TCDSS Child Protective Services PROGRAM

Child Protective Services Unit

What is Child Protective Services? Virginia Department of Social Services policy Volume VII, section III, Chapter A defines Child Protective Services as the identification, receipt and immediate response to complaints and reports of alleged child abuse and/or neglect for children less than 18 years of age. It also includes assessment, and arranging for and providing necessary protective and rehabilitative services for a child and his family when the child has been found to have been abused or neglected or is at risk of being abused or neglected. The focus of the services is identification, assessment and service provision in an effort to protect children, preserve families, whenever possible, and prevent further maltreatment. Child protective services is non-punitive in approach and is directed toward enabling families to provide adequate care and nurture for their children. In order to accomplish the complex task of helping families protect their children, the provision of child protective services must have as a foundation the following basic assumptions:

Child protective services is a process which incorporates past, present and future;
Implicit in the definition of abuse or neglect is the assumption of harm to the child or children, both real and threatened;
The purpose of child protective services intervention is protecting children, helping families identify behaviors that harm or threaten to harm their children, and providing services directed toward changing those behaviors while enhancing their ability to protect their children;
Child protective services intervention needs to be therapeutic and each contact should support the family; and,
People can and do change, within the limitations of the individual, his or her environment, time and a worker’s skills and perception.

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