Wellington City Libraries Palm Tree Blossoming of Our Children - Kia Puawai Ngā Tamariki - 10th Australasian Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect

Setting A Standard For Supporting Children And Vulnerable Families


Author

Sue Tolley

Presenter

Sue Tolley

Organisation

Barnardos Australia

The reliance upon "Family Support" to protect children in vulnerable families has become far greater since concern about removing children prematurely from their birth families has increased. Family Support work practices are however unregulated in Australia and critics have fears that the system is not ready for this shift in child protection responsibility.

Barnardos Australia, in collaboration with the University of New South Wales, Sydney (UNSW), conducted a research project which aimed to implement a standardised case management system throughout all it's family support. The case management system that was developed is known as SCARF (Supporting Children and Responding to Families).

The design of SCARF originates from the UK's "Children In Need Framework". The UK's model, however was designed to be used within the statutory child protection system by social workers. The model required considerable adaptation for it to suit the Australian Family Support environment. SCARF was developed over a three year period of experimentation and formal evaluations by clients, workers, middle managers, and senior managers. Changes were made to the assessment and planning tools in terms of structure, language, references to legislation, and terminology. The theoretical base, key principles and values however, remain true to those of the original UK model. The model is based on ecological theory, providing a systematic way of understanding what is happening to a child within their family and the wider context of the community in which they live. It draws on knowledge of childhood development, attachment, resilience, and "good enough parenting," which informs the model's assessment and planning methodology.

In terms of casework intervention, the model promotes a strengthbased/ solution-focused approach. Research and practice wisdom demonstrates the imperative of family support work practice being inclusive of and transparent to the child and family and the model endorses these as key principles. SCARF is currently being piloted by 4 other non-government agencies in various parts of New South Wales. The 4 programs will evaluate the impact of the model on client outcomes and service delivery over a two years period (July 2005-July 2007).

An in depth examination of the model will be presented as well as a client family scenario that depicts how the model, assessment and planning tools are applied. Paper1st choice, Poster 2nd choice.

Presentation

Paper

Biography

Sue Tolley is currently the Senior Project Manager SCARF Prior to this position Sue was the manager of Barnardos Auburn Children's Family Centre a position she held for 13 years. The Auburn Centre caters to the needs of approximately 600 families per year from diverse cultural backgrounds and with diverse vulnerabilities. Specialist services for children who had been sexually assaulted, families experiencing domestic violence and homelessness were provided as well as child-care, temporary foster care and family support home visitation. Sue's experience of managing an integrated family support centre was of great benefit to her role in coordinating the development of SCARF.