A pilot project using a community approach to support child protection services in China

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Highlights

  • The Chinese community approach is beneficial for narrowing the service gap left by the fragmented institutional arrangements and weakening family care in China.

  • This approach enables the protective role of the community for the vulnerable children experiencing child maltreatment issues.

  • This approach involves the community in reporting, referral and intervention systems.

  • This approach needs to be supported by statutory resources.

Abstract

This article documents how a community approach was used as part of developing a child protection service in China. In order to demonstrate the potential of the community approach, it is first argued that the fragmented institutional arrangements and weakening family care in China have resulted in an incomplete system that leaves vulnerable children with insufficient support. However, as the current literature indicates, the community approach can be considered to provide an effective solution by mobilising community resources in the Chinese context. A pilot project which was set within a child protection service and delivered by a non-governmental organisation is presented as a case study. Five key elements that define the Chinese practice of the community approach can be summarised: (1) a belief in the important role of the community in the child protection system; (2) targeting those vulnerable children experiencing child maltreatment issues but with little family care; (3) the importance of involving the community in reporting, referral and intervention systems; (4) highlighting the protective role that the community can play; (5) collaborating with government to ensure the support of statutory resources. Lastly, this article discusses both the potential and challenges of using the community approach in this context.

Introduction

As there is currently no formal reporting system for child maltreatment in China, its official prevalence remains unknown. However, current research literature strongly indicates that child maltreatment in China is a serious issue. In relation to physical neglect, according to Pan et al.'s (2014) nation-wide survey, the prevalence rates for middle- and high-school students in rural areas were 12.7% and 17.8% respectively, while the prevalence rates of emotional neglect were recorded as 15.3% and 14.1%. Ji, Finkelhor, and Dunne's (2013) meta-analysis brought together estimates of sexual abuse of children in China, which were 13.8% for males and 15.3% for females. Using a similar methodology, Ji and Finkelhor (2015) indicated that between 1990 and 2013 the life-time prevalence of any physical abuse was 36.6%.

The scale of the child maltreatment issue in China is internationally comparable. Pan et al.'s (2014) estimates of physical and emotional neglect for rural students were very close to global levels, which were reported to be 16.3% for physical neglect and 18.4% for emotional neglect (Stoltenborgh, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & van IJzendoorn, 2013). Ji et al.'s (2013) estimates of child sexual abuse for males and females also fell within the international range as identified by Finkelhor (1994) (3% to 29% for men and 7% to 36% for women). Meanwhile, the figures for physical abuse provided by Ji and Finkelhor (2015) were even higher than the reported global prevalence of 22.6% (Stoltenborgh, Bakermans-Kranenburg, van IJzendoorn, & Alink, 2013).

The above statistics indicate a pressing need to tackle the serious issue of child maltreatment in China. The Chinese governments' inclusion of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the nation's child protection services is an emerging trend that must be noted. In 2018, the central government spent 55.76 million yuan (6.16 million GBP) on contracting out 148 projects related to child services. That amount of spending on child services was 1.41 times greater than the amount spent in 2013, and it made up 30.81% of the total funding for contracted-out social services at the central level (UNICEF and China Philanthropy Research Institute, 2019). From within that context, the purpose of this article is to introduce an NGO-implemented community approach based on a local child protection service and evaluate its potential and challenges. It will begin with an analysis of the insufficiencies of both the institutional system and of family care in protecting vulnerable children. Then, it will review the merits of the community approach and explore its possible application in the Chinese context. In the following sections, the article will report on a pilot project applying the community approach into a child protection service. Lastly, it will conclude with a discussion about the potentials and challenges of promoting this approach in future.

Section snippets

Fragmented institutional arrangements

The key elements of a comprehensive institutional system for child protection – including specific statutory agencies, a reporting system and processing procedures, and alternative institutional care – have long been found incomplete in China (Katz, Shang, & Zhang, 2011). First, formal responsibility for child welfare rests with a number of different authorities, whose remit, furthermore, is very limited. As the most relevant administrative unit concerned with the welfare of vulnerable

Features

Three distinct features of the community approach can be recognised in the current literature. First, instead of adopting individualistic perspectives for intervention, the community approach attaches more importance to the broader environment (Jack, 2004; Jones, Hiddleston, & McCormick, 2014). Meanwhile, in relation to responding to the needs of children, this approach moves from a reliance upon a small number of professionals authorised to exercise legislative power, to engaging with a wider

Method

In order to examine the possibilities and challenges of introducing the community approach into China, this paper reports upon a service project undertaken in an area referred to here as Town L. Town L is the neighbour on the west of Guangzhou City, which is one of China's mega-cities. Therefore, Town L is a relatively developed area in economic terms. It covered an area of 148.3 km2, and is composed of 20 urban communities and 16 rural villages. Moreover, Town L has a mixed population of local

Rationale of the Chinese community approach

Social workers of Project J were first to realise the practical barriers of providing child protection services. As social worker A pointed out, ‘The local Departments of Justice or Public Security would only intervene in cases with very serious consequences. This was why we wanted to do something to address this gap in service provision’.

On the other hand, they soon acknowledged the importance of the community in compensating for the incomplete child protection system. As Social Worker B

Discussion

This article has reported on the case of Project J using the community approach to support child protection services in China. The elements of this approach are summarised in Fig. 1. In order to better understand this approach, contextual factors must first be understood. Despite the serious scale of child maltreatment issues, the major deficiency of the Chinese child protection system rests on its fragmented institutional arrangements, such as the lack of a responsible government department

Conclusion

This case study has described a pilot using the community approach to support child protection services in China. This approach was based on a belief in the significance of the community in the child protection system and highlighted the protective role that the community can play. By targeting vulnerable children with little family care, this approach could achieve relatively satisfactory outcomes within an under-developed child protection system by working with the community and the statutory

Funding

This research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation (Grant Number 18BSH150; 15CSH066) and the Women's Federation of Town L (23000-71210314).

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support from Dr. Xiangjun Chen, Ms. Xuanxun Peng, Ms. Haiyan Liu, Ms. Yun Deng, Ms. Haiqin Yu, and other social workers and students who were involved in the Project J.

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