Cultural competency, child protection intake workers, and northern British Columbia experiences.

Cultural and ethnic diversity as a principle feature in Canadian child protection services necessitates drastic continuous reviews of existing organization policies and frameworks. A case in point is the need to address the persistent disproportional representation of ethnic minority children in the British Columbia's provincial child welfare system. As the initial contact with families in the province, child protection intake social workers' cultural competency largely determines the effectiveness of the services provided to families. This qualitative study used content analysis to analyze interviews with six child protection social workers employed by the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). A thematic framework was developed that can be used to inform MCFD regarding the need for improvement of cultural competency among its workers. --P. i.