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The Hestia Study: Policies and responses to child abuse and neglect in England, Germany and the Netherlands

Researchers: University of York: Professor Nina Biehal and Helen Baldwin.
University of Groningen: Professor Hans Grietens, Professor Erik Knorth, Dr Monica Lopez and Helen Bouma.
German Youth Institute: Dr Heinz Kindler, Dr Eric van Santen and Professor Sabine Walper
Funder: NORFACE

This international study compared child protection policy, systems and practice in England, Germany and the Netherlands. It was funded by NORFACE, a partnership of 15 European research councils, under its Welfare State Futures research programme.

The study included

• a comparative analysis of child protection policy and systems in the three countries
• a comparison of child protection practice based on the analysis of the anonymised case files of 1,200 children (400 in each country)
• an analysis of parent perspectives on their contact with child protection services.

The study was a collaboration between the University of York (Nina Biehal and Helen Baldwin), University of Groningen (Professor Hans Grietens, Professor Erik Knorth, Dr Monica Lopez, Helen Bouma, Floor Middel, Marleen Wessels) and the German Youth Institute (Dr Heinz Kindler, Dr Eric van Santen, Susanne Witte, Laura Miehlbradt, Professor Sabine Walper).

Publications

• Biehal, N. (2018) ‘Prevention and protection: child protection in England’ in Merkel-Holguin, L., Fluke, J.D. and Krugman, R. National Systems of Child Protection.Understanding the International Variability and Context for Developing Policy and Practice, Cham, Switzerland:Springer.
• Lopez, M., Bouma, H., Knorth, E., Grietens, H. (2018) ‘The Dutch child protection system: historical overview and recent transformations’ England’ in Merkel-Holguin, L., Fluke, J.D. and Krugman, R. National Systems of Child Protection.Understanding the International Variability and Context for Developing Policy and Practice, Cham, Switzerland:Springer.
• Witte, S., Miehlbradt, L., van Santen, E. & Kindler, H. (2018) ‘Preventing child endangerment.: child protection in Germany’ in Merkel-Holguin, L., Fluke, J.D. and Krugman, R. National Systems of Child Protection.Understanding the International Variability and Context for Developing Policy and Practice, Cham, Switzerland:Springer.
• Baldwin, H. & Biehal, N. (2016) Briefing on the English Child Protection System 
• Bouma, H., Lopez, M., Knorth, E. & Grietens, H. (2016) Hestia Briefing on the Dutch child protection system 
• Witte, S, Miehlbradt, L., van Santen, E. & Kindler, H. (2016) Hestia Briefing on the German child protection system
  

Please contact nina.biehal@york.ac.uk for more information