Interagency Collaboration between Forensic Social Workers and Police Officers and Child Protection Effectiveness in Oyo State, Nigeria

Effective collaboration between professionals responsible for identifying, investigating and responding to cases involving children at risk is essential for child protection. The study investigated inter-agency collaboration between forensic social workers and police officers on effectiveness of child protection services in Oyo State, Nigeria. The research design used was descriptive survey. The sample was composed of 100 professionals: 50 forensic social workers and 50 police officers working in child protection services. The data were collected by means of structured questionnaire, using census sampling. The data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test the relationship between interagency collaboration and child protection effectiveness at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the level of interagency collaboration was moderate (weighted mean = 2.88), while the effectiveness of the child protection services was moderate (weighted mean = 2.72). Pearson correlation analysis indicated a positive and statistically significant correlation between interagency collaboration and the effectiveness of child protection services (r = 0.438, p < 0.001). The results suggest that increased collaboration between forensic social workers and police officers is related to more effective delivery of child protection services. The study concludes that improving joint case management, communication, information sharing, referral mechanisms and coordinated interventions is important to improving child protection outcomes in Oyo State.

: Child Protection, Effectiveness of Child Protection, Interagency Collaboration, Police Officers, Oyo State, Forensic Social Work

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