Exploring the Experiences of Child Welfare Professionals Working with Black Families Who Are Unnecessarily Investigated for Child Maltreatment in Ontario

Background and Purpose

Black families regularly endure unhelpful and unnecessary maltreatment referrals to child welfare agencies. There is a widespread and unchallenged belief in child welfare practice that maltreatment reports and subsequent investigations are benign experiences for the families involved, but evidence to support this belief is limited. Between the years 1998 and 2003, investigation rates for white families almost doubled, while during the same span, investigation rates nearly quadrupled for Black families due to changes in legislation regarding what is understood as “risk”. Black community members have demonstrated that educators, police, and other professionals who serve young people are disproportionately reporting Black families to child protection agencies, including families who are not responsible for actual maltreatment. Unnecessary encounters with child welfare can invoke feelings of fear and distrust, and can strain the relationships among the family, referrers, and the child protection system. Given that child welfare surveillance has been understudied in Canadian child maltreatment research, but plays a critical role in lives of marginalized families, this study investigates the following research questions: 1) What are the experiences and impacts of unnecessary investigations on Black families? 2) How do unnecessary maltreatment investigations shape Black families’ perceptions of the child welfare.

Methods

The empirical data of this study was collected as part of the Mapping Disparities for Black Families Project (MDBF). MDBF is a three-year research study aimed to better understand child protection workers’ experiences and decision-making processes for Black families navigating Ontario child welfare agencies. Using interpretative phenomenology, the objective of this research project is to map the practical ways in which anti-Black racism manifest across the child welfare continuum to address racial disparities for Black families. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis engages the researcher in an analytical process where they are trying to gain an ‘insider perspective’ utilizing in-depth qualitative analysis. This study explored the experiences of child welfare professionals who participate in decision-making across the child welfare service continuum. This study analyzes fifty-nine in-depth semi-structured interviews and five focus groups comprised of 28 participants.

Results

Three main themes were identified: 1): “It’s every parent’s worst fear”; Mistrust and the threat of apprehension for Black communities experiencing unnecessary referrals and investigations; 2) “That family's name is in the system for the rest of their life”; The impacts of child welfare history on Black communities; and 3); “The moving goal post”: The oversurveillance of Black communities through continuous intervention. The findings revealed that workers were conscious of the mistrust, anger, and detrimental impacts of unnecessary and unhelpful child welfare encounters on Black families and how it is often unclear and difficult for Black families to escape child welfare surveillance and intervention once involved with the system.

Conclusion and Implications

Child welfare professionals need to understand how their presence instills fear in Black communities, particularly when they are not providing any helpful supports. Child welfare systems need to minimize the frequencies of investigation and consider alternative means for assessing risk and safety. Implications for policy, research and practice are further discussed.