
Limitations of the study
During the course of the research, a number of difficulties were encountered which were not only limited to the breadth and depth of the main focus of study but also self-imposed limitations on the research.
One of the major challenges encountered was lack of adequate data to substantiate the inquiry. The amount of secondary data available for the inquiry was minimal, especially on the statistical data. This posed a great challenge because with the partial data, we could not make a conclusive and accurate analysis about how the child protective services can have flawless findings in cases of child injury.
In addition, another major challenge faced in obtaining information was restriction from some of the research institutions especially the public libraries. Most of these information centers were strict regarding their material in that they could not allow the researcher to leave with their materials such as research books and this limited the amount of information obtained. To get the information the researcher needed one was forced to visit the library daily for not less than six hours a day to obtain the information. This was also because the research books were less and if we were to borrow them for more than two days then this could limit other researchers and readers. This made the research cumbersome and quite expensive since it was time consuming.
Research questions
What are the pressing challenges facing CPS to have faulty findings in child injury?
What is the significance of flawless findings of child injury?
What are the main causes of turnover in the agency?
Hypothesis to be tested
H1: Placement stability is a challenge to CPS finding of no fault when there is an injured child
H2: Creating a body that is specifically mandated to present finding of no fault is a workable solution
3: Does work life imbalance cause turnover in the agency?
Significance of the study
The findings, results and recommendations in this study are of great assistance to Child Protective Service. To begin with, it will provide the body with possible methodologies to incorporate in decision making in order to come up with accurate results in their jurisdiction. The study discusses the major cause of faulty findings. Therefore, the result could be used for action and planning to ensure flawless findings after rectification of any seeable loopholes in the systems. At the same time, the study may benefit other organizations that are experiencing the challenges of faulty findings within the organization this would be possible if they compare the situations and circumstances they are undergoing with those being faced by the child protection services. This will significantly reduce such cases and help in child protection diversification.. Not forgetting, the study will be of great importance to students of this great institution and the population at large especially in research that would in future wish to advance the knowledge it solely contains. The study will act as a point of reference to the scholars who would wish to advance their knowledge on how there can be flawless findings in case of child injury. The conclusions and recommendations in this study may demonstrate to be of great assistance to the head of CPS and other bodies that deals with the safety of children. At the same time, the study will benefit agencies by discussing the main causes of turnover. It’s worth noting that employee’s turnover leads to losses in an agency.
Chapter summary
As noted in this chapter, the primary goal of this study is to examine the possible methods or ways of how Child Protective Services can have a finding of no fault when there is an injured child. Nevertheless, the study will also discuss the main challenges that are faced when delivering the findings by the said services. In addition, the study will be able to give methods that could be put into place to ensure flawless findings and finally provide the role of Child Protective Services in the issue of child injury. By attempting this study, the researcher aim at providing solutions to one of the most inherent problem to the teens and children. The subsequent chapter is the literature review. It involves a significant assessment of available literature according to the research questions formulated in this chapter.
Chapter two
Literature review
Introduction
This chapter makes the majority of the study. It includes a profound review of literatures from different authors and researches previously conducted by researchers in relation to the topic under investigation. The opinions and conclusions from diverse authors that are in reference to the problem are seriously evaluated. The strengths and weaknesses of the perspectives and approaches are profoundly analyzed to assess their input to the literature. This chapter has two categories in connection with the research questions. Each subsection answers a different research question.
In our review, I will critically put emphasis on the child protective services and the environment surrounding accurate delivery ad performance of its mandates as far as child protection is concerned. Previous research has shown that the children protection services has had its fair share of benefits and drawbacks as well and as a result is a topic worth reviewing n order to come up with a conclusive decision on the way forward. in this review, I will analyze the existing literature on the children protection rights and services. This will include but not limited to the challenges faced by children protective services in provision of flawless findings in case of a child injured, the impact and cause of employee turnover on the section. Precisely, I will try o pick out on what the researchers were focusing on as well as the methodology used and then finally identify the gaps that they need to be filled in future researches.
Challenges facing flawless findings at CPS
There are several approaches that have been taken by authors in elucidating the challenges that CPS face in getting flawless finding.
One of the main challenges includes placement stability. As noted by Frontiera (2011), placement stability is a major concern of CPS in finding of no fault when a child is injured. This is because the multiple placement changes have an impact on child development. This concept prevents a child to have healthy and secure relationships. Regular placement moves complicates the issue of being disconnected from the parent. Again, it can result in separation of siblings which can lead to the child experience lack of self-belonging. Therefore, this leads to distress and deep negative emotional impact. This is because children with histories of maltreatment which would include both bodily and psychosomatic neglect, physical abuse and even sexual mistreatment are at a greater menace of mounting psychiatric troubles. Such offspring are prone to raising a disordered attachment which is connected with a number of developmental problems which include dissociative indications together with depression, and nervousness symptoms. According to Fuller (2013), an injured child who faces placement instability may not give accurate information and accounts to compile up a finding of no fault. Similarly Palusci & Ondersma (2012) stipulates that the body has structural weaknesses that impact the finding. The files about neglected, abused or injured children are supposed to be surreptitious. Nevertheless, there are no spell- out measures to ensure the files are remain confidential. Consequently, the information may end up in the wrong hands. This can lead to, alteration of details. This hinders CPS from getting accurate information to compile finding of no fault.
Secondly, many CPS are faced with organizational structure challenges. Most of them have time-honored weaknesses in their daily operations. This includes challenges in consistently maintaining a experienced labor force and again and again following key policies and measures which are designed to protect children and managing up to date data records systems which may include automatic case management, and establishing nice working relationship with the court systems.
