Children’s services: Toward effective child Protection

Child protection is an essential service in safeguarding children. Statutory child protection work is one of the most complex and challenging areas of human service delivery (Goddard & Hunt, 2011; McPherson & Barnett, 2006; Sidebotham, 2015). The numerous reviews and inquiries into child protection systems are testament to these difficulties. In the Australian context, Wyles (2007) states that annual reviews into child protection are ‘almost inevitable’, and ‘result in common recommendations about service improvements, increased resourcing, structural reorganisation and legislative reform’ (p. 1). This chapter draws primarily on Australian examples, but the principles and issues presented are internationally relevant.