Towards an Integrative and Inclusive Child Protection Practice

• Main Authors: Andrea Racz, Erno Bogacs
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AECR 2019-11-01
• Series: Investigaciones Regionales - Journal of Regional Research
• Online Access: https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/IR/article/view/72581

The core aspect of the child welfare and protection thought focusing on the family and channelling community resources, is that in order to preserve the unity of the family, it is necessary to widely introduce from the local community the services into the family’s life, thus mobilizing the internal resources of the family, and acknowledging parenting, as a social value. Integrative child protection safeguards and maintains the family’s responsibility focused on care, while it promotes the protection and widespread social acceptance of the rights of the child. Giving support is understood as a multidisciplinary and multidimensional process, aimed at the promotion of the well-being of children, the improvement of the life quality of each member of the family, and on long term the social integration of families with multiple problems. The present study examines which are the new directions in the Hungarian child protection system centred on social inclusion and foreseeing a system of complex services. In order to perform this inquiry, we present the professional experiences of two model programs: 1) parental skill development programs; 2) mobile application supporting the successful social integration of children and young adults in child care. The success of the presented innovations in child protection is further enhanced by the fact that these initiatives are built on the cooperation of several actors, addressing target group members (children/young people and their parents), professionals working in child welfare and child protection system, representatives of associated fields, and decision-makers. The joint identification and interpretation process of various issues include researches applying complex methodologies, developed for the assessment of the results.