Additionally, the child protective services are faced by some constitutional issues. To start with, as found in a circuit court under Rogers verses county of San Joaquin n 2007, any child protective services worker who was found to remove a child from his or her natural parent into the foster care programs devoid of acquisition of judicial approval was found to be acting with no due process and without urgent situation conditions and dishonored the 14th alteration and Title 42 United States Code segment 1983. The 14th adjustment to the United States constitution dictates that no state should make laws that curtail the human rights or immunities of its general public or even worse neither leave without any individual of existence or freedom devoid of due process of the regulation nor deny any person or individual contained by its mandated dominion the equivalent fortification of the law. Therefore not pending the state proves parental unworthiness, the youngster and their brood share important interest in harboring mistaken extinction of their natural relationship. This is even despite previous allegations or evidence of child abuse or neglect by the ordinary parents. This puts the child protective services in a tricky situation.
Moreover, it was noted that there were numerous internal conflicts between the officers in performance of their duties. There have been more differences than there are similarities between the workers in areas which would include the capacity to service delivery and the models of capacity delivery. This has resulted in big variations in the accessibility, the management and liberation in the child protection services sector. Therefore, it would be difficult to claim that all individuals in the society received equal services and treatment.
Additionally, some of the top officials excessively spend funds meant to support child protection. Their expenses clearly lack supportive documents which can support that the expenditure were incurred towards supporting child protection. Therefore, this unscrupulous expenses end up to denying an abused child a right as it reduces the amount of funds available towards such noble investments.
Furthermore, there has been an upsurge in the maltreatment reports in the recent years. There has proportionately increased the caseloads to an overwhelming level. This was supplemented by the inadequate funding of the child protective services has led to a decrease in the number of child abuse that have adequately been handled to their conclusion according to the set standards by the nation. This has therefore been a big blow to the CPS in their service delivery.
Notably, there has also been an increase in the number of families which are inflowing the system with numerous problems. Of the leading challenge associated with this is the increase in substance abuse. According experts in the field, this unsurprising increase has been associated with increase in the cases of maltreatment. This emerging issue has therefore caught the CPS off guard and therefore unable to control such large numbers with ease.
Furthermore, there is lack of any set reasonableness of the workers workload in order to make sure they are sufficiently staffed to ensure timely delivery and suitable child protection services. Most of the child protective service providers have recognized their personal in-house caseload benchmarks which however in most of the situations have also been included in their CBA jointly with their workers.
In addition, there is the challenge of inconsistencies in the support rendered by families. Families seem to offer their support to child protection services according to the services that have been offered to them also by the CPS. Therefore, we can therefore state that the child protection services and the families have a mutual relationship as regards service offered.
To add to the previous points, the child protective services there inadequately funded by the financiers. This has led to a down fall on them to meet their legal mandate of protecting very eligible child from abuse. Most of them operate below their budgeted capacities which lead to slow response to any issues that arise since they are financially incapacitated. This has led to most of them coming up with cost cutting strategies which include retrenchment of its staff members, discontinued some of their program provisions in a bid to work within the limited budgets. Though s have been able to deliver their legal mandate effectively, their operation in the foreseeable future is a question to be discussed as most of them keep reducing their budgets due to underfunding.
Insufficient staff to rise to the occasion hen incidences of such child abuse occur has been another major challenge. Most of the child protective societies have been understaffed. This has led to unresponsive action then called upon to protect the rights of children effectively. There have limited staff to accordingly work on the numerous cases of child abuse and negligence. He already employed workers are unable to adequately handle the vast population and region. Therefore most of the cases end up being prematurely closed or just neglected. This blame would squarely be laid on the government to fund such progressive programs in the society.
Additionally, overtime payment granted to workers is normally very high. This overburdens the CPS to work within the stipulated budgets with most of its budget allocated to wages instead of rescue mission to victimized children.
To add on, there is no uniformity among the officers who preside against the child cases especially in courts. Different presiding officers ended up interpreting similar cases differently at different places and periods. This is a great challenge towards provision of quality and equitable services to the clients. Not only is there a different in interpretation of child Acts by different magistrates but also the magistrates use different approaches in dealing with matters. For instance, in interpretation of some acts of the child, one is asked for particular items that will not be necessarily required in the next one depending on an officer’s interpretation of the Act. Additionally, some of the presiding officers are not quit conversant with the children Act that they implement which pose a great challenge to the CPS. Most of the clients are frequently complaining that some officers are not well versed with the legal provisions when presiding over the child victimization and abuse. This is because most of them borrow from precedence cases that however may not be necessarily be similar to the particular cases being handled and some even were found to read provision of child act during the cases or even worse they run to other judges during court sessions to enquire on some issues.
Additionally, during presiding of child abuse cases, there are usually some unrealistic demands from some of the presiding officers. It would not be a surprise to hear a magistrate requesting children who had not been performing s expected in schools to be taken to educational assessment centers yet this is not a legal mandate entrusted with the CPS. Additionally, SOME OF THE Documents that the COS are requested toattach to child cases are irrelevant to the particular cases. For instance, for children under foster care since tender age due to abandonment by their parents and who their biological parents can’t possibly be traced and neither can their real names and identities be found have been requested the CPSS to advertise for the biological parents to present themselves before the courts. This quite unrealistic, waste of time and resources in unimaginable searches pose a big challenge for the CPS to find flawless findings when a child is injured.
According to Dawes(2009), CPS are faced with numerous infrastructural challenges in full execution of their legal mandated duties. He argued that most of the CPS are incapacitated to operate under full capacity due to some technical hitches in the child protection sector.
