Peer-reviewed article
Exploring the essence of enabling child participation within child protection services
Ganna G. van Bijleveld, Joske Bunders, Christine W. M. Dedding ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how case managers in child protection services can better enable children to participate in decisions affecting them. Researchers gave case managers a participation toolbox created by children and used reflexive monitoring to identify barriers. The findings show that case managers' unconscious beliefs about child protection often override their intention to listen to children's voices. The study emphasizes that organizational reflection and awareness of the tension between protection and participation are needed to genuinely increase children's involvement in decision-making.
Key points
- Case managers' unconscious thoughts and beliefs about child protection often override their intention to facilitate participation
- There is a complex interplay between child image, protection, and participation that unknowingly steers case managers' actions
- A participation toolbox developed by children was used to support case managers in facilitating participation
- Iterative reflection within organizations is necessary for actual change in daily practice
- Case managers have a crucial role in ensuring children's voices are listened to and acknowledged
Limitations
The document does not provide quantitative data on outcomes or details of how many case managers were involved or the specific results from using the toolbox. It is unclear what specific changes in practice resulted from this intervention or how outcomes were measured.
Abstract
Abstract The chances that children have to participate in child protection services are largely contingent upon the attitudes and skills of case managers. They have a crucial role in ensuring that a child's voice is being listened to and acknowledged in often sensitive dialogues. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate what case managers need to facilitate child participation. By handing case managers a participation toolbox developed by children and through the use of reflexive monitoring in action, we elaborated on the barriers faced in practice. The results show that the intention to facilitate child participation is quickly overruled by often subconscious thoughts and beliefs, stemming from the complex interplay of child image, protection, and participation. Case managers need to be aware of this interplay and how this unknowingly steers their actions. Therefore, iterative reflection should be facilitated within organizations for an actual change in their daily practice and to amplify the role of children in the decision‐making processes within child protection services.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Distribution of a participation toolbox developed by children to case managers, combined with reflexive monitoring in action
- Population
- Case managers working in child protection services in the Netherlands
Key finding
Case managers' unconscious beliefs and attitudes about protection often override intentions to facilitate participation