COVID-19 and child welfare policy in Chile: The experience of front-line workers

Abstract

COVID-19 arrived in Chile amid social protests that questioned the State’s ability to protect children’s rights. Nevertheless, child policy workers continued working despite the drastic changes to their daily work generated by both the pandemic and conflicts within the child welfare system. In this article, we aim to understand how these workers have experienced and overcome these challenges. We show that they have continued doing interventions with children at the expense of their economic resources and well-being. Our findings highlight the need for the government to take immediate action, offering guidelines to improve child policy workers’ labor conditions.