Child protective workers' reflections on principles underpinning the assessment of children in need: The case of Estonia

This article presents the findings of a small-scale, qualitative study that included 20 child protective workers from different regions in Estonia. The research question guiding this study was as follows: What principles underpin child protective workers' assessment activities in cases with child protection concerns? The respondents provided examples of assessment principles through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The results indicate that workers' assessments are adopted from a deficit view rather than from the needs and possibilities. The majority of the participants underscored the importance of child involvement and partnership in the decision-making process; nevertheless, their case reflections showed that only five of them included the child in the assessment.