Community Capacity Building in Child Protection Through Responsive Regulation

How society responds to the neglect and abuse of children has become a critical issue in Australia because of the belief that current approaches are failing too many vulnerable children and because of sky rocketing notification rates. This research will address fundamental problems in child protection systems by exploring an innovative model based upon the theory of responsive regulation. This approach reconciles the need to protect children with the aim of developing local capacity to assist families to care for their children. The research will elucidate the way that families respond to intervention, will demonstrate how responsive regulation can be applied to child protection, and will examine its expected benefits.