Transcript Professor Marianne Berry Chair and Director, Australian

Essential Elements
of Best Practice in Child Protection
Macquarie University
Sydney, NSW
20 October 2011
Professor Marianne Berry
Chair and Director
Australian Centre for Child Protection
University of South Australia
The Australian Centre for Child
Protection at UniSA
• Conducts sound research to meet the needs of
children and families at risk of maltreatment
and/or out of home placement, and those who
work with them.
• Provides knowledge and skills for workforce
development with high risk communities.
• Focuses these research and workforce
development efforts on building and sharing the
evidence base.
My Objectives
• Lessons from one researcher’s journey in
research on child protection practice
• Analyse the services and service
components that are provided and how
effective they are in protecting children
• Place international evidence in the social
and political context of given countries,
with implications for Australia’s service
system
Why Child Protection?
• Child protection worker in my 20s
– The need to be rational in an emotional job
• I wanted to know “what will work”
– What will work in accomplishing “what”?
• I’ve worked backwards
– From general to specific, from closure to intake
– Always focused in child protection
– Always for the benefit of front-line workers
What Works?
• In preventing child abuse
• In stopping current child abuse
• In keeping children out of foster care
• Other goals of child protection?
A Brief Comment on Prevention
To measure the prevention of harm:
• Look for signs of the absence of
protection (very broad indicators)
AND / OR
• Child abuse notifications, substantiations
and/or removal of children (very narrow
indicators)
Reports versus Risks
• Effective awareness and education about child
maltreatment will lead to earlier identification of
maltreatment.
• Early intervention and prevention programs are
working if abuse referrals and notifications rise
(and then fall in future years).
• Think of the news stories about “why didn’t
anyone know about this child?”
Responding to Risks and Reports
• Higher numbers of referrals and notifications are
good IF the system has the capacity to serve
those children once identified.
• How can we truly measure whether prevention
programs are effective?
• Risks and Actual Harm are both decreasing
• A National Incidence Survey
• PLUS – How do we define Harm?
Types of Substantiated Maltreatment
100%
90%
80%
70%
Phys Ab
60%
Sex Ab
50%
40%
Neglect
30%
Emot Ab
20%
10%
0%
NSW
Vic
Qld
WA
SA
AIHW, Child Protection Australia, 2009-2010.
Tas
ACT
NT
What Are Best Practices?
• Current best practice is largely from the the US
and UK evidence base about what program
elements are predictive of or associated with:
• lower recurrence of maltreatment, or
• lower rates of out of home placement for children.
• These are outcomes about which we have some
confidence that we can measure them.
• This evidence does not focus on prevention and
service integration – much harder to measure.
So What Works:
• In preventing recurrence of maltreatment?
• In preventing out of home placement?
• In returning children safely home?
Effective Practice Components
• One-on-one learning and practicing of
skills: parenting, social skills, negotiation
• Shared within a strong caring relationship
• Worker models these same skills in his or
her interactions with others
• Praise, praise, praise
• Clear and concise information, not lengthy
or complicated
The Importance of Engagement
The best predictor of good outcomes is
engagement:
•
Include staff that “look like” families, e.g.,
including community members in recruitment
and delivery of services
•
No judging or blaming parents or children
•
Listen without turning against
parents/children
More on Engagement
•
•
•
•
•
Help with concrete needs, e.g. health care
and financial support
Work toward goals with the same sense of
urgency as the family
Provide support such as transportation, child
care for meetings, flexible hours
Have flexible funds for creative solutions
Meet with families at their homes
And engagement is critical to a relationship
aimed at learning and practicing new skills.
What Does Not Work?
• Being less than honest
• No surprises
• No promises we can’t keep
• Giving up hope
• Be encouraging even when the news is not good
• Referrals to lots of support services
• Families note the importance of relationship
• Chaotic lives are made more complex
The Importance of Social and
Cultural Context
Involvement in comparative international research
on services to high risk families has amplified for
me the importance of social, cultural and political
context.
• Where does the family stop and the
community begin?
• Must consider context when attempting to
replicate an evidence-based model in another
setting.
The International Association of Outcome Based Evaluation and
Research in Family and Children’s Services, Padova, Italy
Australian Considerations
(from the semi-outside looking in)
•Definitions of maltreatment
– Greater “caring” necessitates greater care
•Definitions of family and child
– Who are we serving?
•Norms of personal and social responsibility
– Compliance versus cooperation
•Who is Australian?
Professor Marianne Berry
Director and Chair
Australian Centre for Child Protection
University of South Australia
(08) 8302 2918
[email protected]
www.unisa.edu.au/childprotection
Image source: Istockphoto