Child Protection Services is an agency that is run by the government and these services are provided in numerous state of America. This agency provides services against child neglect and abuse. The Child Protection Services are also named as “Department of Social Services” or just “Social Services”.
The primary functions of the CPS agencies are receiving the child ill-treatment reports. This rule in mandatory in many of the states of America. After the report is filed, it undergoes the screening test to check the authenticity of the filed case. If the case is accepted then the Child Protection Services investigate the case and a cross checking is done with the family members and their nearest contacts.
If all these test reports are positive then the family of the child is provided, on request, with the needed help to prevent any further ill-treatment and abuse of the child. However, quite often it is observed that the child is ill- treated in its own house, then in such cases, the Child Protection Services make arrangements for the safety of the child outside his/her house. This decision is made through the court decisions or with the family’s consent.
The case is taken further with the settling down the of issues and the family members of such children are requested to report at the Child Protection Services bureau for routine follow-up so as to avoid any further harm to the children. Throughout this process of investigation the Child Protection Services focus on the child’s safety, steps to reduce the risk of ill-treatment and achieve the goals and tasks while working on the case and steps towards meeting the expectations of the child and the family people of the child affected by the ill-treatment.
The closure of the case is decided after the Child Protection Services are convinced about the child’s safety and that the further chances of ill-treatment have reduced or completely abolished. These agencies also take a note of the family’s capacity to meet the further development of the child and that if they can take this responsibility.
The reporters who report this case to the CPS should gather all the related information regarding the nature, type or types of ill-treatments, severity, place where it occurred and the chronicity of the ill-treatment. The types of treatments refer to the emotional abuse, sexual abuse and physical abuse etc.
The most vital information in such cases is the severity of the ill-treatment and the reporters in these cases are expected to report all the primary information that is required to proceed further with such cases. Minute details like the place of injury on the body of child also need to be reported in case of physical abuse.
The chronicity of the ill-treatment is the detailed information regarding the previous happenings of negligence or the abuse of the child. The duration of the ill-treatment that the child has been facing or going through, and the intensity and the frequency of the ill-treatment etc. The further investigation is done with the help of the child’s family’s consent to help solve the case better.
