Beyond risk: Centering relationality and reflexivity to transform child welfare

Abstract

Standardized risk assessment (RA) is central to the functioning of Anglo-American child welfare systems. Academic literature has extensively critiqued the reliance of child welfare systems upon RA and the technocratic practices and policies which it has given rise. Despite these critiques, and in the absence of discussions of an alternative approach to child welfare that moves beyond neoliberal constructions of risk, child welfare systems continue to be shaped and governed by risk.

This paper draws upon lived professional experiences and literature on risk and child welfare to provide a critical examination of how and why risk remains a driving force within Anglo-American child welfare services, the implications of this, and why we should not continue to rely upon risk-centric models of child welfare policy and practice. This paper advocates for child welfare systems to move beyond risk-centric policies and practices, in pursuit of a re-prioritization of the values of social justice and relationality. Rooted in the value of relationality, alternative approaches such as a social model of care and engaging in practices of truth-telling are proposed as strategies for transforming Anglo-American child welfare systems.