This paper describes the relevance of evaluation criteria and participative practices in the improvement of home-care interventions (that in Italian sounds Intervento Domiciliare Educativo - IDE, since the name of the project IDE-AS in action) responding to problems connected to child-neglect. The project is focused on the Municipality of Trento (Italy) and the aims are I) to introduce new participative methods of evaluation based on tools both quantitative and qualitative and II) to identify effective practices and analyse them with practitioners and families since the results of evaluation tools and through other qualitative tools. A local Foundation (CARITRO) funded the IDE-AS project and in order to carry out it , the Municipality of Trento is supported by LabRIEF, a research unit within the University of Padua (Italy) concerned with action-research in the field of family education.
The methodology is based on PIPPI program (Program of Intervention for Prevention of Institutionalization). The project is organised according to different phases and developed through different research tools. Since it’s an action-research programme, in the first phase particular attention is paid to training meetings for social workers and educators. The scientific group together with the social workers select ten families (Target Families, TF). The TF have been selected according to some requirements, such as the age of the child (4-14 years old) and the existence of problems related to parenthood (child neglect, vulnerability) and of a cooperative and non-conflictual environment between parents and social services.
With the TF new participative evaluation criteria in the care planning and in the interventions are introduced and applied. The assessment and care planning of home-care interventions is conducted in three different times (T0, T1, T2) with the fundamental involvement of parents, children, teachers, psychologists or psychiatrists, social workers and educators. This participatory evaluation is carried out through: (1) our Italian adaptation of the British Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families, including (1a) the related questionnaire to measure family-functioning and (1b) the grid useful to build the shared assessment and care plan. Moreover they are used (2) SDQ and (3) MsPSS questionnaires, that measure respectively children’s behavior and families’ social support, and (4) Protective Factors Scale and (5) Multidimensional Self-esteem Test.
The tools are filled by different targets (parents, children, home-care workers), replicated in the different times (T0, T1, T2) and analysed through a specific software. The ten TF are compared with ten families in which home-care interventions are organised according to local conventional standards, using the same questionnaires (1a, 2, 3, 4, 5). Moreover, the project asks to practitioners of TF (and particularly to home-care workers) to collect the detailed actions conducted with children and families through the completion of an Interventions with families grid.
Finally, the project provides a specific and detailed focus on two families through in-depth interviews, in order to detect the effectiveness of the interventions and to analyse the relationship established among family members and practitioners.
Periodically the researcher holds a withdrawing session in order to conceptualize and write down ideas since all the material gathered (care plans, questionnaires, intervention grids, interviews). These preliminary insights are given to the team of practitioners and to the families’ group as feedback for further analysis.
Results The project lasts two years and now it is at its starting point; the presentation will analyse the partial results and actions collected after the first phase of the research (T0).
Conclusions The action-research is expected to provide more findings and recommendations in order to promote cooperative and participative practices of evaluation within social services and to reinforce effective practices in the field of home-care intervention.
Prevention and family intervention programs , Participation of children and families in child welfare interventions
