Safety for children first: Focus on child safety in Intensive Family Case Management

When following a systems-based approach in child protection, caution is needed to stay focused on the safety of children. However, practice-oriented knowledge on how to succeed is lacking. To explore whether professionals were able to keep focus on child safety, research was carried out into the experiences of case managers applying an innovative, systems-based methodology in child protection and youth parole services in the Netherlands, named: Intensive Family Case Management (IFCM). A representative sample of family meetings at the Youth Protection Amsterdam Area agency was monitored. Additionally, quality assurance instruments, case notes, and Family Plans filled out by case managers and their supervisors were examined on the use of children's safety and needs tools. The results show that family meetings were organised in half of the cases. In only 25% of these face-to-face contacts all the family members were present. In nearly all families, the tools for child safety (94%), children’s needs (81%), and safety and risk assessment (90%) were used. Although the implementation of the IFCM methodology was still ongoing at the time of data collection, the analyses showed that case managers used the tools for almost all families. In contrast to this they had difficulties in adequately applying the systems-based approach. The results suggest that ongoing monitoring and support in daily practice is essential for working in accordance with a systems-based approach.