Evaluation of Child Protection and Care Policies from the Perspective of Social Workers

Abstract

This research includes the evaluation of child protection and care-oriented policies and practices by social workers with academic knowledge and professional experience. The study group of the research consists of 23 social workers with at least 5 years of experience and working in Ankara province. The participants were informed that the information obtained from the participants would be used within the scope of the research with a focus on confidentiality, and their verbal consent was obtained and interviews were conducted. In this study, which was conducted on a completely voluntary basis, data were collected between August and November 2023. In this qualitative study, it was concluded that development and improvement-oriented studies should be carried out for child protection and care policies. As a result of the research, it was understood that support services in the family, child policies should be organized in a way to cover the whole society, not only children under protection, and the Social Sosyal Hizmetler Kanunu No. 2828 and the Çocuk Koruma Law No. 5395 should be revised. It was emphasized that it is important to activate the follow-up and monitoring process after the age of majority, especially for children under protection. Another important conclusion is that both personnel and institutions should be specialized and being a professional should be put forward as a determining criterion in the selection of managers in this field.