GAINING THE VIEWS OF VULNERABLE FAMILIES: EFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH

FAMILIES ANDTHEIR SOCIAL WORKERS

Jo Moriarty, Mary Baginsky, Jill Manthorpe

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OUTLINE

Ongoing projectFunding from the Department for Education Children’s Social Care Innovations Programme Central government funding Supporting pilots and change programmes that test or spread more

effective ways of supporting vulnerable childrenPresentation mainly focuses on some of the methodological challenges that we have faced

Argues that these challenges reflect wider considerations for social work research

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WHAT IS SIGNS OF SAFETY?

Strengths based, safety focused approach to child protection Created by Andrew Turnell and

Steve Edwards in collaboration with Australian child protection workers (CPWs)

Model focuses on assessing ‘strengths’ and ‘dangers’

Expanded elsewhere Including parts of USA, Sweden,

Japan and England

“How can the worker build partnerships with parents and

children in situations of suspected or

substantiated child abuse and still deal rigorously with the

maltreatment issues?”

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MUNRO, TURNELL & MURPHY CHILD PROTECTION CONSULTING

Transforming Children’s Services with Signs of Safety Practice at the Centre

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WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE?

Ten local authorities across England at different starting points

Four evaluation questions: Is ‘Signs of Safety’ being implemented? What organisational forms best support front line practice? Are outcomes for children and young people improving? Is there better value for money across children’s social care?

Two evaluations MTM (mainly first two) Social Care Workforce Research Unit (mainly last two)

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COMPARATIVE ABSENCE OF ESTABLISHED METHODOLOGIESComparatively little research based on parents’ views (Ghaffar et al 2012, Smithson and Gibson, 2016)

More research on children’s opinions (Oliver, 2010) but tends to be views of older children and those already in care

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GATEKEEPING

Gatekeepers in agencies often control access to potential participantsComparatively small literature on its impact (for example Heath et al, 2007, Kars et al, 2015Themes include protection from intrusion, concerns about consent

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STRATEGIES TO HELP IMPROVE ACCESS (1)Agencies contacted families to inform them about research on ‘opt in’ basis By letter, given time frame in which to respond Checked suitability of this approach with official working for Information Commissioner

Only one person complained when contacted by researcher out of several 100 families contacted overall

Named person responsible for sending lists of families who had not opted out to research team Builds up understanding of research and relationship with researcher in area

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STRATEGIES TO HELP IMPROVE ACCESS (2)Still need to contact individual social workers to check situation Where to visit, if two people should go, any factors that might make it

unsuitable to contact family, whether an interpreter is needed, and so on Reflects wider workforce factors – turnover and contractual

arrangements influence the extent to which they have come to understand about the research

Role of principal social workers Recommendation of Munro Report (2011) Way these posts have operated has varied (Stanley & Russell, 2014) but

in some areas they have been pivotal in us reaching our target numbers of people to interview

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‘HARD TO REACH’

Featherstone et al comment on change in language away from ‘support’ to target on ‘hard to reach’ families not engaging with interventionsHard to measure impact of experiences of services in terms of willingness to engage with research

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STRATEGIES TO ‘REACH’ FAMILIES

Research associates have gone to considerable efforts to interview families Multiple telephone calls Texts Letters Timing interviews to coincide when children over 8 are at home

Challenge in geographically spread out areasStill does not prevent ‘no shows’ when person out when researcher calls

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THE BIGGER PICTURE

Realities of people’s lives Use of prepay mobile rather than landline Some have explained that they do not have credit to return calls

Often pleased to have opportunity to give views to independent researchers Opportunity to control narrative – especially if disagree with content of reports

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OUTCOMES VERSUS ENGAGEMENT

Using a range of standardised measures for parents and childrenBUT fewer opportunities for creative methodologies than in community development

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WHERE WE ARE NOW

Aim to have two cohorts interviewed at two points in time

Currently revisiting Time 1 cohort with mixed success

Overall about 270 families will have taken part

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TAKING THINGS FORWARD

Recognition of time needed to recruit and engage samples of parents and children

Has also involved checking case files and other types of data collection

Challenges needed to integrate different sources of data

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SOURCES AND REFERENCES (1)Slide no Link

2 Spring Consortium: http://springconsortium.com/about-the-programme/3 Signs of Safety: http://www.signsofsafety.net/signs-of-safety/4 Signs of Safety England Innovations Project:

http://munroturnellmurphy.com/englandinnovations/6 Ghaffar et al: http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/content/42/5/887.abstract

Smithson & Gibson: http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/7/1735.abstractOliver: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/518/1/Children_s_views_and_experiences_of_contact_with_social_workers_report_July_2010.pdf7 Gate from Free.foto.com: http://www.freefoto.com/index.jspHeath et al: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920701243651Kars et al: http://pmj.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/03/09/0269216315616759.abstract31/03/2016

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SOURCES AND REFERENCES (2)Slide no Link

10 Longleat maze: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longleat-maze.jpgFeatherstone et al: http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/7/1735.abstract

3 Signs of Safety: http://www.signsofsafety.net/signs-of-safety/4 Signs of Safety England Innovations Project:

http://munroturnellmurphy.com/englandinnovations/6 Ghaffar et al: http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/content/42/5/887.abstract

Smithson & Gibson: http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/7/1735.abstractOliver: http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/518/1/Children_s_views_and_experiences_of_contact_with_social_workers_report_July_2010.pdf7 Gate from Free.foto.com: http://www.freefoto.com/index.jspHeath et al: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01411920701243651Kars et al: http://pmj.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/03/09/0269216315616759.abstract

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DISCLAIMER AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis research was funded by the Department for Education. The views expressed in this presentation are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education

Thank you for listening

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