Challenges to social work professionalism during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative analysis of child protective workers’ perspectives

The pandemic of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected millions of children and families worldwide, disrupting their daily lives and impacting the ability of Child Protective Services (CPS) to respond to children in need. This small-scale study involving 23 child protective workers from local governments in different regions of Estonia used in-depth, semi-structured interviews to explore child protection work with children in need during the COVID −19 pandemic. Issues resulting from the pandemic that could cause detriment to children was identified. For some children, the COVID-19 crisis has eliminated the possibility of any investigation due to social distancing, which led to information deficit, regardless of the character or level of apparent risk to the child. Children's rights to protection and continuity of care have been threatened, as urgently needed services and other CPS protective measures have been hindered or postponed due to lockdown. Examples of some services that continued online were provided. Furthermore, COVID-19 pandemic created new expectations and roles for CPS, questioning the fundamental goals of child protection work. Nevertheless, child protective workers have demonstrated creativity in finding ways to reach children in need during the pandemic, for example by setting up a crisis hotline, a crisis home. © 2023 GAPS.