Care and Health Magazine, 27.7.04, 2004, pp.22-23.
Publisher:
Care and Health
Reports on the first-ever national evaluation of the service and support Connexions offers to disabled young people. The evaluation has been running for two-and-a-half-years and is funded by the DfES, Learning Skills Council, and Connections. Researchers consulted 120 young disabled people, and 40 parents or carers in the Black Country, Cornwall and Devon, Humber, Nottinghamshire and south London. In addition, 108 partner agencies responded to a questionnaire, as did all the Connexions services in the study. The researchers also conducted 30 interviews with Personal Advisors.
Reports on the first-ever national evaluation of the service and support Connexions offers to disabled young people. The evaluation has been running for two-and-a-half-years and is funded by the DfES, Learning Skills Council, and Connections. Researchers consulted 120 young disabled people, and 40 parents or carers in the Black Country, Cornwall and Devon, Humber, Nottinghamshire and south London. In addition, 108 partner agencies responded to a questionnaire, as did all the Connexions services in the study. The researchers also conducted 30 interviews with Personal Advisors.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health problems, physical disabilities, training, young people, advice services, employment, evaluation;
Reviews research which examines service users' involvement in, and their perspective on, service provision and policy and practice.
Reviews research which examines service users' involvement in, and their perspective on, service provision and policy and practice.
Subject terms:
mental health problems, participatory research, physical disabilities, research methods, service users, user participation, user views, empowerment, evaluation;
Disability and Society, 15(1), January 2000, pp.99-113.
Publisher:
Taylor and Francis
This article describes research done in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets under the supervision of the local Coalition of Disabled People. It involved three different client groups-people with learning difficulties, mental health service users and those with physical disabilities. The study focused on several issues: how to provide effective information; what sorts of support could direct payments purchase; how could it be accessed; how could users handle the money; how could it all be evaluated? Most carers, staff and users considered this radical idea favourably, but were suspicious of their own local authority and would want independent systems of supervision and monitoring, accountable to other users, rather than professionals.
This article describes research done in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets under the supervision of the local Coalition of Disabled People. It involved three different client groups-people with learning difficulties, mental health service users and those with physical disabilities. The study focused on several issues: how to provide effective information; what sorts of support could direct payments purchase; how could it be accessed; how could users handle the money; how could it all be evaluated? Most carers, staff and users considered this radical idea favourably, but were suspicious of their own local authority and would want independent systems of supervision and monitoring, accountable to other users, rather than professionals.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health problems, needs, payments, physical disabilities, surveys, user views, direct payments, evaluation;
This book charts the change, critically evaluating progress, take-up, inclusion and access to direct payments by different user groups. With contributions from campaigners, academics, practitioners, direct payment users and personal assistants, the book: provides an overview of the history of direct payments; presents findings from key research into direct payments and disabled people, older people, carers, people with mental health problems, people with learning difficulties and disabled children; discusses the implementation and development of direct payments provision; compares developments in the UK with those in North America.
This book charts the change, critically evaluating progress, take-up, inclusion and access to direct payments by different user groups. With contributions from campaigners, academics, practitioners, direct payment users and personal assistants, the book: provides an overview of the history of direct payments; presents findings from key research into direct payments and disabled people, older people, carers, people with mental health problems, people with learning difficulties and disabled children; discusses the implementation and development of direct payments provision; compares developments in the UK with those in North America.
Subject terms:
learning disabilities, mental health problems, older people, physical disabilities, service uptake, service users, access to services, carers, children, direct payments, evaluation;
This paper reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of different kinds of family support services, focusing on those that social services departments are likely to commission or provide to support families who are disadvantaged or experiencing particular difficulties in their lives. The aims of this paper are: to describe different methods of evaluation, and outline some of the problems and issues raised by evaluating social welfare provision in general and family support services in particular; to provide a brief overview of the research evidence on ‘what works’ in different kinds of family support provided for children in need; to bring together information on various measures and scales which have been used to evaluate family support services.
This paper reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of different kinds of family support services, focusing on those that social services departments are likely to commission or provide to support families who are disadvantaged or experiencing particular difficulties in their lives. The aims of this paper are: to describe different methods of evaluation, and outline some of the problems and issues raised by evaluating social welfare provision in general and family support services in particular; to provide a brief overview of the research evidence on ‘what works’ in different kinds of family support provided for children in need; to bring together information on various measures and scales which have been used to evaluate family support services.
Extended abstract:
Author
Statham, June;
Title
Outcomes and effectiveness of family support services: a research review.
Publisher
Institute of Education, University of London in association with Thomas Coram Research Unit, 2000.
Summary
This paper reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of different kinds of family support services, focusing on those that social services departments are likely to commission or provide to support families who are disadvantaged or experiencing particular difficulties in their lives. The aims of this paper are: to describe different methods of evaluation, and outline some of the problems and issues raised by evaluating social welfare provision in general and family support services in particular; to provide a brief overview of the research evidence on 'what works' in different kinds of family support provided for children in need; to bring together information on various measures and scales which have been used to evaluate family support services.
Context
Current government policy stresses the importance of evaluation and assessing the outcomes of services that are provided or purchased by local authorities. There is a new emphasis on evidence-based practice, grounded in information from research that attempts to show what works both in individual cases and in the planning of services. Agencies in both the statutory and independent sectors are increasingly expected to demonstrate successful outcomes in order to obtain funding and meet government targets.
Method
Due to this being a research review many methodologies are laid out and explained to the reader, however due to the nature of this review it is not possible to set out a method.
Contents
This review is divided into five sections. The introduction lays out the aims of the review and provides background information. The second section sets up the conceptual framework. It investigates what is meant by family support services and evaluation. It thengoes on to explore different research methodologies as a way to assess effectiveness, and issues in evaluating family support services. Section three reviews what is known about the effectiveness of different kinds of services to support families, covering (amongst others); day care and early education, befriending and social support, and family group conferences. Section four looks at measuring outcomes and costs. Section five offers conclusions on this subject.
Conclusion
" Much of the evidence for the effectiveness of family support services comes from the USA, where there is a strong tradition of systematic programme evaluation and a particular approach to family support. The findings from this research need to be applied withcaution in different social welfare contexts, and it needs to be recognised that different policies and ways of thinking about children would lead to different ways of conceptualising the evaluation of family support."
112 references
ISBN 0 85473 627 1
Subject terms:
intervention, literature reviews, mental health problems, outcomes, parent-child relations, parents, physical disabilities, social workers, babies, children, day services, families, family centres, family group conferences, evaluation, evidence-based practice, foster care, health visiting;
home help, interviewing, managers, mental health problems, older people, physical disabilities, probation, prostitution, quality of life, short break care, social services, social work methods, videos, women, anorexia nervosa, area teams, bulimia nervosa, care homes, child sexual abuse, children, decision making, families, evaluation, groupwork;