Knowing the score: Positive Futures Case Study Research: Final Report (original) (raw)
Creating Stable Futures Positive Outcomes Framework
Creating Stable Futures: Positive Outcomes Framework, 2022
The Creating Stable Futures Positive Outcomes Framework is the result of a 12-month participatory research study into understanding how to ensure protection, support and positive outcomes for children and young people who have arrived in the UK and have experienced modern slavery or human trafficking.
Resilient Urban Futures, 2021
We describe the rationale and framework for developing scenarios of positive urban futures. The scenario framework is conducted in participatory workshop settings and composed of three distinct scenario approaches that are used to (1) explore potential outcomes of existing planning goals (strategic scenarios), (2) articulate visions that address pressing resilience challenges (adaptive scenarios), and (3) envision radical departures from the status quo in the pursuit of sustainability and equity (transformative scenarios). A series of creative and analytical processes are used to engage the community in imagining, articulating, and scrutinizing visions and pathways of positive futures. The approach offers an alternative and complement to traditional forecasting techniques by applying inspirational stories to resilience research and practice.
Evaluation of Growing Futures : Research Report. March 2017
2017
Overview of the project Overview of the evaluation Findings: process evaluation Addressing challenges to direct work Addressing challenges to multi-agency working Addressing intra-organisational challenges Findings: impact evaluation Measuring impact on families Measuring impact on systems, protocols and professional practice within services Limitations of the evaluation and future evaluation Implications and recommendations for policy and practice Appendix 1. Growing Futures theory of change Appendix 2. Innovative features of Growing Futures' direct work with families. Appendix 3. Changes to Growing Futures' planned activities and outcomes Appendix 4. Findings from the literature review Appendix 5. Analysis of MARAC data Appendix 6. Analysis of social care data on children's vulnerability status Appendix 7. Analysis of data from DAN's casework books Appendix 8. E-survey results benchmarking services and practice Appendix 9. Awareness-raising communications and publicity materials Executive summary Project objectives Growing Futures was established in Doncaster to improve the outcomes of families, and particularly children and young people (CYP), who have experienced Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA), by improving the services that work with them. It has been led by Doncaster Children's Services Trust, which was established in October 2014. The Trust was set up following government intervention to address years of 'inadequate' standards within children's services in Doncaster. Growing Futures was granted funding by the Department for Education Innovation Programme in April 2015, and became operational in September 2015. The project was designed to address significant historic difficulties with multi-agency working and poor levels of trust between service users and services. Its specific aims were: • to reduce the emotional harm caused by DVA to CYP • to directly support recovery from DVA for victims and their children • to significantly reduce repeat victimisation • to challenge acceptance of DVA among families and the wider community • to break the pattern of abuse as it represents itself in CYP In order to measure its success, the project sought: • to reduce repeat cases to the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) by 25% • to reduce repeat referrals to social care where DVA is a factor by 30% • to reduce the number of children admitted to care by reducing the number of Children in Need where DVA is a factor by 10% Key components of the Growing Futures investment • Funding of 12 Domestic Abuse Navigators (DANs), including 8 DANs, 4 Social Workers who took on half-time DAN roles (equivalent to 2 full-time Social Work DAN posts), and 2 Senior DANs who have no caseload but line manage DANs and contribute to project and service development • Funding of 2 Perpetrator Workers to coordinate monitoring of DVA perpetrators within the custody suite, deliver one-to-one engagement work, and support perpetrators to access formal programme to address abusive behaviour • Funding of a Borough-wide Parenting Coordinator to deliver evidence-based parenting programmes and evaluate the impact of these on families In order to evaluate the impact of the project on services and families, as well as the key enablers of and barriers to success in achieving its aims, the evaluation used a wide range of methods. Interviews were undertaken prior to the introduction of Growing Futures and again, after its implementation, with service users, operational and management staff from Growing Futures, and professionals from social care and other allied services, including the police, housing and voluntary sector. Focus groups were conducted with members of the public, including young people, to understand attitudes to DVA and services in Doncaster. An electronic survey of 160 professionals working in Doncaster services was conducted to establish baseline perceptions and experiences of work to reduce DVA. Analysis of Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC) data and structured observation of MARACs, as well as analyses of social care case files and records for social care cases where DVA was a factor, were conducted. Learning Logs and casework books of Growing Futures professionals were also analysed. An early aim of the evaluation was to provide a cost benefit analysis of Growing Futures. However, the costs of the impact of DVA on CYP derive from a wide range of possible outcomes connected to the programme. While Growing Futures has now started to record relevant outcomes, robust records were not available to support a sufficiently comprehensive assessment of impact on these. Furthermore, the literature on potential cost savings relating to interventions for CYP witnessing DVA is not well developed. Developing a robust model of potential savings was therefore not possible in practice. Key findings Improving direct and outreach work with families and communities Interviews and focus groups with local service users and professionals from Growing Futures and allied services indicated a number of challenges to direct and outreach work. Respondents reported that, prior to the implementation of Growing Futures, there had been a widespread culture of acceptance of DVA among local communities in Doncaster, as well as considerable antipathy toward local services. The evaluation found that, in some cases, the introduction of a new model of working, and particularly the new Domestic Abuse Navigator role, enabled a new and more trusting type of relationship between professionals and DVA victims and families to be forged. The programme of action research with young people also raised awareness of DVA among that group, and encouraged them to challenge cultural acceptance of DVA in Doncaster. This programme produced new insights into views of DVA among young people in the area, and resulted in several young people launching their own campaign to address the local DVA education gap. Improving multi-agency working One of the main purposes of Growing Futures is to understand and reconfigure residual service cultures that have prevented joined up multi-agency working. This was linked to historic differences between the priorities and processes of children's services, services for adult victims of DVA, and criminal justice agencies. Growing Futures has developed a new model of working, which is still being developed and from which lessons are still being learned. This is a 'whole family approach', whereby services coordinate to provide support and therapeutic input to perpetrators, victims, and children. On this model, all professionals from relevant agencies should work together to understand and address the needs and issues of a family as a whole, including addressing any risks, rather than focussing separately on individual family members. Through an active Board and operations group, professional mentoring and outreach work across different services, a programme of training, and 2 well-attended conferences in January and December of 2016, Growing Futures has sought to encourage selfreflection in services and to shift the focus on to how to improve, rather than shaming services based on past performance. The DANs have also sought to model good practice in whole family working and interagency collaboration through their work and cooperation with other services. Improvements to professional cultures, inter-agency communication, trust, and willingness to collaborate to manage cases were noted by several respondents following the implementation of Growing Futures. Awareness of the impact of Growing Futures on families and services was highest among those respondents who worked most closely with the project.