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Children's perspectives literature repositions children and young people as active participants in surviving domestic abuse, protecting their family, opposing the violence and recovering from abuse. However, key tenets of safeguarding in relation to domestic abuse, both in practice and childhood research ethics, struggle to fully recognise children's agency and the need to empower children and young people as well as women. Children's right to participation now extends to national policy-making in many countries, yet has not been explored in relation to the interdependency of women and children's rights, safety and wellbeing where both have been subject to abuse. This paper challenges the current exclusion of young voices from the development of ethical praxis. It outlines a participatory ethical approach that promotes the inclusion and empowerment of young survivors in research and policy. Young expert advisors on Scottish domestic abuse policy (2009-11) co-develop the approach (participatory action research) which is informed by a wider study (2004-11) about children's help-seeking and solutions for practice. Mullender et al.' s accepted model of three Cs and Ds (consent, confidentiality, child protection: danger, distress, disclosure) are adapted to focus on children's agency. Three Es are added focusing on children's power and impact: enjoyment, empowerment and emancipation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages Children and young people have a distinct, essential voice in risk assessment and management., They are competent and central decision-makers, they can consent to participation., Participation can be a powerful therapeutic tool., Enjoyment, empowerment and emancipation are intrinsic to participation, alongside recognition of children's agency in safeguarding., Access to power, equal voice and impact on children's lives are preconditions of participation to young survivors - to be worth the inherent risk of speaking out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The White Paper on Vulnerable Children before the Aotearoa/New Zealand parliament proposes changes that will significantly reconstruct the child welfare systems in this country, including the use of a predictive risk model (PRM). This article explores the ethics of this strategy in a child welfare context. Tensions exist, including significant ethical problems such as use of information without consent, breaches of privacy and stigmatisation, without clear evidence of the benefits outweighing these costs. Broader implicit assumptions about the causes of child abuse and risk and their intersections with wider discursive, political and systems design contexts are discussed. Drawing on Houston et al. (2010) this paper highlights the potential for a PRM to contribute to a neo-liberal agenda that individualises social problems, reifies risk and abuse, and narrowly prescribes service provision. However, with reference to child welfare and child protection orientations, the paper suggests more ethical ways of using the model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Key Practitioner Messages Copying correspondence and reports to parents is one approach to the principle of professionals working in partnership with parents., There is currently little research on what constitutes good practice in copying correspondence and reports to parents of maltreated children; a poor response rate limited the ability of this project to contribute to this., The difficulties encountered in obtaining ethical approval for this study have implications for other researchers in the child protection field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy-makers have attempted to frame the ethical requirements that are relevant to the creation of human beings via reproductive technologies. Various reports and laws enacted in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Britain have introduced tests for how we should weigh child welfare when using these technologies. A number of bioethicists have argued that child welfare should be interpreted as a 'best interests' test. Others have argued that there are ethical reasons why we should abandon this kind of test. I will argue that at least some of the relevant policy can be interpreted as requiring those wishing to exercise their procreative liberty to have a reasonable plan to care and nurture any resulting child, thereby respecting the internal preconditions of that liberty. This interpretation of child welfare requirements answers some of the ethical worries about a child welfare test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnography affords social workers a powerful and unique vehicle for obtaining an in-depth, contextualized understanding of clients’ perspectives and experiences necessary for effective social work practice and advocacy. It also carries relatively unique risks. Unlike other forms of social inquiry such as surveys, interviews and analysis of administrative databases, a hallmark of ethnographic research is sustained engagement in participants’ lives. Unlike ethnographic inquiry in other disciplines, for example, in developmental psychology or anthropology, social work research has a strong social justice component. Hence, participants in social work ethnographies often are from vulnerable, marginalized or stigmatized groups and may have little exposure to research. We use several studies conducted in the US and globally as illustrative cases of both the opportunities and challenges of ethnography in social work. The first case highlights the understanding gained through ethnographic inquiry necessary for designing culturally-sensitive interventions, as well as the risks these in-depth, engaged methods may pose to traumatized and marginalized participants. The second case illustrates the valuable interplay of insider and outsider perspectives in ethnography for international social work, as well as the challenges of communicating with participants, many of whom have significant unmet needs about complex and unfamiliar role boundaries. The third case illustrates the importance to social work practice of cross-cultural conversations, as well as the ethical challenges of entering into the lives of stigmatized individuals. Strategies for maximizing the opportunities and minimizing the risks of ethnography in social work research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2012 marked historic events in the practice of adoption in Australia. Government focus was on the formulation of apologies to those people affected by past forced adoption practices. A critical reflection on these and other Australian apologies, highlight assumptions that differentiate past domestic adoption practices from past and contemporary practice in intercountry adoption. The importance of social work, founded in the values of social justice and human rights, to ensuring the same practice standards apply to all people who give birth to children regardless of where they live is highlighted. Expanding