Intensive Family Support Service: Implementation Outcomes Evaluation

The Intensive Family Support Service (IFSS) is targeted for families with children (0 – 12) who have come to the attention of child protection service for concerns of child neglect. IFSS is an evidenced-based parenting support service which aims to provide intensive support in the home and community, to reduce neglect. The goal is to ensure children: * are adequately supervised * have all their basic physical needs met * have all their health needs met * have their emotional and developmental needs met * have their educational needs met IFSS is a flexible, practical and intensive service that is tailored to the individual needs of each family. Trained IFSS workers work with families in their homes and local communities (face-t0 face support with additional communication via telephone if required) to develop and enhance their parenting skills. The intervention will be personalised based on the initial assessment that includes semi-structured interview and observations at the family's home (e.g. Family Gathering Information tool and the Child Neglect Index). This will help to identify families needs - strengths/struggles/strategies working/new skills needed. The assessment might need to take a couple of sessions depending on the family structure (other people in the family that we might need to interview). The assessment is done by the IFSS worker (they are supervised by practice coaches). Based on the assessment, goals for each family will be identified and a Family Support Plan will be developed - that matches teaching a support strategies to the family's strengths, needs and learning style. Further, a specific, time-lined action plan will be developed - what will be done, by whom and for how long. New skills will be practiced at home - based on the strategy that includes modelling of skills by the worker - practicing of skills by the caregiver - and feedback provided to the family by the worker. The intensive service may require workers to do multiple home visits/phone calls per week. It is anticipated that each family will receive at least 2 hours of support per week until the set goals have been achieved (e.g. CNI score below 50). Subsequently, families do not necessarily receive IFSS care for the entire 12 month intervention period. Regular assessment during the family’s involvement in the program (every 3 months) will inform case closure decisions. If the family requires more than 12 months with IFSS, an assessment of the family’s circumstances is required to understand the progress made to date and whether the family is likely to achieve their goals within an extended defined timeframe. IFSS focuses on increasing parental capacity and skills rather than creating dependency or prolonging decisions about a child’s ability to safely remain with their family. IFSS workers may provide the following support and services: 1. Develop plans and goals in partnership with families to meet their children’s needs 2. Provide ongoing assessment and support of the caregiver’s strengths and challenges 3. Provide ongoing assessment of the child's needs and case progress 4. Provide practical and structured in home assistance 5. Support the development of social support 6. Referral and coordination of services 7. Support families to access other specialist services the family needs 8. Link families to community networks. IFSS workers have knowledge and experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families as well as families from low socio-economic and socially or geographically isolated regions. Intervention adherence: The Process and Implementation Evaluation will use data collected routinely by agencies and used to inform provider agency progress reports to external agencies (e.g., data submitted to DSS’s DEX data capture system) and internally, as well as data collected using standardised and non-standardised questionnaires completed by providers and family members, and tracking sheets completed by providers, training and coaching information collected by the PRC as part of the implementation support process, and information collected via in-depth interviews with families and agency staff regarding the implementation of IFSS. Furthermore, the evaluation will access existing available data from sources such as Centrelink records to measure the size of the target population. The use of the IFSS model as intended (often referred to as fidelity or adherence) and the use of implementation supports to monitor and improve IFSS implementation will be measured over the duration of the evaluation period using fidelity assessment tools, data collected by practice coaches and family and provider questionnaires tailor-developed by the PRC. Specifically, program fidelity data will be gathered using: * A brief IFSS Dynamic Fidelity Questionnaire: This questionnaire will capture caregivers’ perceptions about the quality and content of the service being delivered in the home-visit setting, including the working relationship between the IFSS worker and the caregiver. Administration of this tool will be via a smartphone/tablet app completed at the end of one home visiting session with each client every three months (at the same time as CNI collection). The measure will be completed independently by a caregiver, who will be handed the tablet or smartphone to independently complete the brief survey. Such data will be shared with workers and agencies only at an aggregate level (i.e., in non-identifiable form presented as group data across workers) by PRC and used to give feedback to all workers from a particular agency as a group as a quality assurance method aimed at improving fidelity to the IFSS model. * Data collected about the type, frequency and duration of quality assurance or implementation support strategies adopted (e.g., dates of training and coaching session, duration and content of coaching sessions): Data will be captured by PRC Practice Coaches regarding which coach did what, with who, for how long, as well as making note of whether workers are completing assessments at the time they are due (e.g., CNI with families every 3 months). Practice Coaches, and used by the implementation team to target and refine the implementation supports provided to sites as part of the CQI process, as well as to measure the quantity of different types of implementation supports delivered to each IFSS caseworker. This data will be entered by PRCH Practice Coaches, and used in the evaluation to assess the correlation between implementation supports provided and family outcomes achieved. * Ratings of IFSS workers’ adherence and competence in delivery of the intervention will be made by Practice Coaches at regular intervals, by attending and observing worker and parent sessions. This information will be entered into the PRC’s coaching database by PRC Practice Coaches, and used by the implementation team to target and refine the implementation supports provided to sites as part of the CQI process. Furthermore, this data will be used for the evaluation, to track changes in workers’ adherence to the IFSS model and competence in delivering IFSS. This data will be used to determine the association between worker fidelity to the model and family outcomes. * Collection of information about staff tenure and turnover will be regularly captured to identify the potential impact of staffing changes on the ability of the provider to reach the intended target population and to meet the needs of children and families referred to IFSS.