From Family Assessment to Assessment-Based Child Protection Governance: A Practice Innovation from China

Abstract This case documents a 12-month child protection governance innovation in a prefecture-level city in Eastern China, addressing the inability of existing fragmented, single-source observation models to capture family dysfunction complexity or identify emerging risks before crisis escalation. The initiative was undertaken by the municipal civil affairs department in partnership with a university, covering 363 vulnerable children across 14 administrative districts. Through four phases – baseline survey, indicator validation, cultural adaptation, and pilot implementation – it established a four-source triangulation assessment framework (children, caregivers, teachers, and community child directors), a three-tier risk classification system, and digitally enabled multi-sectoral coordination. By the pilot’s conclusion, 126 families had completed full-cycle assessments, with the model’s core components subsequently incorporated into provincial standards. For Global South readers, transferable principles include: four-source triangulation overcomes dual-source limitations; gender-sensitive indicators counter underservice of girls; binary checklists ensure frontline usability; and digital architecture serves as decision-support without proprietary software. This practice innovation proposes an assessment-based governance model for child protection. Rather than treating assessment as a technical exercise, the model positions assessment as the institutional entry point through which risk identification, differentiated intervention, multi-sectoral coordination, and continuous accountability are integrated into one governance process. Its contribution therefore lies less in developing a new assessment tool than in demonstrating how child protection governance can be reorganized in resource-constrained settings.