Lessons from Canadian incidence studies: Connecting data to policy and practice to accelerate change

The objective of this symposium is to explore how incidence data that are collected on a regular basis in Canada concerning reported child abuse and neglect has been used to inform child welfare policy and practice throughout... [ view full abstract ]

The objective of this symposium is to explore how incidence data that are collected on a regular basis in Canada concerning reported child abuse and neglect has been used to inform child welfare policy and practice throughout Canada. Prior to 1998, few data existed concerning the families and children identified to the Canadian child welfare system. In 1998, the first cycle of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child abuse and Neglect (CIS) was conducted and subsequent cycles of the study have taken place in 2003 and 2008 with approximately 7,000 workers have participated in data collection efforts to date. The provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Alberta each conducted incidence studies in 2013/2014. This symposium will be comprised of four papers with recent analysis from these three provinces as well as findings from our work with Aboriginal partners concerning the over-representation of Aboriginal children and families in the child welfare system. Although all child welfare systems share certain basic characteristics organized around investigating reports of alleged maltreatment, providing various types of counseling and supervision, socio-demographic differences, differences in screening and investigation procedures, clinical case practice differences and methodological differences contribute to possible sources of variation in the data across provinces. The conclusion of this symposium will discuss these differences and the challenges associated with data collection efforts. The incidence studies utilize a cross sectional multi-stage sampling design, first to select a representative sample of child welfare sites in the province, and then to sample cases within these sites. Information is collected directly from the investigating workers at the conclusion of the investigation.