Most of the CPS are faced with the challenge off inadequate trained person. This is despite the fact that there are already insufficient workers in the child protection services. Most of the workers who agree to work in the child protection services lack the technical knowledge or adequate education to handle the complex caseloads that are filed with them. There have been a lot of changes in the child protection services that would require refresher courses and the use of modern technology. Additionally, there have been changes in the child Acts which required new technique and understanding. However, most of the workers are only conversant with the old acts as most of them are unknowing of the new demands that would be required of them which cause tension in them. According to Patel (2005) the move from old ways of performing things is for all time challenging and additionally causes significant tension and anxiety in workers. Dinbabo(2008) stated that what would be best preferred is the paradigm shift by accepting that the ancient methods of performing things may not forever be the better option to choose.
The use of adversarial approach to families has greatly affected the delivery of efficient results. Child protection service workers have frequently used “cookie-cutter” approach where they tell the families the tasks that need to be completed and don’t engage in forming a trusting relationship with the family. These kinds of investigations are judgmental and instead cause fear and even resistance among families. This is because families would be more welcoming to the services if they feel that there is less surveillance and investigation by the child protective services. Therefore, they can freely engage on realization that they are recognized for both strengths and needs instead of being labeled as perpetrators.
Finally, the use of manual paper based processes is getting on the way between child welfare. The manual processes are very tiresome to the workers and the repetition of the daily work leads to high levels of boredom. This manual work has reportedly been the major cause of distraction of workers from their primary purpose of providing protection to the children.
On the other hand, high staff turnover is another major challenged faced by CPS in provision of flawless finding when a child is injured. This can be caused by the inherent challenges experienced by the social workers working for the CPS WHO MAY PREFER TO QUIT THE JOB AND find other career path from which they can still make a living out. This a big challenge since it affects the morale and job satisfaction of other workers since one may feel uncomfortable with the knowledge that the other workers may not stick for long inn the job place as they may shift gears. This big menace may be caused by numerous factors which would include:-
One is these causal factors is the absence of professional career development. According to research 30% of the turnovers are caused by this element.
Another factor to be put into consideration is the lack of enough compensation. This as a key contributor causes the employees turn over. This is mainly when employee’s hard work is not recognized or accompanied by the appropriate reward which would include salary increment or even promotion in the work place.
Also, hating the boss cause employee turnover .This is because nagging bosses can cause stress and trauma at work. Such a negative attitude towards the boss can hinder accurate and timely delivery of the services. This is because the worker may take the view that whatever he or she does is only for the benefit of the boss. His may lead to boredom while delivering tools and slowed zeal to serve the concerned parties at the expense of an attitude towards the boss.
Again, life imbalance cause turnover. The staff that would be facing challenges in balancing work and family time would be challenged to quit the work in CPS which is quite involving and require one to be fully devoted to his or her responsibilities while at work. While this is a positive attitude towards helping the society, one may fear the fall of their family at the expense of the work and yearning to make a living out of the work. Once all possible solutions to this challenge are worked out, one may just find it reasonable to quit the job and look for other avenues to make a living out of.
High staff turnover can also be associated with burnout. Working at a CPS can quite be physically and emotionally draining. According to research by the Vermont department of children and families, any staff working for any CPS is required to have high level of frustration tolerance and also be resilient. This is because the work involves a lot of visiting to the clients to evaluate the situations and intervene in circumstances where a child’s rights or life may be exposed to danger in addition to working in an environment that involves child abuse and neglect as well as establishing the safety of children and especially adolescents. To worsen the situation, you may be required to be at your work situation or in duty certain periods which are beyond the normal working hours as well as you can be assigned duties that involve removing children from the abused homes and placing them in foster care, working with alcohol addicted guardians or even representing your clients in an legal settings.
Personal safety is another factor to be considered to reasons behind high employee turnover. Other times one may have a feeling of being uncomfortable in intervening in particular situations. For example you may be called to intervene in a situation that involves an angry parent who would in turn charge towards you. Clients may be experiencing emotional turmoil while they may be having no other avenue to direct these feelings or emotions and the worker may be put in jeopardy Therefore as a CPS employee, you will be required to gain knowledge of how to successfully interact and associate with patrons in many demanding scenarios in addition to learning how to quickly establish circumstances that would threaten your personal safety.
Another factor that is a major causal of high staff turnover is poor remuneration of the staff. Most of the staff are poorly paid despite the high demands and expectations in the work place. Most of them are unable to comfortably finance their expenses and are found to be having high debts due to the low payments. This a bigger challenge since the workers find no motivation in their work since most of their income is operated on the hand to mouth basis and nothing ends up being saved in their bank accounts for speculation or even precautionary motive. Most of them on fear that they may live a poorer life upon retirement in such an environment, they end up quitting their jobs in search of other avenues to earn a better living that can adequately finance their expenses.
Furthermore, more of the top most officials and fellow workers look down upon others. Some of the looked down upon members of staff may find it difficult to work under such unfavorable and demeaning environment and finally end up quitting their jobs for the sake of their healthy living and social life. A number of factors would be attributed to these wanting behavior in the work place.
Moreover, fatigue is another critical value responsible for the high worker turnover experienced in CPS. This can be explained as the state of feeling frustrated, emotionally distressed and full of sorrow that you may experience when working with a client. However, this state is very different from burnout which is caused by job stress as it involves emotional, physical as well as spiritual exhaustion which can be attributed to witnessing and engrossing the problems and sorrow of others.
Solutions for CPS to have flawless findings for an injured children and turnover
Palusci & Ondersma (2012) alludes that formulating methodologies to prepare the finding is a significant element in a flawless finding. Outlining the method to conduct investigation is imperative. This gives an organized method to conduct investigations. The CPS should outline the main methods that to be utilized in investigation. This includes the methods to collect evidence, the format of the report and the personnel who are supposed to undertake investigations among other template. This will ensure the all information about the victim is well collected. According to Palusci & Ondersma (2012), this will enable the findings of no fault by CPS. This argument is then supported by Tavormina & Clossey (2015), who suggest that creating a specific body within CPS that deals with investigation of the injured children will aid in creating findings that are flawless in when child is injured.Tavormina & Clossey (2015)posits that notifying the subject involved aids in helping know the nature of allegations. This enhances the chances evidence collection.
