There are basically two strategies that are used in order to facilitate child protection. There is the immediate, formal protective strategic plan for continuing safety and it is put into place when there is a present danger, which is typically recognized during the initial meeting or contact with the family. When danger has been identified, the Child Protection Service (CPS) puts all other intervention activities, including the assessment, on hold in order for the immediate protective option to be established. After the present danger has been identified, the CPS is responsible for ensuring that a child is safe while the intervention continues. The immediate protection strategy contains certain documentation and elements that need to be recorded.
The formal safety strategy will usually happen during or at the end of the first assessment, after all of the pertinent family information has been taken and analyzed. This formal plan is written on a document and it helps to recognize any foreseeable dangers; it lists child safety products, services and childcare providers.
The two plans have one major difference; the formal child protection plan only gets put into place once all of the full and complete information has been gathered on the child and family. The immediate protective strategy is put into place after only getting a limited amount of information that was disclosed at the initial encounter.
Some feel that there should be additional provisions added to the ones already in use. They believe that safety care management and intervention should be provisional; that it should refer to specific actions and arrangements that CPS may take at the present time based upon current threats to the child’s safety, or if there is not a sufficient childcare provider available to ensure protection.
In order for this type of arrangement to work, the provisional safety care management would remain in place while still searching for a more stable permanent arrangement. Often times those employed with a Child Protection Service say that in order for this to work, they need to give protective responsibility to child care providers and supply them with child protection training; or they have the opportunity to find other permanency options by looking outside the child’s home and family.