Abstract

At a time when the Canadian child welfare is at a crossroads and strives for a direction that leads to better outcomes and engagement with the families and service providers, placing the Canadian child’s welfare in the international context of child protection is essential for improving the system and learning from others.

This phenomenological research endeavours to compare the child protection systems of Canada and England from the legislation perspective, with the focus on the definitions of child abuse and neglect, in order to identify some of their similarities and differences and capture some aspects of the child protection workers’ experience with the legislation and with these definitions. Furthermore, this explorative paper examines the implication of the legislation and the definitions of child abuse and neglect on the day-to-day work of the child protection workers who have experience in working in both countries – Canada and England – and identifies some of the similarities and differences of the two child protection systems.

The child-protection system in Canada and England has undergone many changes over the years to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children, but the direct implications of these changes on the child-protection workers and their day-to-day work is little known and understood. While in England the child protection legislation is consistent along the country, in Canada each province/territory has its own legislation in child protection, and therefore each of them has policy manuals, guides and protocols providing working definitions of abuse and criteria used in making determinations of abuse.

The legislation and policy in child protection act as essential tools in the interventions with the main focus to keep children safe. In order to ensure that the children have the right to live a life free from any form of maltreatment, most countries have developed their own child-protection system, which is highly influenced by the cultural and socio-economic context of that specific country, as well as by the needs of its various communities.

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