Peer-reviewed article
Seen but Not Heard: Child Protection Workers' Discourses on Children's Participation in Foster Care Decisions
Helen Saarnik, Ingrid Sindi, Karmen Toros ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines how child protection workers in Estonia approach children's participation rights in foster care placement decisions. The research found that while workers endorsed the principle of hearing children, participation often remained procedural and limited by assumptions about children's competence, gatekeeping by professionals, legal formalities, and resource constraints. The study identifies five dominant discourses and six tensions that shape how participation is practiced, revealing a gap between rights-based ideals and actual implementation in high-stakes child protection decisions.
Key points
- Five dominant discourses interact to create six recurrent tensions in foster care placement decisions
- Participation often remained procedural and conditional despite workers' endorsement of hearing children
- Children's participation was limited by developmental competence thresholds determined by professionals
- Relational gatekeeping, legal formalities, and structural scarcity constrained when and how children could participate
- The study maps barriers and enabling conditions for meaningful participation in child welfare systems
Limitations
This study is based on interviews with only eight child protection workers in Estonia, so findings may not generalise to other countries or larger populations. The study examines worker discourses and interpretations rather than direct observation of how participation actually occurs in practice or how children themselves experience it.
Abstract
ABSTRACT Participation is central to child protection discourse, yet its realisation in high‐stakes decisions remains challenged. This study examines how child protection workers (CPWs) in Estonia interpret and implement children's participation rights in foster care placements. Eight semi‐structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis informed by discourse analysis to explore the narratives that shape participation in practice. The findings reveal five dominant discourses that interact to create six recurrent tensions, requiring CPWs to navigate between normative rights‐based ideals and the constraints of legal mandates, professional authority, and institutional capacity. While participants strongly endorsed the principle of hearing the child, participation often remained procedural and conditional, limited by developmental competence thresholds, relational gatekeeping, legal formalities, and structural scarcity—all of which determined when and how children could participate. This study contributes to the literature on child participation and child protection by unpacking how intersecting discourses shape the boundaries of Article 12 in foster care placement decisions. By mapping both barriers and enabling conditions, it offers insights relevant to strengthening meaningful participation in child welfare systems nationally and internationally.