Shifting Power at the Front Door: State–Community Decision-Making Partnerships in Child Protection

Inequities for Indigenous people in child protection systems are well established. One avenue for addressing these inequities is at the ‘front door’ of child protection, when reports are first made to statutory child protection services. This article reports on a formative evaluation of a shared decision-making forum in a small city in Aotearoa New Zealand, where a community Māori organisation meets to make initial decisions about reports together with the statutory agency. The aim is to improve information quality by bringing local, relational knowledge to the decision and provide a service response to those cases that are ‘closed’. The findings are that initial enablers were the policy context that emphasized community devolution, consensus on problems and aims, relationships between leaders in both organisations, and high community investment. Early challenges were a reluctance from some workers to engage in the process, lack of agreed processes, and fears of simply replicating the statutory agency in the community. Current enablers following a period of establishment were relationships of trust, the development of practice processes, commitment to review, increased information sharing, community location and leadership, and an alignment with practitioners’ values. Challenges were conflicts about moderate risk situations, lack of other key services, inconsistent attendance, and authority conflicts over legal mandates and information sharing practices, especially relating to high-acuity situations. The implications are that organisational, policy, and resourcing level changes and relationships from front-line workers to leaders are essential for moving institutional logics.