I've done if for a short period of time. It's a tough gig with really long hours and you don't always feel like you make a difference. The system is really hard to work with, court makes decision that you don't always like, you can spend a lot of time doing administration and directing families as opposed to helping them work through problems, other professionals can treat you like crap. You have to put up with a lot of abuse from families.

On the upside it is really invaluable experience if you want to work in that kind of sector. You get to see how the system works, learn to deal with difficult clients, really hone assessment and crisis skills and learn a lot about case planning. These skills are very desirable in related fields.

If you want to work with families and children who have experienced abuse but don't want to do Child Protection there are a lot of related field where you can do some good work like foster care, kinship care, family support, intensive family preservation programs. You learn about the child protection system from the outside and you get to have more of a supportive role but it does also involve being directive or assertive at times. You also have to deal with some unhappy clients as well but it's a bit different than working in child protection.