Child Protective Services: Ethics in Organization Culture

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Child Protective Services (CPS) is a common name for a government agency that is responsible for ensuring the safety of children. In general, CPS conducts an investigation when there is a report of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and/or emotional abuse. CPS will go to the home and assess the situation. Depending on the situation, CPS can offer voluntary services to maintain family preservation or in cases where the children are at risk of harm, the children are removed from the home while the parents are required to participate in community services for family reunification (CWLA, 2007).
Organization’s Culture and Influence on Ethical Practices
The organization’s culture places an emphasis on a family centered framework that believes in eight principles. The first principle is that all children should be able to grow up in a safe and stable home. Secondly, it is implied most parents want to keep their children safe but some parents need to build on their family strengths. Thirdly, all families are different in culture, race and values. Fourth and fifth, when families are involved in CPS, CPS is responsible for finding permanency for the children and family engagement is more likely to occur if the family is involved in the process. Sixth, if parents are not able to protect their children from harm, CPS has the obligation to intervene for the child’s well-being. Next, if children have to be removed from their home, CPS should create and work on a permanency plan. Lastly, the permanency plan should be achieved as soon as possible (US Dept of Health and Human Services, 2013).
The NASW Code of Ethics are professional standards created by the National Association of Social Workers for social workers. The Code of Ethics has ethical st...

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...ethics. Child Welfare Information Gateway. Retrieved from https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/cps/cpsq.cfm
Child Welfare League of America. (2007). Child Protection. CWLA. Retrieved from http://www.cwla.org/programs/childprotection/childprotectionfaq.htm#agencies
Cooper, T. L. (2012). The responsible administrator: An approach to ethics for the administrative role (6th ed.). New York, NY: Jossey-Bass.
US Dept of Health and Human services. (2013). Child protective services: A guide for caseworkers: Chapter two. Child Welfare Information Gateway. Retrieved from https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/cps/cpsb.cfm
Wells, S. J. (2007). Evidence-based practice in child welfare in the context of cultural competence [PDF]. University of Minnesota: School of Social Work. Retrieved from http://www.cehd.umn.edu/SSW/g-s/documents/Wells_Presentation.pdf

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