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34 J. Soc. & Soc. Welfare 35 (2007)
Negotiating Professional Agency: Social Work and Decision-Making within the Ontario Child Welfare System

handle is hein.journals/jrlsasw34 and id is 671 raw text is: Negotiating 'Professional Agency': Social Work and Decision-Making within the Ontario Child Welfare System HENRY PARADA LISA BARNOFF BRIENNE COLEMAN Ryerson University School of Social Work This article explores how social work as a discipline has helped to negotiate professional agency in decision-making within the re- structured child protection system. The narratives of child protec- tion workers affirm that a restrictive climate does exist in child protection agencies and that it indeed shapes the way they make their decisions. This study uses institutional ethnography as the methodology for exploring the decision-making practices of child protection workers. Three forms of data collection were used: ex- perience as data, documentation reviews and in-depth interviews. Keywords: child protection, social work, decision-making, insti- tutional ethnography Introduction The massive child welfare system restructuring and resul- tant standardized Ontario Risk Assessment Model (ORAM) that have emerged in recent years in Ontario have had pro- found impacts upon the ways in which social workers within Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, December 2007, Volume XXXIV, Number 4 35

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