Child Protection Environment: Legislation, Frameworks, Clinical Supervision, Reflective Practice, and Values

Assessment Task One: Short Answer Questions
1. When working in a child protection environment, list and describe three keys pieces of
legislation which may impact on your role.
Mandatory reporting. As per the Care and Protection Act, 1998 of the Children and Young
Persons, all community and health workers are required by this law to report to their
community services department on the issues relating to the safety and wellbeing of the
children in the facility (Feng, Chen, Fetzer, Feng & Lin, 2012). Therefore, my role in
responding to children's needs and their welfare has to incorporate the submission of a report
to the community services department within the stipulated time.
The confidentiality and privacy legislation which ensures the protection of the children's
confidential information such as the commonwealth privacy Act 1988 (Adams & Lee-Jones,
2017). A social worker is bound by this legislation from sharing any private data such as
family history to other parties without the consent of the clients. In attending to the children
welfare, the social worker must observe privacy which limits him or her on the type and
content of information to share.
Ethical conduct within a specific organisation or institution (Reamer, 2013). Every
institution has got its generally accepted behaviours that guide their employees. In addition to
professionalism, ethical conduct offers some guidelines on what to do and what to avoid.
Such factors affect how a social worker will execute his or her roles within the institution.

1. Identify a child protection practice framework that:
a) Has national application (across Australia)
The national framework for protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020 advocates for
the safety and welfare of the Australian children through making it everyone’s
business (Saunders & McArthur, 2017). The Commonwealth, all state and territory
governments as well as the non-governmental organisations hold the responsibility of
ensuring the Australian children are safe.
b) Is used in your State/Territory
The Children and Young Person (Care and Protection) Act 1998 of New south wales
which guides the provision of care and protection as well as the provision of social services to
children and young persons (Fernandez & Atwool, 2013).
c) Has international application (specifically within or including the United
Kingdom)
The National framework for protecting Australia’s children Act has a similar
orientation with the child protection policies in the United Kingdom whereby both
underpin the importance of early intervention and prevention of child abuse and neglect
(Price-Robertson, Bromfield & Lamont, 2014).
d) Has international application (excluding the United Kingdom)
In Australia, the National framework for protecting Australia's children integrates both
the child protection and family service approach while that of the United Kingdom adopts the

child protection only (Kojan & Lonne, 2012). The welfare system of Australia has
similarities internationally with European countries for example Belgium.
2. Briefly outline the role and purpose of clinical supervision for casework professionals.
The supervisor ensures that the caseworker engages the client. The caseworkers must be
courteous and respectful to clients to avoid any confrontations that may hinder the effective
service dissemination. In this case, the clinical supervisor encourages the caseworker to
concisely state the reasons for the contact.
Clinical supervision aids the creation and sustenance of a good relationship between the
caseworker and the client. The supervisors encourage the child welfare professionals to
employ functional listening skills such as maintaining eye contact and being non-judgemental
which triggers a good rapport with their clients.
The clinical supervisors assist with risk and safety assessments that aid in decision
making. Using the risk assessment tool, the supervisors with the caseworkers identify the
possible risks to the children’s safety based on the information collected during
investigations. The identification of risks helps to reduce and prevent risks to the children.
Such discussions enhance professionalism and evidence-based decision making.
Casework-decision making. The clinical supervisors and the children welfare
professionals make decisions on children support services based on the information collected
from the investigations. The information gathered is mostly from the children and family
perspectives. To avoid making wrong judgements, the supervisors can create opportunities to