Understanding System Change in Child Protection and Welfare

John Canavan, Carmel Devaney, Caroline McGregor, Aileen Shaw, John Canavan, Carmel Devaney, Caroline McGregor, Aileen Shaw

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000478273
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Social Sciences
• Categoria: Sociology

This book provides an account of the experience of a multifaceted system-change programme to strengthen the capacity of Ireland's statutory child protection and welfare agency in the areas of prevention, early intervention and family support.

Many jurisdictions globally are involved in system change processes focused on increasing investment in services that seek to prevent children's entry into child protection and welfare systems, through early intervention, greater support to families, and an increased emphasis on rights and participation. Based on a four-year in-depth study by a team of University-based researchers, this text adds to the emerging knowledge-base on developing, implementing and evaluating system change in child protection and welfare. Study methodological approaches were wide ranging and involved a number of key stakeholders including children, parents, social workers and social care workers, service managers, agency leaders and policy makers. Since the change process involved an agency-university partnership encompassing design, technical support and evaluation, the book also contributes to understandings of the potential and limits of such partnerships in the child protection and welfare field. Uniquely, the book gives voice to the experience of both agency personnel and academic in the accounts provided.

It will be of interest to all scholars, students and practitioners in the areas of child protection and welfare.

1 Introducing systems change in child protection and welfare through prevention, partnership and family support

Carmel Devaney, Aileen Shaw, John Canavan and Caroline McGregor

DOI: 10.4324/9781003147527-1

Introduction

Creating and sustaining child protection and welfare systems that are effective, insofar as they keep children safe, and efficient, in that resources are used optimally, is a global challenge. Reflecting this, child protection and welfare system change processes are underway in many nations. A key focus in many of these processes is increasing investment in services that seek to prevent children’s entry into child protection and welfare systems through early intervention, greater support to families and an increased emphasis on rights and participation. This book provides an account of the experience of a multifaceted system change programme to strengthen the capacity of the Irish State’s child protection and welfare agency, Tusla – Child and Family Agency (Tusla), entitled the Prevention, Partnership and Family Support (PPFS) programme. The investment, facilitated through philanthropic support, comprised an integrative and comprehensive set of five change components to develop and enhance existing provision through building sustainable intellectual and practice capacity within Tusla and partner organisations to perform prevention and early intervention work.

Based on a four-year in-depth research and evaluation study of the PPFS programme carried out by a research team working in the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre (UCFRC) at the National University of Galway (NUI, Galway), this book explores system change from initial plans to the reality of implementation and dissemination of the findings. It includes updated perspectives on developments since the conclusion of the study in 2018 from Tusla staff engaged in delivering the programme components. Our focus on the PPFS programme adds to the growing knowledge base on developing, implementing and evaluating system change in child protection and welfare. At the same time, as the change process involved an agency–university partnership encompassing design, technical support and evaluation, the book also contributes to understanding of the potential and limits of university–agency partnerships in the child protection and welfare field. The inclusion of international experts in the domain of child protection and welfare is reflected in the contribution of an Expert Advisory Committee to both the study and the chapters herein.

The book has four main objectives. First, we describe and analyse a process of system change and development in child welfare and protection aimed at reorientation towards prevention, early intervention and family support. The chapters capture the overall experience of initiating and implementing a system change process, by considering in detail the individual components of the change and its systemic nature. Accepting variations across diverse contexts and service modalities, the Irish experience reflects much of what is common in moves towards prevention approaches within child protection and welfare systems internationally. While the individual component areas are studied extensively in the literature, our contribution is in presenting a coherent body of evidence that examines in depth the multifaceted nature of system change and reorientation as a single case.

