Safety Assessment in Child Protection—A Survey Study With Dutch Child Protection Workers

ABSTRACT Safety assessment is a crucial part of child protective services to estimate acute and chronic danger in families that are at risk for child abuse in order to determine whether and which steps need to be taken to protect the child's safety. This study aimed to gain insight into the usefulness of the safety assessment procedure at Dutch child protective services (Safe Home) by means of an online survey with professionals. Professionals ( N = 300) working at Safe Home (i.e., medical doctors, social workers and behavioural scientists) completed an online survey consisting of closed and open questions on their used safety assessment procedure. Also, a face validity check of the instrument, supplemented by evidence‐based items to estimate safety, was conducted. Professionals reported a lack of standardization with the current safety assessment. They struggle to estimate acute and chronic danger and miss elaboration and explanation of steps they need to take within the assessment process. In their daily work, they experience a tension between a need for recognizing individual and systemic factors within complex family systems on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the need to simplify the assessment process, which at this moment is too complicated and time consuming. Safety and risk assessment tools need to facilitate child protection workers in their work, aimed to guide decision‐making processes. However, the current safety assessment method of Safe Home lacks standardization. It is of utmost importance to use evidence based, standardized safety and risk assessment tools to aid the complex decision‐making task that CPS professionals face in their casework. The lack of standardization and guidelines poses risks for decision‐making in child protective services, where professionals need to determine the necessary steps to establish safety for the child and family.