The protection of children and young people is a task for society as a whole. In the first years of life, care and support, and thus the protection of children, fall primarily to the family as a socialization instance. Social and educational professionals take on a central task and function in various fields of activity in supporting parents and children and are therefore also confronted with questions of protection and child welfare.

In order to give prospective professionals a better preparation for this task during their studies and to support students in their educational process, a digital course "Child Protection - Children's Rights - Child Welfare" was developed for students on the OPAL learning platform at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the HSZG. Prof. Torsten Linke, Alexandra Marx and Cordula Lasner-Tietze were involved in the development of the course as responsible authors. The course offers all students selected information, literature, tips and working materials on the subject of child protection. Social work students have the opportunity to complete an online course on child protection consisting of six modules and receive a certificate of attendance.

Link to the course: https://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/opal/auth/RepositoryEntry/47476867074

Starting with early childhood care in day care centers and day care centers, further support is provided in school contexts. Many children and young people also take part in child and youth work and child and youth association work. This means that volunteers also have a responsibility for child protection. In all fields of social work, professionals can come into contact with people who are parents. As social work experts, these parents may also ask professionals questions about the upbringing, care and support of children and young people. This can also include conversations that lead to a concrete discussion of the child's welfare and highlight issues of risk. If the family, biological parents and legal guardians of children and adolescents are unable to perform their socialization role to a sufficient extent, institutions and child and youth welfare professionals must provide appropriate support. In the event of an acute risk to a child's welfare, intervention is necessary within the framework of the legal situation. All professionals in social areas who work with children, young people and their (biological, social, legal) parents must have basic specialist knowledge and basic skills in child protection in order to be able to act professionally (cf. Linke/Eckhardt 2023). This leads to the question of how universities prepare students for their later work in practice?

The topic of child protection is insufficiently integrated into most universities in Germany. The National Center for Early Intervention (NZFH) writes on its homepage as a result of the 2020 "Expert Discussion on Child Protection" "Universities are overburdened with the training of specialists for child protection work." (NZFH 2020) This statement can be interpreted in different ways and for different reasons. On the one hand, the possibilities in the degree course are limited due to the framework conditions and not everything that is later needed in practice can be taught and learned in the degree course; on the other hand, universities, especially in the field of social work, cannot escape their responsibility in child protection. This results from the constitutionally enshrined duty of guardianship and the guarantor duty of social workers in the youth welfare office and the responsibility of all professionals working in child and youth welfare resulting from SGB VIII. Social workers must acquire basic knowledge of child protection during their studies, including knowledge of sexualized violence. The resolution passed by the Conference of Youth and Family Ministers (JFMK) on 12/13 May 2022 in Berlin makes this very clear: "The JFMK considers it necessary to make the ability to act to protect children and young people from sexualized violence even more of a compulsory component of relevant degree courses and vocational training courses. This applies in particular to degree courses in social pedagogy, curative education and social work..." (JFMK 2022). Based on the prevalence of sexualized violence shown by bright-field and dark-field studies (cf. BKA 2024; Weller 2021) and in relation to the JFMK resolution, the UBSKM 2023 working group organized an exchange of practice on child protection in social work teaching. Teachers from 10 federal states took part in a survey conducted by Koblenz University of Applied Sciences in preparation for the event. Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences was represented by Prof. Dr. Torsten Linke and, along with three universities from Berlin, was the only university from the new federal states to take part (see UBSKM 2023).

The digital course developed by colleagues at the HSZG can complement the classes / courses in the classroom and help to prepare future professionals better for their future tasks in practice. The aim is to support the professional handling of issues relating to child protection, child welfare and children's rights.

Torsten Linke, 01/2025

Sources:

Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) (2024): In Focus: Federal Situation Report on Sexual Offenses against Children and Adolescents 2023. https://www.bka.de/DE/AktuelleInformationen/StatistikenLagebilder/Lagebilder/SexualdeliktezNvKindernuJugendlichen/2023/BLBSexualdelikte_2023_node.html (13.01.2025)

Conference of Youth and Family Ministers of the Länder (JFMK) (2022): Protocol-JFMK-2022. TOP 6.2 Prevention of sexualized violence against children and adolescents. https://jfmk.de/beschluesse/ (14.01.2025)

Linke, T./Eckhardt, A. G. (2023): Editorial: Kinderschutz in Einrichtungen der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe, Diskurs Kindheits- und Jugendforschung / Discourse. Journal of Childhood and Adolescence Research, 3-2023, pp. 293-296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3224/diskurs.v18i3.01

National Center for Early Intervention (NZFH) (2020): Training: Child protection in social work studies. https://www.fruehehilfen.de/qualitaetsentwicklung-kinderschutz/fachgespraeche-zum-kinderschutz/fit-fuer-den-kinderschutz/ausbildung-kinderschutz-im-studium-der-sozialen-arbeit/ (14.01.2025)

Independent Officer for Child Sexual Abuse Issues (UBSKM) (2023): Debate contribution child protection in the teaching of social work - practice exchange. beauftragte-missbrauch. de/mediathek/publikationen/expertisen-und-studien (14.01.2025)

Weller, K./Bathke, G.-W./Kruber, A./Voß, H.-J. (2021): PARTNER 5 Jugendsexualität 2021. primary report: sexual education, sexual boundary violations and sexualized violence. Merseburg: Merseburg University of Applied Sciences. https://www.ifas-home.de/partner-5-jugenderhebung/ (13.01.2025)

Literature recommendations for further study (HSZG students can find more information in the Opal course):

Biesel, K./Urban-Stahl, U. (2022): Textbook on child protection. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa.

Böwer, M./Kotthaus, J. (eds.) (2018): Child protection practice book. Overcoming professional challenges. Weinheim/Basel: Beltz Juventa.

Gebrande, J. (2021): Social work after traumatic experiences: Basic knowledge for dealing with traumatized people. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Krolzik-Matthei, K./Linke, T./Urban, M. (eds.) (2020): Protecting children and adolescents from sexual traumatization. Current results and findings from social work theory and practice. Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30820/9783837976946

Retkowski, A./Treibel, A./Tuider, E. (eds.) (2018): Handbook Sexualized Violence and Educational Contexts. Theory, research, practice. Weinheim/Basel: Beltz Juventa.

Wersig, Tim (ed.) (to be published in 2025): Specialist counseling in child protection. A practical handbook. Opladen: Budrich.