Research Essay on Effectiveness of Child Welfare Services
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During the last several years, the methods of predictive risk modelling have been widely recommended for use by the managers occupied in the social sector and working in the child welfare organisations, in particular. This has generally been explained by the fact that such method had been proved as rather effective instrument of figuring out required resources and mechanism of preventive nature along with enhancing the process of decision-making for the practitioners. That mechanism has firstly been discussed in the respective green paper concerning the recommendations on treating the vulnerable children, further transforming into the white paper and the Childrens Action Plan. Nowadays, it is representing the component of the Child, Youth and Family review remit. As a result, such specifically managerial method has stimulated further discussions and analyses related to the data, feasibility and ethical implications issues along with the political and social consequences for the child welfare system of a chosen country on macroeconomic scale (Ministry of Social Development, 2012). As a result, the related discussions have become widely highlighted by the wide array of researches including the political and academic analyses, both local and international (Gillingham, 2015), (Oak, 2015), (Keddell, 2015). And even taking into consideration the fact that the methods of predictive risk modelling that are generally being used in highly risk averse organizations have a great variety of implications, the author of the future study proposes that these methods of management will be used in in social services organisations, as well.
What is more important, the research will focus on the substantiation data use as the variable of potential outcome that it is supposed to forecast. It should be mentioned that various decisions related to substantiation are highly discussed from the perspective of the child welfare systems even on international level. It should also be remembered in this regard that the variable of substantiation decision is highly dependent on the great number of factors; moreover, the available population data on both local and cross-national levels is mostly distorted and heterogeneous. Therefore, within a chosen population, the use of substantiation as a proxy for the incidence of child mistreatment appears to be rather challenging. Still, the current research discussed major highlights that are more than recommended for the policy directions addressing the risks and needs within the family, community and macro levels. In addition, the research will exhaustively explain further theoretic and empirical developments in relation to the decision-making process from the perspective of child welfare institutions.
It is worth accepting that each organisation providing care and support for the previously maltreated children is increasingly using more and more statistical data related to the social life of the population. It has been reported by the researchers in this regard that the use of data gathered from both everyday local private and administrative sources may potentially yield significant pieces of information and demonstrate the specific trends of social life within a chosen area (Beer, 2015). Further, scholars tend to stated that in the current age of increased use of information, the variety of algorithms to analyse it are not only offering the descriptive data, but also constitute the social life, as well. This is explained by the fact that the results of those analytical algorithms change the process of decision making and respectively change the social trends about the individuals and society in general (Amoore and Piotukh, 2015).
Additionally, the differences between the child welfare systems in the UK, the USA and Norway are more than significant and therefore, the effectiveness of these systems from both management and social perspectives is different from one country to another. Thus, the purpose of the further study is to analyze the effectiveness of child welfare systems in these countries from both political and management perspectives offering the description and analysis of both state and private child care providers.
Therefore, having defined the major purpose of the study that will be conducted further, it should also be stated that it will be correspondingly realized through the process of answering the research questions specifically defined for that purpose. These will include the following questions:
What is the current status of research in relation to the management of child welfare services within previously defined countries from political and management perspectives?
What are the differences and similarities in theoretical and practical procedures associated with the child welfare in these countries and how does this reflect the differences in managerial approach within child welfare sector there?
What is the reaction of state and private child welfare services providers in these countries towards the cases of child maltreatment and how effective are these measures?
Correspondingly, the research questions are focusing on comparing and contrasting different managerial approaches towards managing the child welfare systems in different countries through the evaluation of legal, theoretical and practical aspects of child welfare systems functioning in the UK, the USA and Norway. Specific attention will also be given to the effectiveness of management procedures and methods in adjusting these systems in order to react to emerging issues within the systems. This effectiveness will be evaluated by analyzing the exact procedures of both legal and management origin aiming to reflect the needs of children with mental disorders or at least reflect the psychiatric aspect of mistreatment previously experienced by children in the chosen countries. In other words, both state and private institutions providing child welfare services will be evaluated in terms of providing adequate and sufficient assistance to such children. The effectiveness of addressing the mental needs of children with previous experiences of mistreatment by the respective institutions will be evaluated, as well.
