The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned this high-level research in December 2024 to understand, through analysis of the 2023-24 yearly reports, how safeguarding partnerships have developed their approaches in the past year. Yearly reports must be published in accordance with the requirements set out in the Children Act 20041 and Working…

The study examined the impact of child protective services (CPS) contact on out-of-school suspensions for 49,918 Wisconsin students (followed from ages 5-6 to 14-15; [school years 2010-2019; 74% White; 7% Black; 11% Hispanic; 8% other; 49% female]). A quasi-experimental design comparing recent CPS contact to upcoming (future) CPS contact shows…

Post-secondary educational outcomes for care-experienced youth are poor. This has been a consistent finding across studies in many countries. Most studies do not distinguish between different types of post-secondary educational pathways and outcomes, however. There has been limited attention to the potential for post-secondary vocational education…

This article explores how leadership in child welfare is practised in a context with co-existing institutional logic. The article is based on a qualitative design using document analyses and semi-structured interviews. The document analysis is based on seven documents and interviews with 20 child welfare managers (CWM). The data indicate that CWMs…

Child sex trafficking (CST) is the exchange of something of value for any sexual act with a minor. Public child welfare agencies are responsible for serving CST victims. In response to the critical need for training child welfare workers on engaging survivors of CST, we describe an innovative game-based training model used to train over 1000…

Life skills development among youth in foster care is critical in helping them overcome the barriers they face when leaving care. While foster care agencies, child welfare professionals, and caregivers play important roles in life skills development, little research has examined the topic from their perspectives. This study examined the barriers…

This article studies the history of playgrounds in Finland and focuses on the emergence and implementation of the objectives of the international playground movement in the early twentieth century. Specifically, it examines the relations between supervised playgrounds, women's emancipation, child welfare policies, and political discussion on…

While foster youth miss more school versus their non-foster counterparts, their status as a foster youth is not static, with many of them entering and exiting the foster care system over time. These dynamics of entry and exit can represent particularly crucial transition periods of stability and instability that may differentially influence…

The intersecting colonial systems of child welfare and education overdetermine experiences of educational exclusion of Indigenous children in Manitoba. A fictionalized case vignette is used to depict how settler colonialism, carcerality, and anti-Indigenous racism play out in the lives of students with child welfare involvement. Using critical…

Turnover rates of the child welfare workforce continue to rise, resulting in poor outcomes for children and families. Efforts to improve readiness and retention are needed to better prepare child welfare workers. This case study uses a qualitative analysis research method to explore high impact practice (HIP) focusing on a training program that…

Stigma devalues, discriminates, and magnifies social inequalities. For children in care, who have far worse educational outcomes than children who are not in care, stigma negatively effects the others' perceptions, as well as the children's perceptions of themselves. This paper is drawn from a larger research project which considered the ways in…

U.S. public opinion polls suggest that average citizens have a surface understanding of child welfare; they recognize the complex decisions at stake in matters of child protection; they understand that a public response is sometimes required when children are in danger; and they acknowledge that the work is challenging. Social work academics have,…

Child maltreatment is a significant public health concern that affects children's health and well-being throughout their life. Children who are maltreated are at an increased risk of developing a disability or delay and are more vulnerable to a range of mental health-related problems, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, criminality,…

Post-World War II, the vocational parent system was established in Japan in 1951--based on the Child Welfare Law--to provide aftercare for older dependent children. The vocational parents lived with the children and provided the guidance necessary for them to live independently. The evolution of the vocational parent system is divided into three…

Objective: This scoping review aimed to map the extent of evidence on parental advocacy programmes supporting participation in child welfare decision-making. Introduction: Though parental advocacy programmes aim to empower parents navigating complex child welfare systems, the breadth of evidence has not yet been synthesised. Inclusion criteria:…