knowledge on intercountry adoption indicates that Australia should prepare for another apology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research paper is to explore the dangers of involving children as family caregivers of palliative care and home-based-care to advanced HIV/AIDS patients, while its objective is to discuss the dangers or perfidiousness that minors especially the girl children face as they handle care giving of advanced HIV/AIDS patients. The article has relied on eclectic data sources. The research has found minors disadvantaged by the following: being engulfed by fear and denied rights through care giving; being emotionally and physiologically overwhelmed; being oppressed and suppressed by caring duties; being at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS; and having their education compromised by care giving. The paper recommends: (1) strengthening and emphasizing on children's rights; (2) maintaining gender balance in care giving; (3) implementation and domestication of the United Nations conventions on the rights of children; (4) community awareness on equal gender co participation in care giving; (5) and fostering realization that relying on child care giving is a negative score in fulfilling global Millennium Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the significant financial and human resources invested in child protection services (CPS), it is unknown whether these services are effective in preventing recurrence of child physical abuse and neglect. This paper reviews available studies evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions and identifies methodological limitations and factors that may contribute to these limitations. We searched databases to identify randomised controlled trials published in peer-reviewed journals in the past five decades that evaluated interventions to reduce recurrence of physical abuse and neglect. We outlined ten methodological standards that are important for rigorous testing of psychosocial interventions and applied them in critically appraising identified studies. Thirteen randomised controlled trials were reviewed. This review identified methodological limitations (e.g. small sample size, lack of standardisations, contamination) that made it difficult to draw reliable conclusions as to the effectiveness of interventions. Field-specific factors that contributed to methodological limitations (e.g. heterogeneity of sample, multiple family problems, psychosocial nature of interventions) were identified and recommendations were provided for improvement. It was concluded that it is possible to implement high-quality trials that are ethical and feasible in the child welfare field. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial or compensated surrogacy involves providing payment for a woman to gestate a fetus to term and then hand over the child to commissioning parent(s). Compensated surrogacy is currently restricted by law or regulation in all Australian states and territories. New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory also restrict commissioning transnational compensated surrogacy, although there is evidence that this is not acting as a deterrent. Ethical issues arising in transnational compensated surrogacy include concerns relating to exploitation, commodification and welfare. The current status quo is unsatisfactory on legal, ethical and practical grounds. It is time to openly debate how Australia should balance the desire for childbearing through surrogacy with the limited domestic availability of women willing to act as surrogates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, refugee parents living in Canada share their views of parenting and their experiences of Canadian child welfare services. Using photovoice methods, parents develop messages for child welfare workers and policymakers working with refugee families and communities. The messages are presented from the parents' point of view within three major themes: understanding the hopes and fears we have for our children, understanding our settlement challenges, and working with us in the development of child welfare policies and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habermas's critical social theory has been challenged on a range of fronts. However, the authors see merit in his mediation thesis as set out in the seminal text, Between Facts and Norms (1996). Adopting a pragmatist defence of the thesis, we review and demonstrate the effectiveness of what we believe is a coincidental expression of some of its main tenets—The Family Group Conference in Child Protection. Drawing further on Habermas's work, we then proceed to re-work aspects of the conference's core processes, thereby accentuating the possibility of empowering dialogue between its key participants: the families (who embody the 'lifeworld') and the social work professionals (who represent the 'system'). In the final section, we argue that moral practice in child protection must be safeguarded by communicational procedures that explicitly address issues relating to the use of power and the need for 'recognition' between subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This overview describes the breadth of topics covered in this volume devoted to children in research. It summarizes how these articles are interrelated and how they all respond to the challenge proposed by the Children's Health Act of 2000: to consider what modifications, if any, are necessary to current regulations "to ensure the adequate and appropriate protection of children participating in research." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines reported appellate cases from various jurisdictions in which battered mothers did not abuse their children but were penalized for their partners' abusive conduct in light of the underlying dynamics of domestic violence. It presents recommendations for increased collaboration, cooperation, and understanding between those who work with persons who are experiencing domestic violence and those who work with abused children. The authors contend that the civil and criminal penalization of nonabusive mothers for failing to protect their children adds legal insult to the physical injuries they have already suffered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes how child well-being has been conceptualized and measured in research on family foster care. Dimensions that should be included in a useful measure of child well-being; Challenges in incorporating measures of child well-being into ongoing evaluations of family foster care; Measurement on resilience and coping.

Looks at the difficulty of doctoring the battered child. Anger of those accused of child abuse which often comes back to the doctor; Example of the vilification shown David Southall and his colleagues; Experience of Roy Meadow who lost his status and career for testifying against mothers accused of killing two or three babies in succession; Author's belief that demonising doctors who expose abuse may hinder intervention where it is necessary.