Cps and their workers should use other substitute methods that would focus on the parental capacity to safely care for their children. These systems to be applied would involve use of service planning and case strategies in partnership and with agreement with the families which would be put down in writing in a familiar language to the family members. The family would be tasked with creation of the safety plan in all the prevailing judicial cases. This would greatly depend on the degree of maltreatment, where the protection staff would use a scale of at least two intrusive. The services would be modified to fit the families’ particular rights needed and the available resources. Additionally, the child protection units would require team decision making gatherings to ensure full participation of the parents. Moreover, there should be community service provider partnerships and peer mentor support. However, in cases where it’s established that a child is not under threat of maltreatment, the child protection workers should engage and offer services to safely maintain the existing family structures. This would be in collaboration with the respect and full understanding of family values and the cultural traditions as well as identification of families that are functional and help in building the existing protective factors.
The concerned parties should ensure that they are conversant and consistent with the following legislative, regulated in addition to program requirements. To start with, all child protection investigations should be conducted within reasonable time upon being reported. The response time should be short enough to acquire the necessary information from the parties involved and expedite the process of mediating and managing the situation. This would ensure any child abuse would not sure any more physical or even psychotic harm due to prolonged existed of the condition around him. Additionally, sit would ensure that any culprit involved is brought to book soonest as the evidence is clear as this would also act as a hindrance and a lesson to any other individual who would be thinking of the same child abuse or neglect.
According to Dawes(2009) the infrastructural challenges facing the full operation of the CPS would be adequately handled by the government to ensure full operation in the sector.
Families should be informed on how maltreatment is defined. This is to ensure all cases of child abuse and neglect are reported in good time and thee cases followed up to their completion. Additionally, this is to ensure no case of maltreatment is left unattended as well as reduce the cases of maltreatment that would otherwise be caused by lack of knowledge or ignorance.
All child protective cases should have a well-defined procedure that is followed by all the caseworkers in execution of their duties. This would include ensuring that there is personal contact followed by an interrogation with the child who is alleged to be abused. The worker should then do a follow up to ensure direct surveillance of the child’s living state of affairs. Moreover, there should be interview or direct observation of other children who live with the child alleged to be victimized. This would ensure that there are no more children who suffer from the same from the same homestead. The alleged perpetrator of the maltreatment should then be interviewed to establish the cause and also to give advice on the issue. The society should additionally perform a safety evaluation as fraction of all investigation to spot if any instantaneous safety coercion to the child is prevalent. A security plan must be right away developed incase looming intimidation to the child’s safety are well-known, to situate in place the indispensable interventions to make safe the safety of the child and any other child that is taken care of in the home. Before they can complete their investigation, child protective services are supposed to fill a risk evaluation to assess any foreseeable prospect risk of mistreatment. Inquiries are supposed to be fulfilled in one, month of the statement but can only be unlimited to a ceiling of two months from the date the report was filed with endorsement of a service supervisor.
Members of the community at large who may not be mandated reporters as they are not professionals should be edified on ways to recognize and act on their implied responsibilities to provide a supportive role in helping children who may be exposed to risk which would include making the necessary report to the respective child protective services.
Additionally ways to reduce the amount of time that is spend on caseloads are viable which would lead to less time spend on paperwork for better and more accurate results. This would include:-
Use off advanced technology to provide security to information gathered by the CPS. The CPS should securely encrypt its sensitive documents containing child information and case information. This would safeguard the information and ensure only authorized personnel can get access to the documents. This would therefore ensure that information rendered only reach to the required and the right hands.
Additionally there should be elimination of all manual data entries. This is because they are prone to numerous errors. Additionally, capture of data in electronic system is fast and very accurate. The data entered can then be subjected to statistical analysis to provide the required end results on garbage in garbage out terms. The electric system is also very much easy to use since it is accompanied with manuals and is user friendly. Officers who use the resources can always go for training to ensure accurate and desired delivery of information. Additionally, it can significantly reduce the amount of administrative burden on the case worker since it is capable of quicker response time which is very critical in child welfare cases. Moreover, it can easily reduce employee burnout. This can be done by streamlining reports and forming processes as well as free up time which leads to better care for all children.
There should be establishment of kinship care grand. In most of the CPS, their case oodles are gratuitously aloft due to the reality that they have numerous cases of kids who went through the official foster care scheme in order to way in foster care grants. Most of the CPS are in the opinion that this can be reduced by means of establishment of the kinship care grant which would ensure the care of children in the care of relatives for cases that need money and not necessarily need care and especially those who go in the course of the prescribed foster system in order to receive a grant. This parallel system would be able to capture some of the case of children to ensure they don’t have to undergo through the foster system that the others have to go through.
Some of the clauses in the constitution that are ambiguous need amendments. Some of this includes amendment of the children’s Act (2005). Most of the CPS would operate to their expectations upon the amendment of some of the clauses in the act itself. Some of the statements need clarification and the meaning of some terms included and definitions should be elaborated. This would include terms like ratify, orphaned among many others included in the Act.
Cultivate and use the most suitable communication tools which would include fact sheets social media, and editorials to edify parents, the community at large, stakeholders, policy makers and the financers on the need to arrange in a line child protection funding with the sought after end results of supporting families ad keeping children safe at home. For instance the desired outcome would be to state and federal incentives which would ensure children are safely maintained at home with their families.
