Unit rationale, description and aim

Social workers make significant contributions in responding to child protection matters within diverse social work practice contexts. This unit provides essential knowledge and skills that social workers require to understand and respond to child protection matters within diverse social work practice contexts. The unit is structured around the AASW scope of practice in child protection. Students will gain knowledge and learn to apply contemporary theory and skills that inform current understandings of child protection and its implications for children, families and the wider community. Students will critically examine the nature of child protection in the context of current policy and legislation, and develop an understanding of the roles and obligations of social workers encountering child protection issues in diverse settings. Students will develop their capacity to assess and respond to child protection issues from an ethical, critical social work perspective, taking into consideration life stage development, and that is child centred and safety focussed. Throughout the unit students will critically reflect on their personal views and values related to child protection, the issues they raise and the influence of these on their practice. The overall aim of this unit is to provide the essential knowledge and skills that social workers require to understand and respond to child protection matters in diverse contexts. 

2026 10

Campus offering

No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.

Prerequisites

SWTP333 Social Work Field Education 1

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Investigate and critically analyse the nature and ...

Learning Outcome 01

Investigate and critically analyse the nature and impact of child protection across various social work practice settings with reference to the historical, legislative and policy contexts.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC5, GC7, GC9, GC11

Critically reflect on personal values and assumpti...

Learning Outcome 02

Critically reflect on personal values and assumptions relating to child protection and their impact on practice
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC11

Identify and apply relevant social work theories, ...

Learning Outcome 03

Identify and apply relevant social work theories, approaches and frameworks in response to child protection matters to ensure ethical social work practice.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC6, GC8, GC9

Identify, assess and formulate social work interve...

Learning Outcome 04

Identify, assess and formulate social work interventions using critical thinking, judgement, and communication to address child protection issues.
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC11, GC12

Content

Topics will include:

The social, historical, political and economic context of child protection

  • Definitions
  • Causes
  • Prevalence


 Theories that inform social work practice in response to child protection

  • Relational Social Work
  • Attachment theory and recent critiques
  • Systems theory
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Trauma Informed Care

 

Legislative and practice frameworks

  • Public health approaches (prevention and early intervention)
  • Statutory practice
  • The legal system
  • Relevant legislation
  • The service system
  • Policy frameworks

 

Practice frameworks

  • Working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people, families and communities
  •  Casework,
  • problem-solving
  • child and family work frameworks
  • Case management
  • Therapeutic practice

 

Organisational and professional procedures, ethics and standards

  • AASW Code of Ethics
  • AASW Practice Standards
  • Ethical issues in child protection work
  • Child protection practice settings, which many include but are not limited to
  • State statutory child protection agencies
  • Specialist family support and counselling services
  • Foster care
  • Residential care
  • Children’s commissions
  • Forensic and correctional services
  • Hospital and community health
  • Joint investigation response teams
  • Child wellbeing units
  • Adoption agencies
  • Management and governance

 

Impact of child abuse and neglect

  • Developmental impacts
  • Trauma
  • Non offending parent
  • Perpetrators of child abuse
  • Social workers 
  • lived experience or expert content as applicable
  • Supervision and self-care

 

Skills in child protection work 

  • Assessment and risk assessment
  • Interventions
  • Early intervention and prevention
  • Public health approaches
  • Relational approaches
  • Trauma informed care
  • Mandatory reporting
  • Crisis intervention
  • Safety planning
  • Psychoeducation
  • Out of Home Care
  • Therapeutic interventions
  • Principles and guidelines
  • Working with offenders/perpetrators
  • Evaluation

Assessment strategy and rationale

This unit takes an authentic approach to assessment that allows students to demonstrate the social work knowledge, ethics and skills required for practice in response to child protection issues in diverse practice contexts.

Assessment 1 is an individual multi-media presentation which aims to assess student’s ability to identify and explain the dynamics and impact of the abuse and neglect of children, and highlight the state legislative and policy context. (LO1, LO2).

Assessment 2 aims to assess students understanding of the complex political context of care and protection practice. Students will develop a personal position statement regarding mandatory reporting and the nature of risk and its assessment in this field. (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4).

Assessment 3 takes the form of a case report which aims to assess the knowledge and skills required to conduct a social work assessment that draws on relevant state policies and practice and develops an initial intervention plan in response to a provided care and protection scenario. (LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4,).

The assessment tasks for this unit are designed to enable students to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome. To pass this unit, students must demonstrate achievement of all learning outcomes and obtain a minimum mark of 50%.

Overview of assessments

Multimedia presentation This presentation enable...

Multimedia presentation

This presentation enables students to identify and explain the dynamics and impact of the abuse and neglect of children, including a critical reflection on their learning about the care and protection of children. 

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC5, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11

Personal Position Statement Students will develo...

Personal Position Statement

Students will develop a personal position statement, which will synthesize the political context of care and protection practice with their own values and beliefs. The statement will define their professional position in regard to mandatory reporting, the nature of risk and their impact in this field of practice.

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Assessment report and intervention plan This ass...

Assessment report and intervention plan

This assessment enables students to apply knowledge and skills required to conduct a social work assessment and develop an intervention plan. 

Weighting

40%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit involves 150 hours of learning delivered through a blended learning approach that combines 36 hours of lecture material and online scheduled interactive tutorials involving group discussions, skills-based and critically reflective activities supported by prescribed readings and resources, and independent study. The lectures will outline the key concepts and theoretical perspectives central to the weekly topics related to child protection. The tutorial activities will afford students the opportunity to explore the concepts and related debates and develop key skills required for competent ethical social work practice. Active participation in the tasks and discussion is an essential part of learning in this unit. Engagement with academic literature will assist students to recognise, assess and respond to child protection using an ethical social work approach.

Students are expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively in class discussions and the skill-based and critically reflective activities to achieve the learning outcomes. The learning strategies will allow students to develop the fundamental skills and knowledge for ethical social work practice in the field of child protection.

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

Fernandez, E., & Delfabbro, P. H. (Eds.). (2021). Child protection and the care continuum theoretical, empirical and practice insights (1st ed.). Routledge.

Healey, J. (Ed.). (2018). Child protection. The Spinney Press.

Healey, L., Connolly, M., & Humphreys, C. (2018). A Collaborative Practice Framework for Child Protection and Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Services: Bridging the Research and Practice Divide. Australian Social Work71(2), 228–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/0312407X.2017.1409777

Hyslop I, & Keddell E. (2018). Outing the Elephants: Exploring a New Paradigm for Child Protection Social Work. Social Sciences, 7(7), 105. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci707010

Križ, K., & Petersen, M. (Eds.). (2023). Children and young people’s participation in child protection: International research and practical applicationsF. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197622322.001.0001

Lonne, B., Harries, M., Featherstone, B., & Gray, M. (2015). Working ethically in child protection. Taylor & Francis

Lonne, B. Scott, D., Higgins, D. & Herrenkohl, T.I. (2019). Re-Visioning Public Health Approaches for Protecting Children (Child Maltreatment Book 9). Springer.Tilbury, C.  Hughes, M., Bigby, C., Osmond, J. (2017). Social Work Research in the Child Protection Field in Australia, The British Journal of Social Work, 47(1), 256–274, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcv123

Thomson, J. (2016). The mission of critical social work and the statutory child protection system in Australia: Resisting neoliberal encroachment. Social Alternatives, 35(4), 59–65. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.872300993212568

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