Every year our Benchmarks Center for Quality Improvement (CQi) team carefully selects books for our team to read as a part of our “book club”. The goal of this book club is to increase our team’s knowledge, expertise, and understanding of the systems and individuals we aim to serve through our work throughout the state. Last week, staff wrapped up the club book “The Impossible Imperative: Navigating the Competing Principles of Child Protection” written by Jill Duerr Berrick. We know when children encounter the child welfare system, child welfare workers are tasked with making decisions on behalf of families and these decisions can have significant impacts on all involved. So how is one guided in making these calls? It is not an easy feat. Considering a child’s safety, permanency, and well-being amidst diverse and multifaceted situations requires a lot of thought, intuition, and use of structured decision-making tools and skills. The Impossible Imperative challenged the team to think through the 8 conflicting principles of child welfare and the complexities and uncertainties involved in making decisions for each unique child welfare case.
So, what are the 8 principles of child welfare? Let’s take a look:
- Parents who care for their children safely should be free from government intrusion in their family.
- Children should be safe.
- Children should be raised with their family or origin.
- When children cannot live with family, they should live with extended relatives.
- Children should be raised in families.
- Children should have a sense of permanence.
- Families’ cultural heritage should be respected.
- Parents and children (of a certain age and maturity) should have a say in the decisions that affect their lives.
As you can gather, when a child becomes involved with child welfare, especially foster care, rarely does a case allow for all of the above principles to be true. Making a decision on a case demands child welfare workers to think through a continuum of ambiguous and difficult situations. Our team at Benchmarks appreciate “The Impossible Imperative” and its role in increasing our understanding of the demanding, complex, and difficult work being done by frontline case workers every single day. As we partner with child welfare systems across the state of North Carolina, we foster a deeper sense of respect and appreciation for those who dedicate their lives to the unique, challenging, and important work of child protection. For anyone looking to gain insight into the world of child welfare, this book will give you just that. For our child welfare workers out there, we know you rarely receive the thanks you deserve so we will say it here: Thank you!
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