Case Reading as a Practice and Training Intervention in Domestic Violence and Child Protection

ABSTRACT

This article explores the role of a case-reading tool, developed by the Safe and Together Institute, deployed across five Australian states, and which engaged workers from child protection (CP) and specialist domestic and family violence (DFV) services. It aimed to assess the extent to which DFV is identified in CP case files and to assess the quality of case practice from a DFV-informed perspective, as documented in the case file. The Safe and Together approach to child welfare provides a robust foundation upon which practitioners from statutory and nonstatutory backgrounds can work collaboratively and reach consensus about how best to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children living with DFV. The case reading is both a process of transformative working for practitioners and an analytical tool through which their agencies can affect systemic change.

IMPLICATIONS

• A national audit of 20 child protection case files using the Safe and Together case-reading process indicated that documented child protection practice sits at the lower end of a domestic and family violence-informed Continuum of Practice.

• Analysis indicates a need to improve: child protection engagement with fathers who use DFV, assessments of their parenting role and its impact on children and family functioning; identification of adult survivors’ protective capacities and their impact on children.

• Research in this area may have broader implications for other professions and government policy both nationally and internationally.

安全与携手研究所推出的案例阅读工具，用于澳大利亚五个州，涉及了儿保以及家暴机构的工作人员。本文探讨了它的作用。该工具用来评儿保案例文档中有多少家暴的情况，也从家暴案例卷宗的角度评估案例实践的质量。安全与携手研究所的儿童福利行动，为法律及非法律背景的实践者就如何尽可能保障家暴中儿童的安全和福利携手合作、取得共识打下了实在的基础。案例阅读既是改造过程也是分析工具，使用者可以籍之参与系统的变革。

KEYWORDS:

• Child Abuse
• Child Protection
• Child Protection Workers
• Domestic Violence

Acknowledgements

The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the statutory child protection authorities in each jurisdiction and all those who participated in the case reading process and in the preparation of the redacted case files.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Cathy Humphreys http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8997-8993

Lucy Healey http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0180-2956

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial and other support they have received from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) towards this research. The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and cannot be attributed to ANROWS or to the Australian Government, or any Australian state or territory government.