Support and supervision for Indigenous child protection workers: a critical examination

Knowledge about support and supervision needs of Indigenous child protection workers is missing from the child protection practice landscape. Previous work in this area (Dane, 2000; Gibbs, 2001; Anderson, 2000) has not been Indigenous-specific meaning that Indigenous workers’ voices are left unheard. The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature through a critical lens and to examine three main areas of interest, namely, how past government policies may impact workers within the child protection system; unique support and supervision needs; and recruitment of Indigenous people as a strategy to address over-representation. The review found that child protection staff recruitment strategies must incorporate supervision and support frameworks that acknowledge the trauma based histories of Indigenous staff. Further research is warranted into what these frameworks might look like