Decision-making on out-of-home care: the case of Flanders

Out-of-home placement decisions are complex and have a strong impact on children and their parents. Factors influencing these decisions can be grouped in four domains: case characteristics, decision maker characteristics, factors related to the organization of the decision maker, and external factors. This study aimed at investigating the role of case, worker and organization variables in an out-of-home placement decision. 95 Flemish child welfare workers were presented a vignette of a case of alleged child maltreatment and were asked to recommend an intervention. About 14% of workers recommended an out-of-home placement. Out of all variables, only the presence of physical neglect (OR = 3.94, p <.05), the risk of physical harm (OR = 3.28, p <.01) and the education level (OR = 5.21, p <.05) were significantly associated with the recommendation. Using purposeful selection of covariates a model with 9 variables was obtained with only one significant variables: the attitude ‘Against removal from home’ (OR = 0.12, p <.05). Decision making regarding out-of-home care by Flemish child welfare workers was associated with a negative attitude regarding removing children from home. Other variables had little influence. Methods in order to parcel out more the influence of worker variables and heighten the influence of case variables are strongly needed.