Working with Families Experiencing Vulnerability A Partnership Approach

To work effectively with children, young people, and families experiencing vulnerabilities, practitioners need to understand risk and protective factors that influence children’s safety and development. They also require familiarity with policy and practice frameworks that underpin responsive and critically reflective practice. Increasingly, workers are required to engage in trauma-informed, ethical practice, as discussed in this chapter. Risk and protective factors that contribute to, or shield children from, child abuse and/or neglect are present in all families, to a greater or lesser extent, and at different points in the family life cycle. Fortunately, most children thrive within their families and communities. An understanding of risk factors in child maltreatment, and the factors that protect children from maltreatment helps us to identify children and young people likely to experience poorer outcomes and to provide them with support.