In my thesis I focused on collaborative approaches to working with families in the field of child protection against violence. I was interested in how practitioners see working with families and what elements of collaborative approaches they already incorporate in their work, what supports and what prevents them from doing so, what skills they use in their work and how they support the child at the time of disclosure of violence.
In the theoretical part, I described the theoretical background that defines the context of cooperation with families in the field of child protection. I presented the types of violence and the legal framework and defined the role of the social work centres. I described and presented the elements of five selected collaborative approaches to working with families, namely: the working relationship of co-creation, solution-focused social work, narrative social work, signs of safety approach and collaborative helping. In the theoretical part, I also included support for the child who has experienced violence - from two perspectives: the importance of an appropriate response from professionals, and the ways in which the child can be supported in the process of protection.
I carried out quantitative and empirical research. Using the method of online surveys of professionals working in social work centres across Slovenia and covering the field of child protection, I obtained data through the 1ka.arnes.si platform, which I then processed and analysed in 1ka.arnes.si and using the Microsoft Office Excel computer programme. Based on this, I wrote down the results, drew conclusions and formed proposals.
Through the research, I found that practitioners understand the elements of the Scandinavian model of child protection, which is characterised by preventive work and an emphasis on community-based work, as cooperation with the family. In their work, they most often rely on the knowledge of dialogue skills. The results of the survey showed that practitioners already often incorporate elements of collaborative approaches to working with families into their work, with differences in frequency depending on the individual approaches. Lack of time was the most common barrier to working with families. Practitioners most often support the child in the protection process by talking to the child, which is what they consider they are best qualified to do.
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