Increasing the Impact of Research on Practice: Developing, Implementing and Evaluating a Reunification Practice Framework

Objectives Returning children to their parents is a common outcome for children who enter substitute care, but research has shown that there is a high risk of return breakdown and repeat abuse or neglect when children are... [ view full abstract ]

Objectives
Returning children to their parents is a common outcome for children who enter substitute care, but research has shown that there is a high risk of return breakdown and repeat abuse or neglect when children are reunified.

The objective of this joint University of Bristol and NSPCC project was to create, in partnership with local authorities, a Practice Framework for Reunification. It built on previous NSPCC guidance which had been tested in nine local authorities and was informed by a review of the relevant research literature on reunification.

The Framework aims to support practitioners and managers to apply professional judgement to decision-making about whether a child can be returned home from care and informs their work with families throughout the reunification process and after return. It addresses which services are likely to ensure that reunification is stable and provides a structure for analysing the risks to the child, based on two systematic reviews of studies on the factors associated with child maltreatment recurrence. The Framework aims to support parents and workers to understand what needs to change, agree goals, record them in written agreements, access services and review progress. The emphasis is on engaging children and parents in the process.

Methods
Working closely with three local authorities in England, the project team ran learning sets over a six month period, to assist staff to take the necessary steps at both strategic and operational levels to implement the Practice Framework. This approach was summarised in an Implementation Checklist in order to assist other local authorities to introduce and use the Framework, without outside help.

The University of Bristol undertook an evaluation of the project, examining the views of practitioners and managers on the usefulness of the Framework, how it had been implemented and whether their knowledge of reunification research had increased.

Results of the evaluation
The evaluation showed that the Reunification Practice Framework was welcomed by practitioners and managers who found it clearly set out, practical, evidence informed and showing how reunification could be managed. They liked the emphasis on engaging children and parents in the process. Their positive response is captured in the response ‘It goes back to “proper” social work’. The risk assessment tool was highly valued and they considered that the Framework would be useful for the key tasks involved in reunification.
At the end of this short project, practitioners’ confidence in assessing parental capacity to change had increased. There were also statistically significant positive changes in the management of reunification in relation to establishing the data to monitor reunification outcomes and track cost savings. All the local authorities were developing policies on reunification and had taken action to increase services to support reunification. Most participants saw the Framework as readily accessible, self-explanatory and immediately useable by other local authorities.

Findings on awareness of research findings on reunification were more mixed. There was an increased awareness of the research which underpinned the practice changes addressed in the learning sets but a number of key research findings in the Framework were still not well known at project end.

Conclusions
The project aimed to maximise the impact of research findings on practice by developing an accessible framework for practitioners to use when making decisions about reunification and during the subsequent stages leading up to and after children return home. This paper will discuss the evolution and structure of the Practice Framework, the research evidence which informs it and key findings from the evaluation. The Practice Framework and the Implementation Checklist have been made available on the University of Bristol and NSPCC websites.