How relevant is the role of values in child protection practice? A National survey of statutory child protection staff 2009: preliminary findings

A survey of those working in Australian statutory child protection authorities was undertaken by the Australian Catholic University as part of a larger project at the Australian National University: Community Capacity Building in Child Protection (http://ccb.anu.edu.au). The purpose of the project is to explore new ways for supporting families and young people so that they can develop the skills, confidence and resources they need to flourish without continuing intervention from the state. Child protection authorities are expected and do intervene when they have reason to believe children are unsafe or neglected. Too often, however, the outcome is that these families stay in the system instead of developing capacity to move on with their lives free of state intervention. The survey described in this paper represents one part of the project: the views of those who work at the heart of the system in statutory child protection agencies. The survey was funded through an Australian Research Council Linkage grant (LP0669230).