Bringing Dignity to the Assessment of Safety for Children who Live with Violence. (7th January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alexander, Kate; Humphreys, Cathy; Wise, Sarah; Zhou, Albert
• Is Part Of: British journal of social work. Volume 52:Number 6(2022)
• Page Start: 3578
• Page End: 3598
• Publication Date: 2022-01-07
• Subjects: assessment -- child protection -- domestic violence -- social work; Social service -- Periodicals; Social workers -- Periodicals; 361
• DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcab260
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0045-3102

Abstract

Abstract: Fear dominates women and children's experience of domestic violence. Fear of harm, and the consequences of others finding out, can mean mothers are reluctant to seek help. Ironically, these survival behaviours can be understood as non-protective by child protection practitioners. This article describes research undertaken in New South Wales (NSW) Australia to determine the impact on child protection practitioner perceptions of child safety when Response-Based Practice (RBP) questions are combined with the standard NSW Structured Decision Making (SDM) safety assessment. RBP reflects core social work values through questions that explore how victims respond to, resist and manage violence. A vignette experiment with a between-subjects design was used to compare child safety assessments by practitioners who watched an interview guided by SDM alone and practitioners who watched an interview using the combined 'treatment' (SDM+RBP) approach. Participants ( N = 1, 041) were randomly assigned to SDM and treatment groups. Participants who watched the treatment approach were significantly more likely to assess the mother as cooperative and protective and significantly less likely to indicate that the children would be taken from her care. Thus, the results demonstrate that understanding how women manage violence changes practitioner views about maternal protectiveness and child safety. Abstract : Evidence tells us that decision making in child protection is fallible. This is particularly true when domestic violence is the risk. This research took place in Australia. It had full ethics approval from University of Melbourne. It tested whether an evidence-based assessment tool, Structured Decision Making (SDM) could be combined with a practical way to unearth resistance to violence and challenge bias, Response-Based Practice (RBP), leading to better decisions for children. It relied on a survey and two hypothetical video interviews. A total of 1, 041 child protection staff participated. Video A was standard (SDM). It featured questions which explored the impact of the violence on the children. Video B was treatment (SDM + RBP). It used the same footage but combines eight minutes of additional questions to unlock the mother's insights and ways of managing the violence, based on RBP which is a therapeutic model from Canada. Half the participants watched Video A and half watched Video B. They all filled out the survey, which captured their assessment of the safety of the children. The results show that hearing how the mother resists and manages violence changed the way participants assessed her protectiveness and safety of her children.