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Acknowledgements

Sowing the seeds of innovation: Uncovering strategies that may help facilitate the spread of promising approaches in child and family work Helen McLaren, Christine Gibson, Fiona Arney, Dorothy Scott, Louise Brown. Acknowledgements. Australian Centre for Child Protection Uniting Care Burnside

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Acknowledgements

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  1. Sowing the seeds of innovation:Uncovering strategies that may help facilitate the spread of promising approaches in child and family workHelen McLaren, Christine Gibson, Fiona Arney, Dorothy Scott, Louise Brown

  2. Acknowledgements • Australian Centre for Child Protection • UnitingCare Burnside • University of Bath • Australian Research Council

  3. The Australian Centre for Child Protection Through research, professional education and advocacy we aim to enhance life opportunities for children in Australia who are risk of abuse or neglect We are an initiative of the Commonwealth Government (DIISR) and the University of South Australia

  4. Focus • Introduction • Examining the spread of promising programs • Emerging findings • Implications

  5. “Why do models of excellent schools, effective job training and wonderful early childhood programs remain only models? Why do interventions that actually change the odds for their high-risk participants succeed briefly… and fail the moment we try to sustain them… or expand them?” (Schorr 1997, p.xiv)

  6. Program of research • Literature review by Salveron et al, Family Matters, Issue 73, 2006 • Brown, 2003 & 2007 – Family group conferencing in the UK • Harris, 2007 & 2008 – Family group conferencing in Australia • ARC Linkage grant

  7. Broad Objective • Defining the conditions under which the dissemination and diffusion of effective innovations (spread of programs) in child and family services are most likely to succeed • To enable future promising programs a better chance of being widely adopted (or adapted).

  8. Australian child and family welfare • Mixed model • Constantly evolving • Insufficient use of promising or effective interventions • Potential for wasted investment and opportunities

  9. Diffusion of Innovation theory “Diffusion is the process in which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system” (Everett Rogers, 2003)

  10. What We Already Know • Innovations diffuse differently, through different channels and at different rates • Some succeed and some fail to diffuse • Some show a linear process of diffusion while others are dynamic, and often, haphazard • Some are adopted and some are adapted • Sometimes needs champions Salveron, Arney & Scott paper “Sowing the seeds of innovation: ideas for child and family services”

  11. Concept as a typical linear process: • Development • Communication • Adoption • Implementation • Replication/ Adaptation • Sustained/ Embedded

  12. Diffusion of Innovation Model Antecedents Processes Consequences Adoption Communication Sources (channels) Knowledge Persuasion Decision Confirmation Rejection Time (adapted from Everett Rogers, 2003)

  13. Background to the study • Therefore, much innovation is dynamic and its diffusion encounters many obstacles as well as facilitators… we want to know what these are in child and family services • What shapes them? • How the obstacles may be overcome? • How the facilitators may be capitalised upon?

  14. Research Design • Micro analysis • UnitingCare Burnside • Seven promising strategies • Case studies of internal evolution and spread

  15. Why Burnside? Seven broadly-ranging innovative programs • Intensive family-based service • NEWPIN • Home Visiting • Family Group Conferencing • Men in Families • Moving Forward • The Family Learning Centre

  16. Research Design • Macro analysis • Surveying • 842 sites • 248 surveys returned • 85% agreed to re-contact

  17. Research Design • Macro analysis • Interviewing • 92 interviews • Analysis against Salveron et al (2006) and Rogers (2003) Conceptual Models

  18. Emerging Findings • Communication • Imported versus domestic • Evidence-based practice • Importance of champions (current and former staff, experts) • Media (e.g., NEWPIN) – impact on a wide range of people (e.g., clients, board members) • Conferences • Research assisting with dissemination • Identifying effective elements

  19. Our organisation is continually looking to support new program models from overseas which have been going for a few years and which have already built an evidence base and a reputation, self fund them for the first 5 years and build our own evidence in our own region, then seek external funding to sustain the programs. From our experience government funders are more likely to fund imported programs and are more likely to take their “goodness” on face value because they are from the UK or the USA. We know we are less likely to win funding for home grown programs (Interviewee who had heard about NEWPIN)

  20. Adoption and implementation • Current programs • Effectiveness/promise • Cost/benefit • Fit with organisational and individual mandate and values (rhetoric and reality) • Availability of resources, training and support • Organisational culture • Identified need – top down/bottom up • Community • Organisation/practitioners • Funding bodies

  21. I would have heard about similar strategies at a range of disability conferences where we hear what other agencies are doing. They [funder] often make recommendations back to us saying “you should be doing this and that.” I believe that in the end it [the idea] came from them. Often in response I say, “Well you give us the money to do it.” We got an increase in funding to integrate the intensive support service (Interviewee with a similar innovation to Intensive Family Based Service)

  22. Replication or Adaptation? • Programs versus practices • Licensing/Legislation • Local needs • Values (e.g., family time in FGC) • Resources • Sustainability • Evidence building • Funding • Political climate • Ongoing support

  23. Implications • Communicate, disseminate and substantiate (relationships) • Produce an evidence base – publish/present or perish • Identify the costs and benefits of your program/practice, and the key elements • Identify champions within and outside the organisation • Ability of programs to be adapted • Timing

  24. Law and policy reform in Victoria established a whole of system approach to child wellbeing and child protection underpinned by research. Family Group Conferencing accepted as good practice across the state. (Interviewee with a similar innovation to Family Group Conferencing)

  25. Conceptual Challenges • Defining what is innovative • Practice vs programs • Promise • Evidence • Effectiveness • Efficiency

  26. Methodological Challenges • Difficulty with tracking and identifying change • Multiple delivery sites • Representative organisational views • Multiple participants for some organisations • Knowledge competition

  27. Field Specific Issues • ‘Do’ vs ‘Diffuse’ • Individual desire or interest • Initiatives are highly localised • Imposition of service specifications

  28. Australian Centre for Child Protection http://www.unisa.edu.au/childprotection UnitingCare Burnside http://www.burnside.org.au

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