An exploration of social workers’ decision-making processes to remove children from parental care

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to explore the decision-making processes involved when child protection services social workers consider the decision to remove children from parental care. It aims to bring to light those factors which distinguish situations where a care order is issued for a child, from those situations where a care order is considered but not issued. The study is a retrospective, qualitative, in-depth, exploratory study, descriptive of the decisionmaking processes involved in the social work decision of removing children from parental care. It originates from a constructivist paradigm, and adopts a relativist ontological positioning and an interpretivist, subjective epistemology. The research design employed is an instrumental, multiple comparative case study design. The context for the research is the child protection services social work team of Aġenzija Appoġġ, the main agency in Malta delivering child and family social work services. Data was collected through accessing the social work files of 30 families who were child protection services users. In 15 of these families social workers’ decision-making processes had resulted in the care order being recommended and issued, and in the other 15 situations the care order had been considered, but was not recommended and issued. A total of 49 children were included in the study, as a number of these families had more than one child. Subsequent to reviewing the social work files of these children, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with the 15 child protection services social workers (some of whom were responsible for more than one case situation), who had casework responsibility for these 49 children during the time the care order was considered, or considered and recommended. Interviews focused on the decision-making processes related to a care order decision or the lack of it, and the factors which they thought had influenced the decision-making processes and the decisions taken. Thematic analysis was employed as a method of analysis in line with the exploratory and descriptive, analytical purposes of the research. Findings indicate that social workers considered the care order decision to be a difficult decision to reach. The decision-making processes involved emerged to be complex ones, and various factors influenced the processes at different stages. Parental characteristics and child characteristics were found to be particularly impactful on whether social workers considered the possibility of a care order to be recommended for a child. On the other hand, the strength of the case and whether the care order was the last resort available to protect a child, were strong influences on whether the care order was recommended and issued. The degree of parental cooperation with social workers turned out to be a primary factor in leading social workers to determine that the care order was the last resort through which a child could be protected. Social workers and characteristics related to their personal values and beliefs, their personality, and their life and work experiences, were found to be influential throughout the care order decision-making processes of the different children. Organisational factors were also found to impact social workers in their decisions. Hence this research study indicated that the child is not always at the centre of the processes involved in care order decision-making. The child’s voice is in competition with a number of other voices, which are often stronger, and at times actually mute the voice of the child. An interesting finding which emerged is what is termed in the thesis as “the care order moment”. The “care order moment” is that decisive moment when there was no turning back from recommending the care order. Triggering factors were found to have led to the care order moment for a notable number of children in the sample. On the other hand, other factors were found to have delayed the care order from being recommended for a number of children. This research study makes recommendations to frontline social workers, social work managers and policy makers to effectively respond to children in need of protection through a continuum of services that will provide social workers with more options through which the interests of children can be served. Child protection services social workers were found to be at the centre of care order decision-making processes, positioned as key protagonists. Hence the study recommendations emphasise the key roles which research, and the ongoing training and supervision of social workers have, in ensuring that the decisions which are taken for children and families are of optimum quality, and that the child is always kept at the centre of decisions taken.