Responding to Maltreatment Accumulation Across the Child Protection Continuum

This chapter introduces eight guiding principles for child protection practice with children who have experienced cumulative maltreatment. These principles include (1) investment into the child protection workforce, (2) embedding trauma-informed responses as core components of care across all domains, (3) engaging children and young people in comprehensive maltreatment-sensitive functional, behavioural and health assessments, (4) proactive planning to address maltreatment related issues, (5) supporting safety and wellbeing through enhanced stability, (6) strengthening relational networks and connections to communities, (7) collaborating within a multi-disciplinary care team, and (8) engaging children and young people in scalable, evidence-informed clinical and therapeutic models. The chapter advocates for aligning all elements of child protection practice with these eight principles, so that systems can move toward long-term healing.