Amjad Abdullah Alzahrani

Thesis

Thesis supervisors

Dr Hannah Jobling

Professor Christine Skinner

Thesis topic

An investigative study into child protection legal framework and training provision to social workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Thesis summary

The overall purpose of this study is to critically investigate the current legal framework associated with child protection in the KSA and to identify the challenges, barriers and success factors that would help in equipping social workers with the rights skills and tools to safeguard children from abuse. The objectives for this proposed study are:

• To explore the extent to which social workers are provided with specialist training on child protection.
• To examine the current interventions and support provided to abuse children and their families.
• To examine the national cultural variables that hinder child protection provision in the KSA.
• To critically review the current legal and policy framework linked to child protection in the KSA.
• To compare the practice of child protection between the United Kingdom and KSA to identify similarities and differences.
• To propose a training and development programme for social workers on child protection based on best practices in the UK along with the critical review results.
• Compare the low implementation before and after the application of the training programme.

Research

General research interests

• What are the current reporting arrangements for child abuse in Saudi Arabia?

• To what extent social workers are equipped with the right skills and tools to report case of child abuse?

• What is the suitability of the existing training programmes on child protection to social workers?

• How can social workers in the KSA learn from best practices implemented in the UK?

• Did the introduction of laws and legislations in 2011, 2013 and 2015 helped in increasing the reporting nationally of child abuse cases?