Abstract
Child abuse remains a major issue in South Africa. In many cases, the emergency removal of a child from his/her family is necessary in order to protect the child from further harm. Working with children and families in these contexts is a specialised field within social work, and as such requires specialised interventions. There is a gap in terms of providing professionals with a practice model for implementing emergency child protection interventions with children at risk. This study aims to address this gap by means of developing a model for practice. In the development of such a practice model, this article describes the various elements which need to be incorporated into the model: legislation, intervention strategies, social work theories, the best interest of the child standard and ethical principles.