Changing and Competing Conceptions of Risk and Their Implications for Public Health Approaches to Child Protection

The ideas about risk that lie at the core of public health approaches to child protection are very different to those that underpin traditional reactive approaches to child protection. Risk is conceived in much broader terms and is concerned with supporting and promoting children’s overall development and well-being rather than simply identifying cases of actual or imminent significant harm. In the process the objects of concern and forms of intervention are broadened considerably and have important implications for the role of a wide range of professionals working with children and families. Primarily drawing on experiences from England, this chapter provides a critical appraisal of such developments and their implications for policy and practice. It identifies key challenges for public health approaches to child protection in terms of the implications for: secondary prevention and cost; problem specificity; screening and the identification of cases: and surveillance, confidentiality and civil liberties.