Strategic context
Exposure of children to risk and abusive tendencies has become a more complex and intricate form of crime. Abusers have now altered their mechanisms so that the child at risk is often difficult to rescue and even find. More and more children in Australia are exposed to risky behavior, facing abuse, and in dire need of help.
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The child care excellence policy is formulated to encourage and possibly restructure the fundamental guidelines for child abuse and abduction cases. The policy is built of previous records of good practice among police and family agencies, where cases have been resolved faster and children brought to full protection within a much shorter period. The policy works towards:
- Involving individuals and professionals who interact and are responsible for child protection and especially family agencies in the investigation at an early stage.
- Enhance skills and professionalism of the investigation agencies through tailored targeted and user-friendly technologies and processes directed at both speed and accuracy.
- Provide a platform for sharing information between agencies professionally and within the Privacy act of 1988, highlighting the type and nature of the information that can and should be shared between the agencies.
This policy ensures that the needs and interests of the child remain at the forefront of every community rather than satisfying legal principles of punishing the lawbreaker. Therefore, the positivists advocate for scientific investigation. It gives the foundation from which investigators and local authorities and upholds their duties effectively when it comes to responding to cases of children at risk. It allows for a proportionate, timely, and ethical response to situations where any child may be suspected of being at risk or experiencing any form of abuse whether emotional, sexual, or physical. The policy refocuses the attention of agencies from the crime and the crime; that is, the actual nature of abuse and the abuser involved and instead puts the needs of the child at the forefront ensuring that all decisions made within the agencies and in cooperation with other agencies are within the guidelines of the human rights and child protection policies of the country.
Scope of the policy
According to Edwards and Turnell (2009), the police and child protection agencies are commissioned to minimize any harm that could come to a child, whether at home or within the community. Waldfogel (2000) further connotes that an important aspect of such activities is to undertake proper preventive and corrective actions where the life and wellbeing of a child are concerned. Agency coordination within this policy is not just directed at the police and investigative officers but also includes social workers, caseworkers, and company is registered as a limited liability company in New York. “Tom and jack” owns 65 % of the company. Other family agencies who all work towards ensuring the protection of the child. Each local child safeguarding agency is expected to adopt the policy to ensure consistency across the board. Partons and Mathews (2001) indicate that majority of the time, child protection agencies fall short because procedures and guidelines on inter-agency cooperation differ between agencies. This in turn delays the flow of information and forces investigators to continually work through unnecessary bureaucracies. Meanwhile, the child is left to more dangerous and abusive situations until it is too later for the agencies to do anything.
The policy will ensure that there are robust systems for reporting and monitoring the performance of all commissioned agencies. The community holds that there s an expectation that all cases of child abuse, suspected or actual, serious or simple will be investigated thoroughly to ensure the highest protection of the children involved. This will be done through the establishment of a center where wall information n child abuse, neglect, kidnapping, and other aspects will be recorded, monitored actively, amassed, and distributed among the agencies. This will in turn ensure that both preventive and corrective actions implemented are effective in addressing the situations.
Initiative one: Identifying a child at risk
Threat
Scott (2002) from his study found that most cases of suspected child abuse, in fact, he indicates at least 68% of the cases are never reported or adequately followed up. Police officers as supported by Lonne et al. (2008) only become involved when the child is severely injured, has disappeared or in worse cases is found dead. The majority of the cases show major loopholes in which the system let down the child and allowed them to continue surviving and living in danger.
Current framework
Perhaps one of the reasons is the difficulty in agency guidelines for addressing the needs of a child at risk. Agency guidelines differ from agency to agency which in turn limits the cooperation that could be implemented within the agencies. The focus all agencies should include:
The response:
The focus all agencies should include:
- All services provided should have the child as the focal point of interest for all agencies. Services should be appropriate for all children found or suspected to be at risk, such children should not be discriminated against because of their race, social class, culture gender, sexual orientation, or religion.
- The primary decision-making focus should be rendered as close as it can be to the child at risk. This ensures that the officers responsible can react and respond immediately an emergency occurs.
- It is presumed that children especially those in abusive situations lack the capacity to make decisions that support their own wellbeing. As such, all agencies must make efforts to ensure that decisions are made supporting the child’s welfare according to the precepts of the children and young people’s act of 2008 and the Family’s act of 1997
- All decisions made about the welfare of the child should be timely, reasonable, justified, proportionate, and effective in ensuring the wellbeing of the child. Agency cooperation in decision making should therefore be treated as an emergency rather than normal day to day task force activities.
Initiative two: enhancing investigative and rescue measures
Threat:
Perhaps the biggest challenge in understanding the value of inter-agency cooperation is the understanding of various roles and responsibilities of the organization. Often when a child abuse case becomes too critical, agencies begin pointing fingers at who was responsible for the neglect and the continued exposure of the child.
Current framework
Currently, Child abuse cases are addressed by territorial agencies. Few of these cases make it to the national and international forum. Social workers and poverty on America’s families:Assessing our research knowledge”. Journal of family agencies are separated from the police agencies, making investigation difficult. This policy calls for a combined effort in an investigation involving psychologists and health agencies, police agencies, and family caretaker agencies.