The second objective is to reflect on the experience of researching and evaluating the change programme. The chapters cover the evaluation questions, designs, methods and analysis at the overall system change level, and in relation to each of the PPFS components, represented as individual work packages. Each is framed theoretically within extant literature while maintaining a commitment to connect the theoretical with the real world of practice. Third, this volume provides an account of the potential and limits of university research partnerships in the field of child welfare and protection. The change programme in focus emerged in the context of a long-standing partnership between the university and Tusla. In an era of increased pressure on academics for research impact, and commitments to evidence-based practice from policymakers, this book illustrates the reality of partnership working towards these twin goals. A key part of our reflection is incorporating the voices and perspectives of our agency partners throughout the book with several represented as chapter co-authors.

The book’s fourth objective is to summarise and synthesise learning from the Irish case to inform the design, implementation and evaluation of child protection and welfare systems Change efforts globally. In doing so, we generate theoretically informed, empirically based learning for others working in the field of child protection and welfare, and in the wider human services field. A further unique aspect of this book is that it provides an integrated treatment of key themes in modern child welfare and protection, most often accounted for separately in the literature.

Overall, this book is targeted at scholars and practitioners. In particular, this text will be of interest to academics who study child protection and welfare systems and change processes and those interested in child protection, welfare, prevention, early intervention and family support practice and policy. Our findings are also relevant to a wide field of academics and researchers working in the general human services field who are interested in the study of system and organisational change. Finally, senior civil servants, agency leaders, service level leaders, practice and policy researchers who are actively working in these areas will be another key audience for the book.

In this chapter, we provide the foundations for the book. First, we discuss system change in child protection and welfare, focusing on developments in Ireland, but locating this in the broader international literature on the balance between protecting children and supporting families. We then set out in detail the key conceptual bases for prevention, early intervention and family support, before going on to describe the most relevant aspects of the PPFS programme, the case on which this text is based. This is followed by a brief reflection on orientations that informed our overall approach to the study, and a consideration of literature on partnership between universities and agencies and service communities, a fundamental aspect of the study. The last section summarises briefly the contents of the chapters to follow.

System change in child protection and welfare

Ireland has had a national child protection and welfare system since the Health Act 1970. Prior to that, it held statutory responsibility for children in care settings (e.g. in workhouses, county homes and industrial schools), children and families supported by Poor Law Assistance (public welfare) and some children who were adopted. From 1970 to 2014, child protection and welfare services were part of a wider health and social services structure through the Health Boards and subsequently the Health Service Executive (HSE) (see Devaney and McGregor, 2017 Devaney and Rooney, 2019; Burns and McGregor, 2019).

Tusla – Child and Family Agency (Tusla) was established in 2014 by the Child and Family Agency Act, 2013. Informed by the Report of the Task Force on the Child and Family Support Agency (2012), it was established as part of a comprehensive reform and consolidation of child protection, early intervention and family support services in Ireland. This significant transformation afforded ‘a once in a generation opportunity to fundamentally reform children’s services in Ireland’ (Report of the Task Force, 2012, p. iii). Tusla’s services include a range of universal and targeted services, including Child Protection and Welfare Services, Educational Welfare Services, Psychological Services, Alternative Care (including foster care, residential care and special care), Community-based Family Support Supports, Early Years Services and Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence Services. Ireland has always relied heavily on voluntary services to deliver support services to children and families and a wide network of statutory and voluntary/third sector and more recently private care organisations are also involved in the delivery of such services.

Nationally and internationally, there has been broad debate on how best to balance child protection and family support services (Daly et al., 2015), and this important consideration is ongoing (see, for example, Parton, 2014; Buckley and Burns, 2015; McGregor and Devaney, 2020a; McGregor and Devaney, 2020b). Ideologies, cultures and political climates have been noted as contributing to shaping individual countries’ responses to meet the needs of its children and young people, with a need for a balance between support, prevention and protection emphasised. Three main orientations have been identified in the literature (see Gilbert et al., 2011, Merkel-Houlguin et al., 2019, McGreogor and Devaney, 2020a). The first is systems and practices mostly oriented towards protective risk management, such as in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom (see, for example, Parton, 2014). The second are those identified as being more welfare oriented such as Nordic countries and some Central European countries (see, for example, Satka and Harrikari, 2008). The third are those that are more community oriented such as African, Saharan, and some Asia‐Pacific models (see, for example, Schmid, 2010). What is notable in the literature on orientations is the extent to which, within these basic distinctions, one finds further nuances in relation to country-specific and regional practices that evolve and change also over time and context. In recent times, there has been an enhanced emphasis on children’s rights and framing of services within this context (Merkel‐Holguin et al., 2019; Dolan et al., 2020). However, as McGregor and Devaney (2020) argue, ‘although each country is broadly signed up to the United Nations Convention on the rights of the Child (UNCRC), their interpretation and application of this in law, policy is historically, socially, and culturally bound to the specific national and local context’ (p. 3).