Use up-and-coming public will-building stratagems to edify the public about creative ways to fund prevention and intervention services. For instance, some of such strategies would involve action kits with practical tips, methodological backing projects, a national high-level meeting, beleaguered research, periodic survey audio conferences, websites and learning communities.
Communicate the collective and financial welfares and deterrence, in- home services and reintegration services for children, parents, and the family at large and identification of parents who can possibly talk about how these benefits support advanced safety, permanence, as well as the good fortune outcomes of children. For case in point, by creation of stratagems where the parents can stake their stories by use of teachings, workshops, public presentations and support groups.
Additionally, CPS should ensure there is involvement of both qualified and reassembled birth parent advocates at all vibrant decision making process points all the way through the life of the case as a best practice family engagement strategy in child protection systems and any other related processes which would include court systems and substance and drug abuse treatment.
Each and every one of child abuse and neglect cases should be reported to the respective authorities by the mandated professionals who include, child care providers, teachers and other school staff, medical examiners, law enforcement officers, therapist, councilors and other mental health professionals, nurses and other health- care workers as well as social workers. This people are designated as the official reporters for they typically have the most frequent contact with children. They should report any cases of child abuse without discrimination of skin color. Additionally, the professionals have knowledge on the particular procedures to make the necessary referrals to the child protective services. Additionally, the authorized reporters should be offered relevant training and couching in child welfare investigation and assessment practices. Consistent authorized child abuse reporting practices should additionally be implemented across all the child welfare systems which would make societies poised to better inform families of constructive parenting and offer operative services that would in turn promote adult functionality through categorizing children who are exposed to risk.
Another possible solution would be to ensure that the workers in CPS co-train with other parent mentors and veteran parents which would involve making the most of training curriculum and tools that involve the exceptional perspective especially of guardians involved in issues like substance abuse, interpersonal violence, mental health as well as trauma. This would be helpful to assist child protection services in engaging families, from initial contact until the case is closed in a positive strength- based approach that supports families in solving their particular issues.
To ensure turnover is dealt with forthwith, the employers should ensure that the employees have professional career advancement. Again, enough compensation to employment is vital. In addition, the management should ensure bosses have controlled power over employees.
Reduce turnover and improve permanency. The child protective societies should look for better ways to reduce staff turnover and improve permanency. This could include use of incentives to workers and involving them in decision making so as to tackle any challenges that they be having.
Chapter Summary
This chapter covers the research questions with reference to previous studies that have been undertaken by the authors. Some of the challenges that face findings in the placement instability, structural weakness are among the challenging in delivering flawless finding. The literature provides insights into the methodologies that are utilized to ensure the finding is not faulty.
It’s therefore vital that CPS work hand in hand with the families, the community and even churches to establish lasting relationship. This newly formed relationship should ensure child safety and reduce cases of maltreatment since it will now be a collective responsibility. Though this new development will prone to its equivalent challenges which would include adaptation of new caseworker responsibilities as a requirement by the advanced roles,theCPS will need to shift to focus to better ways with the rising complex caseloads
The subsequent chapter involves the methodology. It provides facts of how the data was unruffled and analyzed so as to establish if the perspective expressed by earlier studies are applicable.
Chapter three
Methodology
The researcher set out to use any available methodology that would enable achievement of the set objectives, answer the research questions exhaustively of how children protective services produce flawless findings in the case of child injured. This is one of the most imperative segments of the study. It includes the description of the method taken by the researcher while collection the data. Also, this section will provide a methodology justification. At the same time, it will aid in improving the understanding the decision made.
The methods used in this research to collect data included both quantitative and qualitative analysis of secondary data.
Data collection
This could simply be translated to the tool and techniques utilized by the researcher in collecting the data relevant to subject under investigation. The research study mainly focused on secondary data collection methods by critically analyzing existing literature from journal, books and information contained in websites. When collecting this data I ensured the credibility of the research by using books and journals that are not older than 2011 to ensure they represent current trends in relating subjects.
A joint case study plan was utilized within a qualitative approach to increase knowledge into and an appreciative of the difficulties faced by social staff working in child protection services in seeing the reality of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005.
Data trustworthiness and dependability were improved through long-drawn-out and recurring focus group sessions until data infiltration occurred
Chapter four
Results
H1: Placement stability is a challenge to CPS finding of flawless finding when there is an injured child
H2: Creating a body that is specifically mandated to present finding of no fault is a workable solution
.
Chapter five
Discussion, conclusion and recommendations
Based on the results of the study, it is apparent that CPS has a role to play in finding of no fault when a child is injured. Also, the results indicate that the views from diverse authors are true. The findings reveal that the CPS has the biggest challenge to ensure the investigations are methodical, evidence is well protected.
The findings also reveal that the structural weakness is a major setback towards CPS achieving the flawless investigations. The structures are rigid to any developments and slowly adapt or respond to emergencies.
Forty percent of the professionals who are authorized to report have botched to report cases of child abuse or neglect at some point in time. This can be attributed by lack of adequate knowledge on how to identify the aforementioned cases, and the inability to correctly identify such circumstances. This can also be as a result of lack of adequate knowledge on the necessary procedures to be undertaken on identification of child abuse or neglect in reporting to the relevant authorities. Additionally, the reporters are caught up in the dilemma about the negative consequences to the affected child or the family or even the worry of retaliation. Some however of the reporters seem to have conviction that the child protective services will be of any assist.
There have also been cases of ethnic and socioeconomic prejudice in the making of key decisions in the cases of child abuse and neglect cases to report. Such cases are so selfish though they have been consistently reported. This has hindered equal rendering of child protective services irrespective of the race a child hails from.
