Peer-reviewed article
Developing a model for child participation in child welfare services
Sofie Henze‐Pedersen, Tea Torbenfeldt Bengtsson ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This paper develops a theoretical model for how children can meaningfully participate in child welfare services. The model combines children's rights perspectives with childhood sociology to understand children as social actors with independent rights. The authors expand an existing participation framework by adding context as a key element and incorporating dimensions like time, space, voices, and influence. The model is designed to help conceptualize child participation both as a legal right and as a practical social process within welfare services.
Key points
- The model integrates two perspectives: childhood sociology and children's rights, positioning children as social actors with independent rights
- Builds on the rights-based Lundy model of child participation
- Adds context as an overarching element to capture the specific conditions of child welfare services and the child's social world
- Expands the original model's four elements to include time and space, voices, direct and indirect audiences, and influence and statutory power
- Designed to conceptualize child participation as both a right and a social practice within child welfare settings
Limitations
This is a theoretical model development paper based on literature review and conceptual analysis. It does not evaluate the effectiveness of child participation interventions in practice or test the model's implementation outcomes in real-world child welfare services.
Abstract
Abstract In this article, we develop a model for child participation in child welfare services (CPC). Child participation has gained increasing attention in research, policy and practice in the last couple of decades. Two perspectives have concurrently moved this agenda forward—childhood sociology and children's rights—leading to an almost irrefutable understanding of children as social actors with independent rights. We integrate these perspectives in one model in our CPC model. We base the model on the rights‐based Lundy model of child participation and develop it with theoretical insights from childhood sociology and social work as well as empirical insights from the literature on CPC. To capture the specific conditions of child welfare services and the social world of the child, we add contexts as a new overarching element in our CPC model. We also expand the four elements in the original Lundy model to include time and space, voices, direct and indirect audiences and influence and statutory power. The CPC model is designed to conceptualize how child participation unfolds as both a right of the child a social practice within the specific setting of child welfare services.