Child Welfare Service



Child Welfare Service

Abstract

Over the period of centuries, children of the world have been facing the issues of misuse, abuse, neglecting of fundamental rights and many more. Child welfare services are often a set formed by the government and private sectors of the countries to protect the children. These services work for ensuing that children around the world are provided with their basic rights and protected from the critical issues such as abuse, neglect and maltreatment. In addition, these services also tae care for the other facilities which include safety, adequate food and clothes, quality education and health care facilities. This paper describes some of the major child welfare care services such as Child protection service, foster care, Family Courts and Juvenile and health care services.

Outline of the Paper

Introduction—introduces the subject of child welfare systems and major objectives of these systems.

Child Abuse—explains the categories of child abuse and how to prevent these different categories.

Possible Actions of Child Welfare System—identifies the possible actions child welfare system could take, depending on the specific conditions of the children and their families.

Components of Child Welfare System—discusses the major components of this system including child protection services, foster care, family courts and juvenile, health care, controlling obesity, and miscellaneous child welfare services.

Child Welfare Services for Children of Different Races—describes the bias of child welfare systems for children belonging from racial minorities.

Introduction

The subject of child welfare often becomes touchy for many people as the issues of child shelter; health care and education facilities have been underestimated and overlooked over the period of decades. In most of the countries, the government and private sectors combine to provide the child welfare services to their nations (Goldman & Salus, 2003). Although, the major responsibility of these services is held by the state, but the federal government and private sector largely contribute (Peter, 2009). The child welfare system is thus not a single entity but a group of community organizations that work for achieving a common goal. These services focus on a wide range of problems related to the quality brought up and safety of children. The welfare services ensure that children are provided with quality shelter, adequate food, clothes, education and health care services. In addition, these services also include controlling of child labor and child abuse in the entire nation.

The state intervene in the family life and attempt to provide safety to the children in certain scenarios where either child neglect or abuse is witnessed or it is highly probable. The contact between the parents and child is either ended completely or is limited depending on the investigation and analysis by the child welfare officials. Once, the child is removed from the parent's custody, it is sent to the child welfare agency or the agency tries to settle the matter with the parents. Sometimes, the child is also proposed for adoption. Mostly, the state interferes with the parents under one of the following situations (Neil and Paul, 2012):

If parents neglect, abandon or ...