A child's right to protection during the COVID-19 crisis: An exploratory study of the child protective services of Estonia. (December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Toros, Karmen; Falch-Eriksen, Asgeir
• Is Part Of: Children and youth services review. Volume 119(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- Child's rights -- Child protection -- Child protection worker -- Pandemic -- Detrimental care; Social work with children -- Periodicals; Social work with youth -- Periodicals; Adolescent -- Periodicals; Child Welfare -- Periodicals; Social Work -- Periodicals; Service social aux enfants -- Périodiques; Service social à la jeunesse -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 362.705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105568
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0190-7409

Abstract

Highlights: Practices varied from no contact to contact with families during the emergency. Most of the child and family services ended for the time of emergency situation. Patrolling on streets and looking for runaway children were considered new tasks for CPS. Families' basic needs of food was taking the first priority to child well-being and protection. Issues related to digital schooling was seen as a new challenge in child protection work. Abstract: In 2019 the novel Coronavirus COVID-19 was discovered, and the following year the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. This pandemic is unprecedented in human history and affects all aspects of life. In this article, we explore the pandemic's impact on child protective services in Estonia and survey a representative sample of child protection workers (n = 81), asking three open-ended questions designed to explore child protection practice. These questions concern the impact on organisational design, the workers' ability to conduct a diagnosis of a child's care context, and what knowledge they could draw upon, as well as the decision itself. The overall findings indicate that the organisational design left practice unprepared; there was a general lack of ability to act upon referrals and also to conduct investigations to evaluate care contexts. Furthermore, there is a general lack of knowledge of how to deal with protective practices and conduct decision-making during crisis situations.