The shift towards a family-focused approach to practice has been highly endorsed across child and adult mental health services with increasing policy development and a growing evidence base. The aim of this review was to synthesize the qualitative evidence of professionals' perspectives and experiences of implementing family-focused practice across these settings.Electronic databases were searched up to March 2018 of which 9 articles were included. The synthesis produced two overarching challenges relating to the organisational and system issues of family-focused practice, and clinicians' attitudes, knowledge and practice towards addressing the complexity of families' needs. The findings point to a limited evidence of professionals viewing the benefits of family-focused practice and a lack of coherence relating to professionals' investment in family-focused practice. These are discussed within policy and implementation factors.