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Re-visioning Child Protection Management Embedded in Family Empowerment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2018

Abul K. Khan ,
Debra Miles  and
Abraham Francis
Abul K. Khan*
Affiliation:
Child and Family Interventions & Research Centre, Officer, Australia
Debra Miles
Affiliation:
Social Work and Human Services, College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Douglas, Townsville, Australia
Abraham Francis
Affiliation:
Social Work and Human Services, College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Douglas, Townsville, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Abul K. Khan, PhD, Child and Family Interventions & Research Centre, 8 Onyx Crescent, Officer, Victoria 3809, Australia. E-mail: abul.khan@my.jcu.edu.au
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Abstract

This paper reports on recently completed research which explores the key question of whether public child protection practice requires a vision embedded in family empowerment. The principle objective of the study was to promote our understanding of the experiences families have with child protection services. The project progressed in two different phases. In phase one, a qualitative in-depth interviewing method was applied to explore the experiences and views of the families. The findings were then thematically analysed through a critical theoretical process. For the second phase, we developed an empowerment framework to analyse and map the key themes from the findings, which outlines the families’ difficulties to engage with, and their alienation from, the services in all stages of interventions. The mapping outcomes indicate a link between the process of empowering the families and the process of improving the child protection service.

Keywords

child protectionpracticeempowermentfamilysystem
Type
Articles
Information
Children Australia , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 208 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018 

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