the ethics of child protection?

I've been doing a lot of reading and writing lately specifically about child protection as practiced in BC.

I've had several assignments based on the 2001 Bruce Spangler movie, Protection, which is billed as a "realistic" look at child protection (I highly doubt it is, this social worker, who is drinking wine and smoking pot in the playground at Trout Lake, proceeds to cut her hands on the bottle, then smears the blood all over her face). Regardless, we have used the 'fact pattern' of the actual investigation for 2 assignments in my law class. One was a paper which combined a Report to Court with a critique of the social workers in the movie, the other was an oral assignment where we acted as a social worker giving testimony in court. A third assignment is a paper for my Child Welfare class, where we use the 'fact pattern' to write a case recording, and followed by a personal and professional reflection on our own possible reaction to the investigation, referring to texts and journal articles which are critical of mainstream and historical child protection practices.

I've also listened to several guest speakers in these two classes over the semester. Some were lawyers, some were social workers. Some presentations centered on child protection practices - what they do, how they do them. One recent one was more reflective, a social worker who had Bob Mullaly as an instructor (Mullaly has written two social work books based on critical theory in social work practice and on structural social work, both of which are anti-oppressive).

This social worker is done with child protection in BC. More specifically, she is burnt out by the endless, possibly needless changes in the bureaucracy. She has worked in BC for 12 years, but is leaving in the spring, to return to her home province on the east coast. She discussed a case or two where she felt it was ridiculous for her to have investigated, but was compelled to do so by her supervisor. She pointed out just how intrusive this is, and how the information collected stays on file forever. She also talked about how the Deputy Minister, "in all her glory," has decided to do away with the current child protection tool, Risk Assessment, which BC began using in response to Judge Gove's 1995 inquiry into BC's child protection system after the death of Matthew Vaudreuil. However, the new 'tool' is going to be the child protection workers themselves. To this worker, this means more work will be piled on top of already overworked staff.

I have also recently read everything I could find about MCFD since the 2006 Hughes Report, especially what was available about the changes Deputy Minister du Toit intends to make. She is scrapping Risk Assessment in favour of a new model, called "CAPP" which stands for Child and Family Support, Assessment, Planning and Practice, and which is mostly described in aspirational, visionary terms. Specific, measureable outcomes are not published, nor are details pertaining to what staff will actually be doing. Not very transparent, in my opinion, and thus, not very ethical.

Two further reports I have recently read are Broken Promises (2008) and  Hands Tied (2009), both researched and published  by Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver. The first talks about how the system has consistently failed children and their families for generations in spite of legislative reform, internal reorganization and changing governments. The second talks about why BC child protection workers are leaving their jobs at an alarming rate: not enough staff, and too much political churn.

As well, I have been reading whatever I can find about MCFD in the public domain - media articles, blog posts, and comments on both. One specific blog I have been perusing is GPS, which is "a personal weblog advocating for the Bayne family reunion and suggesting potential corrections to B.C. child welfare." The comments on many of these blog posts have lead me to conclude that British Columbians despise social workers.

I, however, would like to distinguish between social workers and child protection workers. Social Workers in BC are governed by the Social Workers Act, unless they are employed by a government or its agency, a school or a band (um, that's a LOT of exceptions!). Despite Judge Gove's reccomendation that child protection social workers actually be social workers (pretty radical, I know!), child protection workers are not required to have a degree in social work, nor are they required to be registered. They can hold a degree in Child and Youth Care (or they can hold a Masters in Clinical Psychology or an M.Ed. in Counselling).

Regardless, as Pivot (2008) points out, "apprehensions are generally the result of a parent’s struggle with poverty, addiction, mental health issues or family violence. The government’s lack of commitment to providing publicly funded services has severely undermined the ability of [MCFD] to take a preventative approach to child protection issues."

I believe social work education, which is highly anti-oppressive, which requires continual deconstruction of the current and historical political ideologies which inform social policy, which insists that all knowledge is socially constructed to benefit a small minority of citizens, can effectively train workers to treat all clients with dignity and respect. It is a social worker's job to look for the structural, systemic causes of a parent's "bad behaviour" rather than blaming individual pathology. We consider the person in his/her environment. We stand with our clients, in solidarity. Our mandate is social change, social and economic justice for all citizens, not just for the "good" ones.

I just have to keep reminding myself of my mandate as a social worker (as described, above), not as a child protection worker (whose mandate is contradictory, to keep children safe from parental maltreatment while maintaining the family home as the ideal place for children). I have to keep reminding myself that I chose this profession out of my stand for social justice for all, especially the most marginalized; that I chose social work out of an ethical responsibility I feel to children. Otherwise, all those commenters who write that child protection workers are evil, could lead me to despair, lead me to think child protection is a pointless career, characterized by burnout, not appreciated by anyone. And we can't have that!