TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Warm eyes', 'warm breath', 'heart warmth'
T2 - Using Aroha (Love) and warmth to reconceptualise and work towards best interests in child protection
AU - Young, Susan
AU - McKenzie, Margaret
AU - Omre, Cecilie
AU - Schjelderup, Liv
AU - Walker, Shayne
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - The attributes 'warm eyes', 'breathe warm air', 'heart warmth' and aroha (love) guide our work in child protection. These quotes are from a young person from the Change Factory 2020, a MFAMILY student in 2020 and Jan Erik Henricksen Key Note at the 4th International Indigenous Voices in Social Work Conference, Alta, Norway 2017 respectively, to describe the way young people and families want workers to be. We reflect on the child rights and family inclusion provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRoC), and the Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ) legislation Children, Young Persons and their Families Act (1989), in contributing to the best interests of the child. We examine current events in our locations, Aotearoa New Zealand, Norway and Western Australia, as demonstrating that these joint principles are far from universally used in child protection practice. The sole use of Article 3 of the UNCRoC, in particular, often results in excluding families as legitimate stakeholders. In seeking to achieve the best interests of the child, we apply a practice framework to example vignettes. Here, we have added micro-practices to address the identified gaps in relationship building, engagement and enabling practices in working towards the practice of best interests.
AB - The attributes 'warm eyes', 'breathe warm air', 'heart warmth' and aroha (love) guide our work in child protection. These quotes are from a young person from the Change Factory 2020, a MFAMILY student in 2020 and Jan Erik Henricksen Key Note at the 4th International Indigenous Voices in Social Work Conference, Alta, Norway 2017 respectively, to describe the way young people and families want workers to be. We reflect on the child rights and family inclusion provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRoC), and the Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ) legislation Children, Young Persons and their Families Act (1989), in contributing to the best interests of the child. We examine current events in our locations, Aotearoa New Zealand, Norway and Western Australia, as demonstrating that these joint principles are far from universally used in child protection practice. The sole use of Article 3 of the UNCRoC, in particular, often results in excluding families as legitimate stakeholders. In seeking to achieve the best interests of the child, we apply a practice framework to example vignettes. Here, we have added micro-practices to address the identified gaps in relationship building, engagement and enabling practices in working towards the practice of best interests.
KW - Child protection
KW - Child rights
KW - Co-constructing social work
KW - Family inclusion
KW - Practice frameworks
KW - Young people and children
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084675388&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/SOCSCI9040054
DO - 10.3390/SOCSCI9040054
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85084675388
SN - 2076-0760
VL - 9
JO - Social Sciences
JF - Social Sciences
IS - 4
M1 - 54
ER -