In almost half of the resurrected cases that were reviewed, presence of risk factors which were associated with initial reports of child abuse or negligence issues were still evident or just not completely addressed to the expected standards at the time the case was not yet closed. For instance, there are cases where a file was closed with just one phone call to establish the root abuse of the problem and especially with no contact with the abused child and where physical corrective measures and marital violence were a norm in the cases. This has led to many cases remaining unsolved which just piles to the officers disadvantage and especially if such cases resurface in the future. This also leads to loss of trust and confidence by the public to present their cases to the child protection services. These problems were actually caused by premature closure of cases.
It also came up that one quarter of cases reported to the child protective services were not responded to as required. Most cases went responded to by the concerned parties either partially or just completely.
many child protection services, parents, guardians, and other non-mandated stakeholders interested in the delivery of child protection services have become aware that the investigative response to child mistreatment which include both child abuse and neglect have been unbending and confrontational and did not bother in provision of adequate services to meet the demanding family needs. Concerns have also been raised to the nature of the investigation which has been intrusive intention which is not responsive to the family needs.
Some CPS use old fashioned and outdated data management systems which may not adequately handle the growing number of cases.
Additionally, it’s clear that most of the cases that required review after specific duration of time were left unattended. Most plans required reviewing after every three months. However, most of them went without being reviewed at all. This was a down fall that could be attributed to the competency of the child protective services employees with regard to safeguarding the right of the children.
In most of the reopened cases, the state of affairs and factors that were held accountable for a succeeding report of a child abuse or victimization concern for the humanity had been prevailing at the time when the case was initially closed. On average, the subsequent report resurfaces within sixty eight days of the previous case closure. This also includes numerous cases here the society had to intervene within a fortnight. For instance, in a particular case, the mother had expressed a concern that she was totally incapacitated to take re of the child but to her disappointment, the case had already been concluded and file closed. The particular case was only opened after the family doctor intervened to report that the lady was actually incapable of taking are if the kids since she suffered from depression and anxiety and was frequently on medication.
It was also found out that there existed a lot of differences among the workers n delivery of child protection services. These differences have resulted to delayed or even stalled delivery of the services to the needy people. Most employees differed in the models of service delivery and the capacity to deliver. The listed variations in workers have also led to inconsistency of service delivery.
As per the recommendation in order to ensure that children and especially the youth who have been victimized and need protection receive timely care, appropriate care and support which is consistent, the following are suggested to the child protective services as well as any other child aid organization. The concerned parties should ensure that they are conversant and consistent with the following legislative, regulated in addition to program requirements.
To start with, all child protection investigations should be conducted within reasonable time upon being reported. The response time should be short enough to acquire the necessary information from the parties involved and expedite the process of mediating and managing the situation. This would ensure any child abuse would not sure any more physical or even psychotic harm due to prolonged existed of the condition around him. Additionally, sit would ensure that any culprit involved is brought to book soonest as the evidence is clear as this would also act as a hindrance and a lesson to any other individual who would be thinking of the same child abuse or neglect.
Secondly, in cases where the custody of he abused children is still with the parents, regular home visits should be conducted as well as service plan reviews within the required time frames. This would be in order to ensure that the healing process of the victimized children goes on as anticipated. It should also provide an avenue of ensuring that such cases don’t resurface again in the same family. Regular and timely visits would act as a warning that the authorities are available any moment to stand with the rights of the children and this would change any ill-mannered thoughts as one would fear colliding with the law.
Every child abuse and neglect cases should be reported to the respective authorities by the mandated professionals who include, child care providers, teachers and other school staff, medical examiners, law enforcement officers, therapist, councilors and other mental health professionals, nurses and other health- care workers as well as social workers. This people are designated as the official reporters for they typically have the most frequent contact with children. They should report any cases of child abuse without discrimination of skin color. Additionally, the professionals have knowledge on the particular procedures to make the necessary referrals to the child protective services. Additionally, the authorized reporters should be offered relevant training and couching in child welfare investigation and assessment practices. Consistent authorized child abuse reporting practices should additionally be implemented across all the child welfare systems which would make societies poised to better inform families of constructive parenting and offer operative services that would in turn promote adult functionality through categorizing children who are exposed to risk.
In order to ensure that all funds directed toward supporting the child protection services are appropriately spend in the stipulated programs to ensure direct service provision to affected children and families, the child protective services should work hand in hand with the concerned government ministry in order to identify the available prospects to advance service delivery with provision of child support and needs as the main agenda to be focused. This would increase the provision of quality and services delivery and therefore liberate existing child protection finances which would then be used in reinvestment programs into direct client services. Additionally, the top most official should ensure that it watches over the organization finances and expenditures to make sure that funds are spent appropriately and therefore they are not mismanaged but are squarely used for child protection services to the last cent. This would facilitate transparency and therefore would not be demoralizing to the financers of the programs since finances are spend for the stipulated purpose they were assigned for.
In the cases connecting children place under the care of societies, regularly and within a time bound plan of care reviews should be conducted.
To add on, child protection history should be conducted. This involves all the individuals who were implicated with the child upon reports of child protection concerns should be conducted.
Moreover, cases concerning child protection should not be closed prematurely. Child protective services should therefore ensure that any risk factors which may be present are adequately and expertly addressed before the concerned cases are closed. His should ensure that any particular case is accorded the required attention and handling as it deserves. This as a result would lead to few cases or complains from the public as a result of mishandling or negligence due to ignorance of the concerned officers by the public. This would increase public confidence and trust in the safety and protection of their children by the concerned service providers.
As well, there should be conduction of annual review and analysis involving all the wind down cases in order to determine if there is any corrective mechanism or action is needed in order to reduce cases of premature closure of cases.
