Well this thread and views have climbed in two days...

well found some very interesting information via a brochure that is made available to Child SAfety staff that advises them of child protection research. It's called Horizon.

In the 2nd edition of Horizon, it has an article about parents experience of child protection intervention. Let's just say that child safety are very well aware of the power throw they do to parents and how scared parents feel feigning so-called care and concern etc...

I post relevant parts of this article:

November 2006 Edition 2

Parental experience of Child protection Intervention: A qualitative study
Child abuse and neglect, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 27-37 Gary Dumbrill 2006

This Canadian study explores parents’ experiences with the child protection system. The article considers the impact of the intervention process and interaction with child protection workers on parents.

All parents involved in the study perceived child protection services as more powerful than themselves.
Almost all participants felt the services use their power in a coercive and disciplinary manner.

Some parents reported being frightened and unable to challenge or have discussions with child protection workers, even when the allegations were unfounded.

‘Holy, man I was scared! I didn’t know where to go or
what to do. I kept saying to her, “oh here we go again”.
She said, “I’m not here to scare you”. Well you are because
you are scaring me right now, you’re in my house!’

Comment by Matthew J Armstrong Senior Practitioner South Burnett CSSC

“I guess sometimes we get so overwhelmed by rapid changes, competing demands, and the aggressive nature of some of our clients that we feel pretty powerless ourselves. This article has caused me to take stock and realise that from a parent’s perspective, we are extremely powerful forces in their lives – for good or for evil.

As a senior practitioner, I often see the broader view of complex cases and I agree with the findings of this article. Both the actual and perceived use of power can make a huge difference in any situation. Feelings
of exclusion, victimisation, and disempowerment set an underlying tone to people’s interaction with the
department.

Making a client feel validated, acknowledged and respected can completely reframe their response
to our intervention. For this reason, an analysis of power differentials is an important part of any case
discussion – commencing with a critical awareness of our own behaviour.

If I take one message away from this study, it is that we need to see each parent’s behaviour towards us in
context. It will usually make sense if we look at it from their point of view.

To quote the paper itself, we should lessen our ‘emphasis on starting intervention by understanding the ways parents view the problems that cause the need for intervention, and increase our emphasis on understanding how parents perceive us using power in the process of addressing these problems’.”



The Horizon article can be found at http://www.childsafety.qld.gov.au/research/documents/horizons-2006-11.pdf

page 2.