Response
- All social workers, childcare, and family agency staffs within the agencies have a duty to report promptly and immediately they develop concerns over a child at risk. When such reports are made, police officers should be assigned immediately to the case to carry out an emergency and prompt investigation. All information about the child should be promptly shared with all other agencies involved.
- Actions to protect the child from an abusive and risky environment should be taken promptly and given high priority. All allegations should be taken as an emergency and reported immediately to the agency taskforce.
- Every effort should be made by all agencies involved to ensure that the child is protected from future abuse and is afforded appropriate protection within the confines of the awl.
- Partner agencies will have a responsibility to contribute to the database information about children at risk and adults who may expose children to risk to ensure that the partnerships are set to provide the most effective channels of protecting children at risk.
Initiative three: prevention of abuse
Threat
Although agencies must focus all their efforts on working together to improve and take corrective measures in cases of abuse, the primary goals of cooperation should always be directed at ensuring that child abuse is prevented. It is best to remember that prevention is far much better and effective than protection.
Current framework
Currently, the majority of the child abuse cases found on file, show a disconnect between the social work agencies, the territory attorney’s office, and the police agencies. Unfortunately, the disconnect almost always means that there is little effort directed towards reaching a permanent solution for the child until it is too late.
Response
The duties of the different agencies will include:
- Organizations should develop a robust system of information sharing which clearly identifies potentially risky situations both environmentally and individually, that is, adults who can potentially expose a child to risk. Once such information is disseminated children within their vicinity should immediately be considered as at-risk children and therefore safeguarded adequately.
- The community will be educated on the various measures of safeguarding a child and how to identify children at risk and report the same for investigation
- Each organization involved should ensure that prevention is embedded in every contractual procedure with clear instructions, expectations, and reporting procedures for any situation involving the prevention of harm, neglect, and abuse of children. With procedures in place, it is easy to implement the process of safeguarding children at risk, take responsibility, and measure the performance of each agency in enhancing cooperation and protection of all children within the community.
Initiative four: reducing timescale for decision making and enhancing immediate action
Threat
The majority of the time, individuals and professionals such as social workers and counselors are ill-equipped to make an immediate evaluation of the situation and take immediate corrective measures to remove the child from a risky situation. Because of this, many children at risk have fallen through the cracks.
Current framework
The current framework puts little emphasis on the need for an investigation. It falls short in providing guidelines for the collection of affected by mental or emotional health disabilities. However, research evidence in child abuse scenarios. This leads to lenient sentences and sometimes causes a case to fall apart in court. In retrospect, there should be a coming together of both the social work agencies, police officers, healthcare agencies, and the prosecutor’s office to ensure a stronger and unbroken chain of evidence.
The response
This policy is directed at ensuring that all agency workers are trained and equipped to make an immediate evaluation of the child and the situation which they are facing, and take immediate corrective actions without fear of backlash. In the situation where a child shows bruises, it could be difficult to evaluate where such risks have been self-inflicted or otherwise gained by accident or an actual case of abuse. As such the agency will include a medical practitioner, provided and assigned to the caseworkers during the period of evaluation and decision making from the general hospital. The main duties of the medical practitioner will be providing crucial research should address pediatric infections and resistant organisms in Aseptic Technique for peripheral IV insertion. There are much evidence that would otherwise be difficult and take a long time to gain. Such evidence coupled with the advice of immediate and available counselors and psychologists will allow the team to make an immediate response, rescuing and removing the child from any potential of child abuse. Also, the referral center can provide immediate forensic evidence on the presence of any form of sexual abuse. Therefore, for every allegation of sexual abuse, referrals must be made immediately with the counselor being given the support to be present at the examination of the victim to avoid any exposure to further trauma to the child.
Initiative five: strengthening information sharing capabilities
Enhanced information sharing allows the different agencies to identify offenders and children at risk much faster and also bring about successful prosecution of those putting children at risk. There are specific aspects towards improving agency information sharing:
- Investigations often bring about a wealth of information some of which may not be relevant to a particular case but could prove insightful in others. Agencies are required to put forward methodologies and processes by which they ensure that all information is available for the different agencies. Information especially about children at risk should be easily available for all investigative officers to allow for more immediate and prompt corrective actions.
- Offenders involved in crimes against children often tend to cross borders and move far places in an attempt to avoid apprehension. They may go undetected for years simply because there is no understanding of their whereabouts and no particular way to trace them and bring them to justice. To cover this aspect, agencies should engage not just in national sharing but also international sharing of information; keeping track of children at risk actively and possible offenders in the same manner. This will lead to faster identification and prevention of possible crimes.
- There are strong laws and policies within the country structured to protect children. However, the changing nature of child abuse requires that such laws be put under constant reviews to ensure that all aspects are covered and that children are not left in risky environments simply because there lacks a proper framework to ensure their protection and wellbeing. This includes covering the new forms of crime as well as inconsistencies in the jurisdiction.
