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DJI Approach to Good Practice. Scie International Seminar: Good Practice. Heinz Kindler / Eric van Santen. Context for the development of Good Practice in Germany. Social Services are organized at a community level
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DJI Approach to Good Practice Scie International Seminar: Good Practice Heinz Kindler / Eric van Santen
Context for the development of Good Practice in Germany • Social Services are organized at a community level • Outside the area of care for elder citizens there is hardly any review and audit system • Little government commitment to evidence based practice • Low methodological standards in German social work research
Low methodological standards in German Social Work publications • Analysis of 5 volumes of the 5 most important social work journals (n>500 articles) • Rating system according to Rosen et al (1999) with six categories: • Non empirical 412 82% • Illustrative 46 9% • Descriptive 39 8% • Explanatory 4 0.8% • Controlled 2 0.2% • Systematic review 0 0.0%
Methodological standards regarding „best practice“ in German social work • Minimal methodological requirements: Some kind of comparison of a range of different practices with regard to one or more outcome criteria • Literature search in a German social work database after publications with „best practice“ in the title (n=8) • Minimal methodological requirements • Not met 6 75% • Partly met 2 25% • Met 0 0% • In most cases „best practice“ is just a word for practice that sounds good or is felt to be innovative
The DJI (German Youth Institute) • About 140 researchers, located in Munich and Halle, founded 1963, 2008: 66 projects • Mostly financed by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ): 7,8 Mio. € in 2008, additional 8 Mio. from other sources • Research for politicians and practitioners on children, youth and families, including family and child welfare services • No unitary approach but constant work and discussion on research approaches to evidence
Cooperation between the statutory and the non-statutory sector • Basic principle Statutory and non-statutory youth services shall cooperate on a basis of partnership. • Precedence of the non-statutory youth services (Principle of subsidiarity) Where the non-statutory youth services can discharge suitable functions the statutory sector shall refrain from activities of its own. • Overall responsibility of the statutory sector The statutory sector, i.e. the youth office, has the overall responsiblity for child and youth services.
Effects of Local Responsibility • youth offices develope very different politics • the width of the product range differs • the quantity of the provisions differs • different cultures of appropriateness This leads to very different levels of usage of youth care provisions
Example 1 of the DJI Approach:Risk assessment in child protection practice • Rated as one of the top three problems in three workshps with child protection practitioners • Two non-systematic reviews (Kindler 2006) • Development of a risk assessment module in cooperation with two children and youth authorities • Testing phase 1: Reliability, incremental prognostic valididty, acceptance (Kindler et al. 2008, Reich et al. 2009) • Testing phase 2 (one year later): Acceptance, redundancies, most common errors and misunderstandings • Still missing: Comparison with other RA-methods in Germany
Incremental prognostic validity • One page risk assessment instrument (21 risk factors) • 60 child protection case files already open before the instrument was introduced • Risk analysis based on the first 3 months of the file, independent case progress analysis with „Child Welfare Outcome Indicator Matrix“ (Trocmé et al. 1999), e.g. additional maltreatment episode • Structured risk assessment predicted additional maltreatment and maltreatment related injuries of children in the family over and above unstructured case worker risk intuition
5 risk factors predicted later maltreatment related injury of a child in the family: Maltreatment related injury Mother maltreated as child .30* Mother addicted / psychiatric illness .22+ Father maladaptive coping .29* Prior Maltreatment .24* Parents underestimate risk .25*
Example 2 of the DJI approach:Reunification of foster children • Foster care workers do not rate reunification as top problem, but several high court decisions demand more reunification efforts • Collecting data on reunification base rates (van Santen), international comparison data (e.g. Thoburn 2007) • Field research: reunification processes (n=29, follow-up period: 1yr), what decision criteria are used by practitioners and what is done to support reunifications processes (telephone interviews) • Field search for projects aimed to support successful reunifications, 2 projects where contracted for writing a report on their practice • Ongoing systematic review on validated prognostic critieria, creation of 2 instruments (barriers to reunification, prognosis)
Summary 1: Our answers to the SCIE questions • Is there a sufficiently robust evidence base to identify good practice? • Generally not; Germany is just doing the first steps to build up ebp; threats to validity, meta-analysis and systematic review techniques are hardly known, there is growing interest in international collaboration
Summary 2: Our answers to the SCIE questions • Political Issues: • In the small area of early child welfare services there is a national agency (NZFH), doing a good job to create an evidence base (e.g. 3 RCT‘s), there is some policy support, but connections to the science organisations are weak, practitioners seem to be divided about gp, seeking support but being critical against controll and accountability
Summary 3: Our answers to the SCIE questions • Delivery mechanisms I: Handbook • First experience with a web-based and printed on Handbook on child endangerment are very positive, several project data-bases (not evaluated), policy frameworks support gp for some time in specific areas (e.g. foster care), professional codes are generally gp friendly but are not strongly supported
Summary 3: Our answers to the SCIE questions • Delivery mechanisms II: Promoting Evaluation • Identifying completed and ongoing evaluation studies in Germany • Analysing and systematising these studies • Preparing the information obtained for storage in a Database • Stimulating and monitoring the evaluation discussion • Encouraging the interdisciplinary exchange of experience among stakeholders involved in and affected by evaluations • Counselling on designing and implementing evaluations at the federal level • Developing and advancing external evaluation concepts and strategies in child and youth services • Advancing evaluation standards within the framework of the German Evaluation Society (DeGEval - Gesellschaft für Evaluation) • Establishing international collaboration and research contacts and transfer of experience • Events such as expert meetings, workshops and expert hearings • Publications documentation and internet service
Summary 3: Our answers to the SCIE questions • Delivery mechanisms III: Databases (GP) • Research on Childcare • Schools and their Partners • Youth and Work • Gendermainstreaming in Youth Welfare Services • Social Integration of Marginalized Young People • Prevention of School Fatigue and Refusal