Topic: Child Abuse
Critically reflect on some of the skills you might need to make sure children and young people participate in decision making while keeping them safe. Describe one strategy in detail that you could use with Noah from this case study.
Case Study
Noah is an Australian boy age 10 and he has been in foster care since he was 8. His mother was unable to care for him because of severe mental health issues. His father is no longer in contact with the family and there are no other relatives in a position to help. Noah was settled into a foster home until his foster father died suddenly and violently three months ago. His mother was not unable to care for him any longer as she was coping with the shock of the bereavement. She was very clear that he would not be able to return to her in the future. The local Office of communities and justice had to find an alternative placement, and Noah was placed with foster carers from a private fostering agency as no appropriate foster carers were available. This was seen as an emergency placement but Noah’s allocated social worker left the Department and nothing much was done for 10 weeks whilst the case was re-allocated, apart from statutory visits via a duty worker. The newly allocated social worker, Jenny has been to see Noah, who is very happy at the placement. He has bonded with both foster carers, their dog and the extended family and says he does not want to move. The team manager says he must be moved to different foster carers as this was an emergency placement and he will very likely be able to bond with other foster carers. Jenny suspects that this is a financially motivated decision since these ’in house’ carers will be cheaper than the private agency foster carers. She tries to advocate for Noah to stay where he is, quoting the New South Wales Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1989 about Noah’s wishes and feelings, but meets with total opposition from the manager.
Read Chapter 17 of the prescribed textbook (Fernandez, E. & Delfabbro, P. 2021. Child protection and the care continuum: theoretical, empirical and practice insights, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, New York, NY: Routledge)
Make sure you understand the participation principle and how this is implemented in child protection processes (page 277 gives some examples) and the different ’modes’ of participation (pp278-283).
Reflect on our discussion and activities in class. You might want to use the critical reflection model to help you (What? So What? What now?
Write 375 words (+/- 10% leeway) that demonstrate that you have thought about this topic CRITICALLY.
Use one (1) reference to support any claims you make.
This is an individual reflection so you can include a related personal experience to support your thinking if you want to
You can write in first person or third person
You can use other peer-reviewed references in addition to the prescribed textbook
Use any author-date referencing system as long as you are consistent.
