Being child-centred: Factors that facilitate professional judgement and decision-making in child protection

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that focused on factors that facilitate professional judgement and decision-making that is child-centred. Appreciative inquiry informed the methodology that enabled four focus groups (n = 50) with child protection practitioners who worked with children and young people living out-of-home care. The study found that, firstly, child protection practitioners had clear conceptualizations of what child-centred practice means and, secondly, articulated how functioning teams, effective organizational structures and relationships were crucial to child-centred practice. The findings point to the importance of relationality in effective child-centred professional judgement and decision-making in child protection contexts.