Policies on Child Abuse and Neglect

One of the essential components of the social work profession is safeguarding children from neglect and abuse. Professionals in this field work towards ensuring that children are protected from abuse and neglect in order to promote their development and growth into healthy, well-being adults. To achieve these goals, social work professionals carry out several initiatives including creating, implementing, and evaluating policy initiatives. The various initiatives adopted by social work professionals are targeted towards lessening child abuse and neglect as well as providing necessary resources and support that enhances children's development and well-being. The development of policy initiatives that target reduction of child abuse and neglect is crucial because policies govern the practices of social work professionals when offering support and resources for promoting children's development and well-being.

Given the significance of policies in helping social workers to lessen child abuse and neglect, several policies have been developed and established at the federal and state levels of government. The existing federal and state policies addressing child abuse and neglect focus on the effect of incidence, reporting, and the negative impacts of child abuse and neglect, especially in relation to health and economic consequences (National Academy of Sciences, 2014). Additionally, the existing policies also focus on the establishment of prevention strategies and promotion of societal norms that seek to establish safe environments for the healthy growth and development of children into adulthood. These policies focus on promoting safe environments that are characterized by nurturing relationships, which provide a stable platform for children to grow while lessening avenues for abuse and neglect. However, the existing policies have been relatively ineffective in addressing child abuse and neglect fully. There is need for policies that focus on strengthening financial support to families and changing social norms towards positive parenting that promote healthy child development.

One of the organization's that play an important role in the formulation of policies to address child abuse and neglect is the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). The organization's policy statement on child abuse and neglect is that children have the right to be treated respectfully like adults and to obtain services that are culturally-sensitive (National Association of Social Workers, 2011). In this regard, systems should be established to protect children and provide evidence-based or best practices towards dealing with the problem of child abuse and neglect. These systems or programs should be fully funded and adequately staffed in order to provide the necessary services toward child abuse and neglect prevention measures. Additionally, NASW's policy statement on child abuse and neglect states that policies and procedures should be established in human service organizations to promote the safety and wellbeing of social work professionals and others who deal with child abuse and neglect cases.

One of the major aspects of NASW's policy statement on child abuse and neglect that could be enhanced by further policies is adequate funding and staffing of programs that focus on addressing this problem. In this regard, the proposed policy to strengthen this funding component is increased budgetary allocation by state governments to support child abuse prevention program and initiatives. I propose a 10% increase in the budgetary allocations by state governments towards child welfare programs, especially those dealing child abuse and neglect. In New Jersey, the existing policies addressing child abuse and neglect requires reporting of child abuse and neglect cases to the Division of Child Protection and Permanency. Upon receipt of the report, an investigator from this department commences investigations within 24 hours before other measures are initiated. New Jersey's policies on child abuse and neglect can be strengthened through increasing budgetary allocations towards child welfare programs. This will help in promoting health child development once abused or neglected children are placed in a child welfare program upon conclusions of investigations. The increased funds will also help social workers to carry out their duties effectively, especially with regards to investigation of child abuse and neglect cases.

In conclusion, the proposed increase in state budgetary allocations for child welfare programs by 10% will alter New Jersey's policies on child abuse and neglect. The current policies will be adjusted to include funding for child abuse and neglect programs beyond the current reporting measures. The policies will also be expanded to include details on how these funds are expected to be utilized in promoting healthy child development. Generally, increased funding is crucial towards promoting the effectiveness of the relevant programs addressing the problem of child abuse and neglect.

References

National Academy of Sciences. (2014). Child Abuse and Neglect Policy. Retrieved from National Institutes of Health website: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK195993/

National Association of Social Workers. (2011, December 28). Child Abuse and Neglect. Retrieved April 18, 2017, from https://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/swMonth/2012/toolkit/standards/Child%20Abuse%20and%20Neglect.PDF