Author: Isabelle Hermes
Hermes, Isabelle, 2025 An Exploration of Engagement in Child Protection Contexts: Investigative and Forensic Approaches are a Key Barrier , Flinders University, College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
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The rates of child removal across Anglophone countries have continued to rise, despite calls to move towards public health models of child protection. In Australia, more infants are being removed at or close to birth, and this age group are those least likely to be reunified to the care of their parents. Under a public health model of child protection, more support is to be provided to families to reduce the risks of harm posed to a child, and to reduce child removals. However, underpinning these models is a focus on early intervention, which has the dual aim of early detection and protection of a child and the provision of support to families. I suggest, throughout this thesis, that services that carry this dual early intervention aim can defer to the protective aims – which involve more forensic and investigative approaches – to the detriment of the supportive aims. I suggest that these approaches can lead to service provision that lacks transparency with pregnant women, that often does not offer support, and that can lead clinicians to take approaches that may jeopardise their engagement with parents. In this thesis, I used a mixed methods approach to explore the engagement between child protection clinicians and parents, and service providers and parents, to better understand the nature of service provision, engagement, and support provided to pregnant women and mothers both pre- and post-child removal.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of contemporary child protection systems as well as the issue of parental engagement. Chapter 2 explores the provision and uptake of support to and by pregnant women in a South Australian public hospital via an early intervention program with the dual aim of detection and support. In Chapter 3, I conduct a systematic review on the barriers to and facilitators of engagement with support by pregnant women at risk of child removal. In Chapter 4, I adopt a social interactionist lens to provide an analysis of engagement between mothers and clinicians during Parenting Capacity Assessments. In Chapter 5, I use an experimental paradigm to examine the perceptions and appraisals made by clinicians of a mother’s presentation during child protection proceedings, and the consequences of these perceptions. Finally, in Chapter 6, I provide general discussions on the thesis’ findings.
Keywords: Child Protection, Engagement, Early Intervention, Parenting Capacity Assessment
Subject: Psychology thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2025
School: College of Education, Psychology and Social Work
Supervisor: Lydia Woodyatt