Justification for the policy
Prevalence and changing nature of child abuse
According to Higgins and Katz (2008), more and more children are being exposed to the risky abuse environment in the country. Unfortunately, the majority of these cases are not reported neither are they investigated until it’s too late. Previously the blame has been laid on the fact that the agencies responsible for caring and securing the wellbeing of the children lack the personnel as well as the resources. However, it has become clear that even with the right resources, cases of child abuse are still falling through the cracks. The rate of child abuse has become so high that the police and social workers agencies are proving inadequate in addressing the problem. Children are forced to live in unhealthy situations simply because caseworkers lack the fore withal and ability to make the right decisions on their behalf, investigate the cases fully and provide or access the necessary information that would further their ability to make the right decisions for the children at risk.
Also, technology has advanced so much that today abusers can hide their identity and find easy access to children. The changing nature of abuse has proven to be a stumbling block in providing and instilling the right measures to address the problem. The majority of the time, caseworkers lack the training and knowledge necessary in identifying potential cases of child abuse. Further, the changing nature of the crime, means that there are new loopholes in the legal framework that can be exploited for the benefit of the abusers exposing the children to a more dangerous and risky environment.
Loopholes in the reporting framework
In Australia, state and territory governments are responsible for addressing the problem of child abuse. All child abuse cases are dealt with within the state and territory jurisdiction. This in itself provides several weaknesses: the first is that records of child abuse are found within the state offices. Such recourses are difficult to find and access. It is therefore much easier for an abused children to fall through the cracks as they are transported from one state to another. This is especially the case where parents and relatives of the child are involved in the abuse. Upon suspicion of abuse, as investigations continue and with the current framework being marred by continued slow decision making, the child and perpetrators are likely to move across borders.
Secondly, perpetrators of child abuse have learned of the weakness of the systems, they therefore often transport the children beyond stateliness. As information is low to access across the states, investigators may not easily trace the victim and perpetrator until it is too late. Cooperation between agencies allows the agencies to enjoy free access to information and to prove cases that may have moved beyond their jurisdiction. Finally, it allows for the cooperation of state agencies so that perpetrators are easily located and apprehended. Children in risky situations are also easily located since it’s not just the state and territorial machinery that is involved in the investigation but rather the national machinery is directed at tracking and locating the child and ensuring that such child is brought out of the risky situation effectively and in a prompt manner. Inter-agency cooperation covers the loopholes in the current reporting framework.
Screening, evidence, and investigation
Perhaps the biggest challenge in dealing with child abuse cases comes in the form of the investigation process. Once abuse has been reported, officers and legalcaretakers are not at liberty to take immediate action. Rather, a tedious process of investigation must be carried out. Unfortunately, the process itself has several loopholes which include medical evidence which in itself might be difficult to record and access. The majority of the time, perpetrators are alerted by the investigation process of the suspicions of the officers. The result is that they are likely to move the child or take measures to hide the evidence that would put them in an answerable position. With inter-agency cooperation, the evidence is collected immediately suspicion is confirmed, and coupled with his, medical investigations are attended to immediately. Armed with such evidence decisions can be made much more easily and the protection of the child ensured by the officers. This means that the child can be taken from the risky situation immediately, promptly, andpromptlyr to prevent abuse or protect them from further abuse.
The evidence collected in the short process of investigation also comes in handy in presenting the case against the perpetrator. Armed with such evidence, the law can be directed towards ensuring the highest form of punishment and protecting other children or the specific child from an abusive and risky environment. With more perpetrators being punished, it is also likely that other abusers may be discouraged from the same behavior and the community will be in a better position to protect and secure the children.
References
Edwards, S., & Turnell, A. (2009). Signs of safety: A solution and safety-oriented approach to child protection casework. WW Norton & Company, New York, NY.
Lonne, B., Parton, N., Thomson, J., & Harries, M. (2008). Reforming child protection. Routledge.
Parton, N., & Mathews, R. (2001). New directions in child protection and family support in Western Australia: a policy initiative to refocus child welfare practice. Child and Family Social Work, 6(2), 97-113.
Scott, D. (2006). Research Article 1: Towards a public health model of child protection in Australia. Communities, Children and Families Australia, 1(1), 9.
Waldfogel, J. (2000) The future of child protection: How to break the cycle of abuse and neglect (p. 14). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
APPENDIX A:
Australian national border targeting agency: the responsibilities of the agency include identifying possible children at risk being transported across the territorial and national border and in the same way sharing such information with the territorial coordinating agencies.
National forensic lab: with the help of territorial agencies, that is, health agencies and family agencies, the lab will process the evidence gathered to support the case against child abusers.
Joint territorial investigation agencies: this will include teams of police officers, social workers, and family agencies, whose main responsibility will be to identify children at risk, investigate the case and collect evidence that will culminate in the removal of the risk.
Australian cybercrime online reporting network: the changing nature of child abuse is such that most children are put at risk by the increasing use of the internet. This network continually assesses the nature of the cybercrime which involves children and reports the same updated information to the territorial agencies.
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