Prevention over separation: A critical perspective on child protection practice and policy

Abstract

This article critically examines how contemporary child protection systems are shaped by risk-averse practice cultures, structural inequality, cultural dissonance, and uneven investment in family-based preventive interventions. Using an integrative literature review, the article synthesizes empirical studies, policy analyses, programme evaluations, and theoretical scholarship published between 2000 and 2024, with selected foundational works included where they remain conceptually central. Guided by ecological systems theory and critical social work theory, the review argues that child removal is often framed as an individual family failure, while the wider conditions that produce family vulnerability, including poverty, racism, colonial histories, housing insecurity, disability, substance-use-related need, and inadequate service access, are insufficiently addressed. The synthesis shows that poor, Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized families are disproportionately drawn into child protection systems, often through neglect allegations that are closely linked to material hardship. At the same time, evidence from family preservation, home visiting, family group conferencing, and community-based support models indicates that many children can be kept safe when families receive timely, relational, culturally responsive, and adequately resourced assistance. The article, therefore, calls for a shift from surveillance and separation toward prevention, family preservation, and social justice-oriented practice. It concludes that child protection reform requires not only improved practice tools, but also policy, funding, and accountability systems that value family integrity, cultural belonging, and long-term child and family well-being.

Keywords: {'name': 'family preservation, child welfare, social work, prevention, critical theory, child protection, structural inequality, Indigenous child welfare,'}

Authors & affiliations

Mmaphuti Percy Dipela
University of South Africa

Deposited references

Supplied references, not a list of publications citing this article.

Arney, F., Iannos, M., Chong, A., McDougall, S., & Parkinson, S. (2015). Enhancing the implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle: Policy and practice considerations (CFCA Paper No. 34). Australian Institute of Family Studies.

DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.35.4.320

Bennett, M. J., Zubrzycki, J., & Bacon, V. (2019). What does it mean to do decolonising research in social work? Social Alternatives, 38(1), 8–15.

DOI: 10.7202/1069347ar

DOI: 10.4159/9780674028845

Burton, L., & Montauban, D. (2021). Nurse-Family Partnership and the challenge of implementation in high-risk communities. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 25(1), 6–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-03033-9

DOI: 10.1111/cfs.12361

DOI: 10.1016/S0145-2134(01)00275-7

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2016). Rethinking child welfare strategies to support prevention. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

DOI: 10.1177/0002716220980329

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.04.005

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4039-1400-2

Eubanks, V. (2018). Automating inequality: How high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor. St. Martin's Press.

DOI: 10.1332/policypress/9781447308027.001.0001

Fook, J. (2016). Social work: A critical approach to practice (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.

DOI: 10.1016/0190-7409(96)00009-6

Gallinetti, J. (2009). Family group conferencing: A proposal for implementation in the South African child justice system. Open Society Foundation for South Africa.

DOI: 10.1111/cfs.13141

DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.02.003

DOI: 10.1002/jcop.10048

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.12.001

DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.08.005

Jamieson, L., Berry, L., & Lake, L. (Eds.). (2020). South African Child Gauge 2020: Food and nutrition security. Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town.

DOI: 10.1007/s11121-017-0855-4

DOI: 10.1016/S0190-7409(02)00224-4

DOI: 10.1002/9780470939406.ch20

Maluccio, A. N., Warfield, M. E., & Fein, E. (2009). Family reunification: Research findings, issues, and directions. Child Welfare League of America.

McCroskey, J., & Meezan, W. (1998). Family preservation and family functioning. Children and Youth Services Review, 20(1–2), 29–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-7409(97)00066-7

DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(14)00082-0

Meintjes, H., Moses, S., Berry, L., & Mampane, R. (2003). Home truths: The phenomenon of residential care for children in a time of AIDS. Children's Institute and Centre for the Study of AIDS.

Merkel-Holguin, L., Nixon, P., & Burford, G. (2003). Learning with families: A synopsis of family group conferencing research and findings. Protecting Children, 18(1), 38–43.

Mgadla, X., & Naidoo, L. (2022). Decolonising child protection practice in South Africa: Towards culturally congruent social work. Southern African Journal of Social Work and Social Development, 34(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.25159/2708-9355/10559

Moreton-Robinson, A. (2000). Talkin’ up to the white woman: Indigenous women and feminism. University of Queensland Press.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2006.00418.x

Morris, K. (2006). Working with families: Room for improvement. Community Care, 1621, 30–31.

Mullaly, B. (2010). Challenging oppression and confronting privilege: A critical social work approach (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

Munro, E. (2011). The Munro review of child protection: Final report—A child-centred system. Department for Education.

DOI: 10.1001/jama.280.14.1238

DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcu091

DOI: 10.3390/socsci11040156

DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.08.001

DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.08.005

Roberts, D. E. (2022). Torn apart: How the child welfare system destroys Black families—and how abolition can build a safer world. Basic Books.

DOI: 10.1080/09503153.2015.1014337

DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bch277

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2206.2005.00359.x

DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcz093

Schuerman, J. R., Rzepnicki, T. L., & Littell, J. H. (1994). Putting families first: An experiment in family preservation. Aldine de Gruyter.

DOI: 10.7202/1069527ar

DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.11.010

Skelton, A. (2012). The development of a fledgling child rights jurisprudence in Eastern and Southern Africa based on international and regional instruments. African Human Rights Law Journal, 12(2), 482–510.

DOI: 10.3138/9781442697911

DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2397.2008.00577.x

DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcv001

Turney, D., & Ruch, G. (2016). Thinking about thinking: Using a cognitive perspective to understand practice. In J. Horwath (Ed.), The child’s world: The comprehensive guide to assessing children in need (3rd ed., pp. 343–360). Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

DOI: 10.1080/13691457.2015.1084273

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2005.03621.x