Child Welfare Outcome Research

Ideally, there is a close interaction between research and practice in human services, and program planning is based on such interaction, particularly the findings of outcome research. This book reviews the bodies of outcome research about child welfare programs from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, particularly outcomes in relation to service effectiveness, duration of child placement, permanency planning, and child development and functioning. The purpose of the book is to give child welfare administrators, policymakers, practitioners, and academics a comprehensive picture of the current state of child welfare knowledge. Chapter 1 discusses issues related to carrying out outcome research and describes the different service systems in the three countries. Chapter 2 examines outcome research in traditional services, such as kinship care, family foster care, treatment foster care, residential group care, and adoption. Chapter 3 reviews research findings related to outcomes of more recent service initiatives, including family preservation, family reunification, preparation for independent living, the "Looking After Children" administrative materials used in the United Kingdom, family group decision making, shared family care, and wraparound services. The book concludes by asserting that there are a number of gaps in the available research, including limited comparative studies of the outcomes of such services as adoption, family foster care, and residential care, and limited attention to the dimension of race and ethnicity. Recommendations include greater attention to the role of race and ethnicity and more cross-national research. Appended is an annotated bibliography of texts that consider outcome research in child protective services. (Contains 399 references.) (KB