Title: Attention to disability in child protection policies across four liberal welfare regimes.
Authors: Johnson, Lisa M.; Flynn, Susan; Thomas, Cate; Slayter, Elspeth
Abstract: How child protection and welfare policies address the disability community is a matter of utmost importance and urgency in the context of well-established inequalities. We present a policy content analysis of national policy documents across the United States, Northern Ireland, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland through the theoretical frame of a welfare regimes typology. Key findings include the conflation of disability with vulnerability in all but one context. Also evident is a lack of overt definition of disability, and opportunities for developing specific jurisdictional guidance and regulations focussed on embedding best practices in supporting disabled clients at all system levels.
Subjects: AUSTRALIA; IRELAND; NORTHERN Ireland; UNITED States; CHILD welfare; POLICY sciences; CHILDREN with disabilities; HUMAN beings; CONTENT analysis; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; POPULATION geography
Publication: Journal of Public Child Welfare, 2025, Vol 19, Issue 1, p141
ISSN: 1554-8732
Publication type: Academic Journal
DOI: 10.1080/15548732.2024.2306165

Attention to disability in child protection policies across four liberal welfare regimes.

Johnson, Lisa M.; Flynn, Susan; Thomas, Cate; Slayter, Elspeth