Taking a fresh look at ‘outcomes’ in child care and protection: Learning from family group conferencing

Arguing for a more nuanced and broader understanding of outcomes in child care and protection this paper begins to explore, and challenge, the manner in which outcomes are currently identified and valued in child welfare. This paper will discuss a qualitative study, which sought to retrospectively understand the contribution Family Group Conferencing (FGC) makes to longer-term outcomes for children at risk of entering State care, and their families. Eleven case examples of FGC were studied from five local government areas across Scotland. Each example included the perspectives of different stakeholders in the process: children in State care, their parents and extended family (n=32), and professionals (n=28) involved with them. The study found a number of interconnecting issues in relation to FGC outcome contribution and identification. Firstly, the personal experience of process matters to the service user and his/her opinion of the outcomes they achieve. Secondly, what professionals do and how they do it can impact the outcomes of people requiring support. Thus, the relationship between professionals and services users is central to understanding why and how families achieve longer term outcomes. Finally, who defines outcomes and to what purpose is significant when understanding outcomes. This paper reports on two sets of FGC outcomes identified within the study: personal and professional. The paper argues that outcomes identified by family members be considered alongside those conceptualised by professionals. These findings have implications not only for the measuring and recording of outcomes for Family Group Conferencing but more broadly in children welfare services as it adds to the international debates about: the outcomes the child welfare system is seeking to achieve; the importance of generating evidence to help us understand what outcomes might be from different perspectives; and how we might gauge whether such outcomes are achieved.