NCJ Number
217597
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 15 Issue: 6 Dated: November-December 2006 Pages: 377-395
Date Published
November 2006
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This article offers implementation and impact evaluation findings for all 35 children’s trust pathfinders programs, launched in England in 2003 to promote greater inter-agency co-operation between children’s services and professionals.
Abstract
While the results indicated strong endorsement for an integrated children’s services strategy, the cooperative arrangements for governance and strategic developments were more advanced than those for procedural and frontline professional practice. Professionals reported challenges with balancing targeted and universal service provision while at the same time negotiating the scope of formal strategic partnership bodies that potentially have overlapping goals. The authors observe that the challenge may be rooted in the different reasons for creating children’s trusts. One of the reasons for creating children’s trusts was for the protection and support for vulnerable children while the other reason was to promote collaboration and integration of preventative services for all children. Keeping children safe within this type of universal trust is both structurally complex and emotionally difficult for professionals. The findings suggest that while there is overall support for the health, education, and care of the “whole” child rather than the “sectoral” child, differences between professional discourses and traditions pose challenges to the total integration of services. Evaluation data were drawn from the baseline implementation survey (BLIS) of all 35 pathfinder trusts conducted in July 2004 and a series of in-depth interviews with professionals taken as part of a subset of 8 case studies between January and May 2005. Documentary evidence on children’s output services, expenditures, and children’s outcomes were also examined. Data were coded and analyzed for emerging themes. Figures, tables, references