Prevention, early intervention and family support

Prevention as a concept in the child welfare and protection arena typically refers to efforts towards preventing child abuse or maltreatment from occurring in the first place and preventing existing difficulties from escalating or becoming more entrenched (Devaney, 2017). It can also refer to promoting positive actions or behaviours that keep children safe. Research has shown that to be successful in preventing child abuse, there must be activities both to reduce risk factors (that make it more likely for harm to occur) and to increase protective factors (that improve safety and well-being). Risk and protective factors are present in individual children, families, communities and at the societal level, and ensuring children’s safety may require change at each level (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2017). Supportive welfare services play a central role in the prevention of issues, escalating to the point that they cause significant harm to children’s welfare and a delay to their development. This includes emphasis not only on preventing difficulties arising in the first place but also on intervening early in the genesis of an issue (Devaney et al., 2013; Devaney, 2021). In line with this view, Barlow and Schrader McMillan (2010) draw a conceptual distinction between preventive interventions, designed to reduce the likelihood of maltreatment, and more specialist or therapeutic interventions, designed to prevent its recurrence and/or address the psychosocial consequences. Although such interventions may differ in content and focus, they are all nonetheless preventative in nature.

Sheppard notes that prevention is traditionally understood in terms of services provided to families and the timing of these, and he suggests that the actions of families themselves, in particular parents, ought to also be included in the prevention continuum. Sheppard refers specifically to the actions of parents in the stages prior to the involvement of services, and the actions families will take to ameliorate or resolve a situation (2009, p. 1442). He highlights what he terms ‘proto-prevention’ in describing the earliest stage on the prevention continuum where the actions of families and parents in particular are considered. Prevention can therefore be conceptualised on a continuum ranging from primary prevention to secondary prevention and then tertiary prevention. Primary prevention includes services and activities that provide support and information for the whole community (i.e. at a population level) before problems occur. More targeted services at this level can focus on the needs of a particular group within a community or region, for example bonding and attachment support for young mothers. Secondary prevention involves intervention early in a child’s life, or early in the stage of a problem or difficulty, and later more targeted intervention providing intensive help and support, such as family support services for families experiencing ‘high-risk’ issues. The aim is to prevent difficulties intensifying and/or becoming more established. Tertiary prevention refers to statutory child protection, police or specialist intervention, responding to reports of child abuse and neglect. The prevention focus in this instance is on stopping child abuse from reoccurring (Devaney, 2017; National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, 2019; Devaney, 2021). The Australian Institute of Family Studies (2014) emphasises how according to a public health model, primary, secondary and tertiary services are all critical elements in the child welfare and child protection system. H...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• List of abbreviations
• 1 Introducing systems change in child protection and welfare through prevention, partnership and family support
• 2 Focusing on the big picture: Doing system change evaluation
• 3 A collaborative approach to researching the Meitheal model: Learning and legacy
• 4 Systematically embedding child and youth participation in Tusla’s culture, practices and processes: Key findings from an evaluation of national training for staff
• 5 Collaborative research on Parenting Support and Parental Participation in child protection and welfare services
• 6 Expectations, capacity and sustainability: Introducing a commissioning model for child and family services in Ireland
• 7 Understanding and improving public and media awareness of family support services and supports: Challenges and opportunities for research and practice
• 8 Conclusion: Reflections on learning from the study to inform future research
• Index