NCJ Number
214284
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 15 Issue: 2 Dated: March-April 2006 Pages: 138-151
Date Published
March 2006
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article describes a project in England to develop standards for training and education for child protection workers that might support the movement toward enhanced interagency collaboration and reforms among child protection agencies.
Abstract
The project was conducted between April and September 2003 and involved two phases. The goal of phase 1 was to examine the extent and nature of existing training and education standards used within particular child protection professional groups while phase 2 focused on addressing the deficiencies found in these standards. Results of phase 1 indicated that the professional agencies had few specific or enforceable standards for interagency work and that standards to build collaborative bridges between different types of child protection practices were nonexistent. As such, phase 1 closed with a recommendation to develop standards to promote an “interagency mindset.” The outcome of phase 2, which focused on consulting with stakeholders to develop a model of standards for education and training toward interagency work, was a proposal that all designated professional and occupational groups should conform to the same set of interagency standards. Three levels of standards for three different types of practitioner were identified: basic practitioner, specialist practitioner, and advanced practitioner. A series of eight standards for interagency practice were then developed in order to define what “good interagency work” entails, followed by the development of a series of education and training standards to help staff achieve interagency practice standards. Each set of standards are briefly listed. The standards should help establish a new interagency baseline for child protection practice and they supplement recent reports and investigations on child protection practices in England. References, appendixes