Working Protocol for Child protection workers

The Protocol has been devised to assist all persons working in the field of protecting child rights, and aims to help the Child Protection Unit Workers to: a) understand what child protection is; b) guide the work of the Child Protection Worker using a standardized approach; c) introduce the principles of the best interest of the child; d) establish the practice of multi-disciplinary work to protect children; e) implement case management as a means of identifying, working and reviewing protective interventions with children; and f) provide a system of reliable data collection. The Child Protection Workers’ Protocol includes a step-by-step guide to the actions and work that a Child Protection Worker should follow when either identifying a child or receiving a referral of a child at risk of abuse, harm, neglect or exploitation. The Child Protection Workers’ Protocol is not intended to analyse or provide all the answers to issues related to children’s problems, nevertheless, it provides the main directions of interventions to solve or moderate the problems.The Protocol consists of principles and tasks that guide Child Protection Worker, case management practice involving information gathering and storing as well as establishing relations with other actors. Appendices consist of a summary of the CPW ethical principles, domestic legal basis on issues related to children compared to the UN Convention on Child Rights, identified risk factors, the forms of a folder, an illustrating table with children development phases from 0-5 years old, etc., as well as the glossary of definitions according to the terminology and concepts used in the Protocol.