Working Paper 05/04: Thinking about the Configuration of Services in the Care and Protection Sector

This working paper is concerned with how to think about the configuration of services in the care and protection sector, and the sort of evidential and research platform that is required to ensure that care and protection services meet demand and effectively address the needs of children and young people who are abused and/or neglected or who persistently demonstrate antisocial behaviours.

The fundamental proposition in this paper is that the current way in which care and protection tends to be thought about is essentially linear and inhibits the ability of the care and protection sector to address and respond to children’s dynamic circumstances, environments and needs.

An alternative approach is presented that uses quadrants based on the two dimensions of “child circumstance” (on a continuum between “at risk of endangerment” and “chronically endangered or endangering”) and “service response” (on a continuum between “accessing services from within a familial household” and “accessing services out-of-household”). This approach also differentiates clearly between children and young people requiring care and protection for abuse or neglect reasons and those requiring it for behavioural reasons.