Furthermore the child protective services should collaborate with their service providers in the region in order to ensure successful and competent delivery of child protection services according to the governmental, regulatory, policy and program necessities frameworks in order to come up with standard caseloads benchmarks for child protective services against which the service providers can always compare the caseloads to make sure that the caseloads are reasonable. Also, it would be able to establish the extent of the effect t differences in the supports rendered by the society have on the superiority of child protection services across the globe ad finally ensure that children and families have impartial access to the supports they require.
In cases where the child protective services establishes a child who is desperately in need of their support but doesn’t necessarily to be detached from the home, and taken into the service’s care, the child and the respective family should receive support and the necessary services from the child protective services while the child remains at home. Additionally, within one month of concluding the investigation, the child protective service should complete an evaluation of the child’s and family’s strengths and requirements and then come up with a check plan. At a least, the service plan be required to include specific goals, objectives, and errands including the persons responsible for the cases and the time frame within which the task is to be completed as well as the planned level of contact with the child and family by the child protection service worker the service plan must then be reviewed after every six months that lapse whilst the child and the family are in receipt of services, or when changes to the family state of affairs affecting the CHILD.
The state should also adequately fund the child protective services. This is to ensure they deliver within their mandated jurisdiction of provision of all mandated responsibilities to all the identified qualified children with addition of the new authoritarian requirement that societies must always function inside their funding allocation. This is to reduce retrenchment of workers by the service providers in a bid to operate within their fixed budgets due to financial constraints imposed by lack of sufficient funds to operate normally. This is because direct costs involved in child protection vary consistently across the region. This size difference among the different service providers led to the rise of the varying degrees of scale an even capacity to bear with the changes in the service demands, which includes expenses linked children who have multifaceted needs. Therefore, there is a greater need or some of the child protective services to merge with others in order to realize economies of scale. This would lead to cost reduction and saving due to the amalgamation.
Frequent meetings should be conducted and facilitated by the police, presiding officers and the workers in the child protection services. This is to ensure they familiarize to each other and handle any conflicting ideologies or problems they are encountering in efficient child protection. The stakeholders should be able to deliberate on the issue of national importance and find the way possible for the challenges they are encountering.
Workers in the CPS department should also be adequately trained in the practical presentation of the progressive methodology in order to offer their services in child protection. This would ensure that all cases are expertise handled with the weight they carry and in a timely manner according to the expectations of all the parties involved. Immediately the workers are trained on practical application of interpretation of services in a progressive approach, then adequate funds need to be made accessible to them.
For efficient and full implementation of the child protection, and for the process to be successful in all aspects, appropriate facilities need to be made available to the workers and the department of child protection services. This would include but not limited to adequate and advanced office machinery like computers, fax machines and telephone, sufficient motor vehicles to enable smooth operation of their missions, office equipment and children homes. This would ensure operation of CPS to their full capacity.
Some child protective societies would be advised to amalgamate with each other in service provision and shared service arrangements. This would significantly cut on their costs of operation especially cur on wages and rental expenses and consolidate their efforts in bid of a better child protection services.
Child protection workers should actively involve parents and guardians as key partners in the investigation, service delivery and planning. This would make them feel as recognized stakeholders in the provision of child protection in the region and would also work as watch dogs for the child protection workers and the CPS in their absence by taking the necessary actions whenever incidences of child abuse or negligence come on the rise.
Cps and their workers should use any other substitute methods that would solely put emphasis on the parental capacity to safely care for their children. These systems to be applied would involve use of service planning and case strategies in partnership and with agreement with the families which would be put down in writing in a familiar language to the family members. The family would be tasked with creation of the safety plan in all the prevailing judicial cases. This would greatly depend on the degree of maltreatment, where the protection staff would use a scale of at least two intrusive. The services would be modified to fit the families’ particular rights needed and the available resources. Additionally, the child protection units would require team decision making gatherings to ensure full participation of the parents. Moreover, there should be community service provider partnerships and peer mentor support. However, in cases where it’s established that a child is not under threat of maltreatment, the child protection workers should engage and offer services to safely maintain the existing family structures. This would be in collaboration with the respect and full understanding of family values and the cultural traditions as well as identification of families that are functional and help in building the existing protective factors.
Also it would be recommended to co-train with other parent mentors and veteran parents by making the most of training curriculum and tools that involve the exceptional perspective especially of guardians involved in issues like substance abuse, interpersonal violence, mental health as well as trauma. This would be helpful to assist child protection services in engaging families, from initial contact until the case is closed in a positive strong point- based approach that supports families in solving their particular issues.
Encourage the involvement of trained and reunified birth parent advocates at all vital decision making process points throughout the life of the case as a best practice family engagement strategy in child protection systems and any other related processes which would include court systems and substance and drug abuse treatment.
Moreover, the secretary in charge of health and human services be supposed to use the present research agenda, which is allowed in the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act in order to smooth the progress of better targeting of potential funding for those area that hold up limited efforts to explore mutual partnership with other population agencies.
Make certain that the involved parents receive effective legal representation in all the court hearing. Court- ordered citations and any other reports should be undoubtedly explained and communicated to the parents before the aforementioned court proceedings.
The health and human services department should regularly review its research list of items and the main concern areas acknowledged as very critical in child abuse and neglect to conclude how inadequate flexible dollars could be used to search the full capacity of child abuse and neglect in the child protection section. As a consequence of this process, the department finances a unit of research projects that critically focus on structure partnerships with the community to answer back to child abuse and neglect as element of its wide-ranging research stratagem. These projects include eighteen school based child maltreatment services projects which give emphasis to community partnerships making excellent use of the school group of people that will contribute to the acquaintance base of the abuse prevention, classification, intervention, and collaborative management efforts.
