Policies and responses with regard to child abuse and neglect in England, Germany and the Netherlands: a comparative multi-site study (PORECAN)

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Sabine Walper
• Subject Area: Education Systems and Educational Institutions
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 260368014

• Final Report Year: 2018

Final Report Abstract

In the Hestia project, the child protection systems of three European countries were compared: England, Germany and the Netherlands. These three countries have quite different welfare systems with long traditions of child protection. In Hestia we made an in-depth comparison of the nature of these countries’ systems and studied the impact of variations in nature on the practice of child maltreatment investigations. The child protection systems of England, Germany and the Netherlands were compared at three different levels: policy, practice and impact on parents who were involved in a child maltreatment investigation. To study child protection policies, use was made of a framework based on scientific literature. To study the practice of child protection, in particular the investigations following a report of maltreatment, we designed a case file study. A coding scheme was developed by the researchers and tested in each country. What we coded were case files, in particular the different steps in the investigation process as documented, from report to decision. We randomly selected 400 cases per country of reports made to the child protection services between March 2013 and October 2016. To study the impact of child maltreatment investigations on parents, we designed an interview study, allowing parents to bring their personal story and talk about the background to the report, the investigation process, the decision and their relationship with the professionals. We searched first for specific themes in each country reflecting parents’ experiences and views and then for overall themes. The policy analyses revealed that the three countries have quite different child protection systems, in terms of aims, traditions, laws and organization. However, scientific research on child maltreatment and European and international regulations like the Children’s Rights Convention make that systems are converging. The cross-country comparison of the case file analyses showed some interesting differences between the countries. Most striking was that England had more reports on physical and sexual abuse than the Netherlands and Germany and that child protection professionals in the Netherlands were having fewer contacts with children, compared to the other countries. The interviews revealed that parents’ experiences with the child protection system were quite similar across the three countries. Parents were stressing the importance of certain elements in the investigation (in particular the relational dimension and the power issue) and the importance of the focus (child vs. parent-oriented) professionals were taking during the investigation. The Hestia project showed how deeply child protection systems differ across countries and how this impacts practice of child maltreatment investigations and partly also the experiences and views of clients. The results of this unique project are relevant both for policy makers and professionals and the overall design of the project may become a template for researchers in Europe and abroad conducting comparative studies in the field of child protection.

Publications

• (2019) Balancing Prevention and Protection: Child Protection in England. In: Merkel-Holguin L., Fluke J., Krugman R. (eds) National Systems of Child Protection. Child Maltreatment (Contemporary Issues in Research and Policy), vol 8. Springer, Cham, 2018, 51-73
  Biehal N.
  
• (2019) Preventing Child Endangerment: Child Protection in Germany. In: Merkel-Holguin L., Fluke J., Krugman R. (eds) National Systems of Child Protection. Child Maltreatment (Contemporary Issues in Research and Policy), vol 8. Springer, Cham 2018, 93-114
  Witte S., Miehlbradt L.S., van Santen E., Kindler H.
  
• Meaningful participation for children in the Dutch child protection system: A critical analysis of relevant provisions in policy documents. Child Abuse & Neglect. 79. Elsevier. Amsterdam (NL). 2018 279-292
  Bouma, H.
  
• The Dutch child protection system: Historical overview and recent transformations. National Systems of Child Protection: Understanding the International Variability and Context for Developing Policy and Practice.. Child Maltreatment; Vol. 8. Springer. Cham 2018, 173-192
  López López, M.. In: L. Merkel-Holguin, J. D. Fluke, & R. D. Krugman (Eds.)
  
• The voice of the child in chlld protection decision-making. A cross-comparison of policy and practice in England, Germany and the Netherlands. In: J. Fluke, M. López, R. Benbenishty, E. Knorth, & D. Baumann (Eds.). Decision Making and Judgement in Child Welfare and Protection: Theory, Research, and Practice. Oxford University Press. New York. 2019
  Witte, S.