More importantly, the currently offered study represents one of the least number of studies considering the managerial effectiveness of child welfare services provided by the respective institutions within chosen countries. This is so due to the simple fact that such topic is severely under-researched and under-evaluated by the scholars. In particular, this includes both psychological and managerial aspects of the topic, having taken into account strictly limited number of scholarly publications reflecting the effectiveness of child welfare services. Furthermore, the number of publications considering the effectiveness of mental care given by the child welfare services in all the aforementioned countries is even more limited. Such surprisingly negative tendency shown by the academic researches is also demonstrated by the legal provisions of the chosen countries, which will be explicitly demonstrated by the following chapters and paragraphs of the project.
Prediction risk modelling serves as one of such algorithms suitable for decision-making process in child welfare organisations. In particular, it is being used to risk-scale the chosen groups of population in relation to the various forms of child mistreatment following the goal of understanding more effective ways to provide preventative services and realize them. It appears to be especially important under the conditions of contemporary world, where the notifications to various child welfare organisations are increasing, which is capable of potentially undermine the current child welfare system in the majority of Western countries (Spratt, 2012), (Lonne, Harries and Lantz, 2013). From such perspective, it appears more important to understand who will most probably appear under the risk of notification along with designing and implementing respective legal interventions.
Having defined the research questions of the study, it is worth stating that they will be realized through the following procedures. In other words, the author of the study will:
Exhaustively and comprehensively review the academic publications related to the systems of child wellbeing in the UK, the USA and Norway combined with the legal/administrative provisions regulating them;
Define and highlight differences and similarities between the approaches towards defining and reacting to the child mistreatment in those countries through the interpretation and analysis of the administrative/academic sets of data available in the chosen countries;
Compare and contrast managerial approaches towards child welfare services in the chosen countries in relation to addressing the mental issues of the children with previous experiences of mistreatment.
Considering the theoretical background of the current project, it should be mentioned that the theory of humanism appears to be the most suitable for it. The theory can be explained with the help of discussion of the following ideas. Firstly, the theory of humanism lies within accepting the fact that each human is virtuous according to his/her nature. As for the good and evil within each person, the theory explains each bad or good decision or thought as a cloak worn specifically for a specific appropriate moment. Therefore, the theory denies the fact that humans are egoistic and selfish in their nature. Secondly, according to the theory of humanism, the man exists as a whole; in other words, the theory does not distinguish between the body and psychic, which leaves the humans responsible for all the components of their bodies and minds. Thirdly, the humans are defined as continuously developing themselves through the course of their lives, which is explained by their nature, as well (Revelle, 1993). Such approach appears to be the most suitable for considering the problems of child welfare systems in terms of management due to the aforementioned characteristics of the theory.
Regardless of the previously defined number of researches that is more than limited to address the services received by the children in respective child welfare facilities, it is still worth admitting that the issues related to child wellbeing are receiving increasing attention from both theorists and practitioners in previously mentioned countries. This specific trend correspondingly increases the value and significance of cross-national evaluations of child welfare and care systems in all the countries of the world, including the countries chosen for the current study (Gilbert, Parton and Skivenes, 2011). The importance of the current study is also complemented by the fact that the cross-national studied associated with the child welfare services and child maltreatment have been proved to serve as effective benchmarks for checking the effectiveness of policies and practices within the chosen environments. More importantly, the overall comparative approach of the current study is expected to facilitate further research in developing both theoretical and practical policies and procedures enhancing the services provided to children and improve their wellbeing as a result (Freymond and Cameron, 2006).
In any case, it should also be stated that a wide array of forms of child neglect and abuse has been receiving considerably less attention from governmental authorities and scholars compared to evaluating general wellbeing of the children. Furthermore, the respective mental issues of the children receiving care from the respective facilities has been considered by governments and researchers even less. Such theoretic and practical gap between the general evaluation of child welfare services...
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