All the authorized and even the non-mandated interested party , including but not restricted to child protective services workers, magistrates, law enforcement department, community representatives should cooperate with each other with the and build partnership with the involved families in the child protection services. This should be based on trust, egalitarianism and reciprocated understanding in order to obtain the specified goals and the desired goals.
The secretary of health and human services is required to build up specific technique, which would include but not restricted to regional seminars, white papers, and on-site technical backing which would encourage community based methodologies child protective services.
In conclusion, though most of the CPS is aware of the facial appearance and key doctrines of a progressive methodology, and that some of the CPS were able to contextualize child protection according to the provisions contained in children act, especially in a progressive perspective, the provisions contained in the Act are not completely actualized within a progressive archetype. It would be critical to note that the paramount step in constitutional social service delivery within a progressive approach would be to make out that constitutional services are also included in the basket of progressive social welfare service delivery. Therefore possession of adequate knowledge on where constitutional services fit within a progressive approach would be an excellent step in the shifting towards progressive method in child protection services.
Child protection services is an important and integral part of our nation’s infrastructure for ensuring that all children are safe and family bonds are strengthened. It’s the right time to make necessary improvements in the way system interact with families and many strong leaders in the area of working extra hard to ensure that those changes occur. The experience and knowledge of parents who have previously received these services through the child protective services is a vital resource for the understanding how there advancements might successfully be made. This document drawing on the expertise of the Casey family programs birth parent advisory committee was of great use to policy makers, child protective services, legal departments, and any other mandated and non-mandated stakeholders to ensure transformation of the systems. Their personal as well as collective insight is linked with resources from the professional literature from the child protective services.
Institutional challenges that CPS encounter in the protection of children protection range from adverse attitude of the staff who are not fit acquitted to the provisions contained in the children Act and who are not even implementing services from a progressive line of attack . According to Mbambo (2004), he argues that execution of a successful child protection would require a model shift and a change of the attitude among the employees in child protection services.
Workers in the CPS are the major wounded of the children court organism in execution of their legal mandate of provision of safety to all affected children which they never confront in the interest of effectual child protection services. research has proven that most of the institutional challenges in provision of adequate presentation of children cases in the court system range from lack in application of laws by the presiding magistrates, circuit court magistrates who are not well knowledge with provision of children Act, officers who despise the workers and those that place unrealistic demands to the workers hence overburdening them. Adams (2002) maintains that it’s the role of workers in CPS to be more critical and experts and be quick to respond at any oppressive behavior in line of duty.
Some of the infrastructural rigidities that most of the CPS encounter in their execution of protection of children include the scarcity of resources to fully implement their programs, the causal factor for the scarcity of resources could be attributed to inadequate financing of the organizations by the government while efficient and effective constraints would include lack of expansion space motor vehicles and adequate and advanced office equipment which would include computers, fax machines and telephone devices.
Child protection cannot fully be carried out with the inadequate social workers experienced in most of the CPS. The workers who work in the child [protection services face gargantuan human resources encounters in their efforts to offer quality child protection services. this would be with the inclusion of constrained resources, inadequate workers in thee CPS, inadequate training of the workers involved child protection, and the overwhelming caseloads in the sector that require handling. This can be squarely attributed to low n to the workers, high level of workloads, poor working environment that is unconducive to the workers, which is leading to brain drain. The unfavorable working conditions for the workers are an emerging issue that needs to adequately be dealt with and in accordance with the intensity it requires. It has been found out that most workers work in poor working conditions characterized by inadequate office equipment, fittings, inadequacy of motor vehicles for regular and time provision of their services to the clients, high levels of caseloads and inadequacy of trained staff. According to Dinbabo (2008), it’s within the capability and mandate of the workers working in CPS to make child protection a reality in the society. The high levels of caseloads frequently lead to burnout, high social worker turnover, stress and frustration among the workers.
Inadequacies that some CPS encounter in the execution of child protection will be associated with the transfer of children to unconventional placements; different interpretation and understanding of child protection Act sections and the exaggerated dependence of the child protection systems in foster care schemes in the provision of income made for support of the children.
Difficulties that CPS and workers are encountering in their execution of legal responsibility to ensure adequate protection of the children can be efficiently addressed by the establishment of a kinship care grant where the children are under care of their responsible relatives who would not be in need of money; increasing the remuneration given to workers in the CPS and encouraging coordination between the different and numerous stakeholders involved in child protection. Loffell (2011) was of the same mind that beginning of the kinship care grant can improve this problem of having to undergo formal child protection system with the aim of acquiring a grant.
Future research
Prospect research may center on the factors that Managers at CPS should think about while making investigation decisions. This will help in adding up literature to the subject.
References
Child Protective Services. (2015). Critical Issues in Child Welfare. doi:10.7312/shir16078-006
Frontiera, D. K. (2011). Fighting CPS: Guilty until proven innocent of child protective services’ charges. Houston, TX: ABC’s Press.
Fuller, T. (2013). Beyond Investigations: Differential Response in Child Protective Services. Handbook of Child Maltreatment, 443-461. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7208-3_24
Palusci, V. J., & Ondersma, S. J. (2012). Services and Recurrence After Psychological Maltreatment Confirmed by Child Protective Services. Child Maltreatment, 17(2), 153-163. doi:10.1177/1077559511433817
Tavormina, M., & Clossey, L. (2015). Exploring crisis and its effects on workers in child protective services work. Child & Family Social Work, n/a-n/a. doi:10.1111/cfs.12209
Adams. R (2002), developing critical practice in social work. New York: Palgrave.
Dawes. A, (2008), journal of child and adolescent health. Cape Town. Yniversity of cape town
Mbambo, (2004), hoe to ride the wave when the turns.
How can CPS have a finding of no fault when there is an injured child?
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