Acceptability of the Winangay Kinship Carer Assessment Tool

Abstract

There is an urgent need for culturally appropriate ways of assessing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship carers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children entering into out‐of‐home care in the Australian statutory child protection system. The Winangay Aboriginal Kinship Carer Assessment Tool (the Winangay Tool) has been developed to address this need. A key factor in the success of new ways of working is the fit of the new practice within the context in which it is introduced. The aim of this study was to evaluate the social and cultural acceptability of the Winangay Tool to practitioners responsible for assessing kinship carers. A total of 84 practitioners completed a questionnaire prior to training and 83 practitioners completed a questionnaire on completion of training in the use of the Winangay Tool. Responses on questionnaires completed pre‐ and post‐training in the Winangay Tool suggest a high level of acceptability to practitioners. Both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non‐Aboriginal practitioners rated the Winangay Tool as culturally appropriate and acceptable overall, describing it as user‐friendly, collaborative and innovative. The favourability of the Winangay Tool to practitioners compared to their existing approach to assessment suggests that it is likely to be well endorsed and implemented by practitioners completing kinship carer assessments. Key Practitioner Messages Preserving and enhancing the cultural identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care is fundamental to their wellbeing. The Winangay Tool is designed to be a culturally appropriate method of assessment of Aboriginal kinship carers. Aboriginal and non‐Aboriginal assessors rate the Winangay Tool highly on cultural acceptability and see it as an improvement on existing mainstream approaches or tools.

‘Warm Eyes’, ‘Warm Breath’, ‘Heart Warmth’: Using Aroha (Love) and Warmth to Reconceptualise and Work towards Best Interests in Child Protection

“…Acknowledging these as having equal status and value in social work education and practice is an ongoing process with greater success in some parts of the world than others. However, there is a growing Indigenous body of scholarship and practice models that is adding to the ability of social work as a profession to work more responsively with Indigenous peoples as well as learn from them in applying approaches to protect children (Ryan 2011;Nietz 2017;Blacklock et al 2018;Gallagher and Louis 2018;Krakouer et al 2018;Douglas and Saus 2019;Thomspon and Wadley 2019). We have emphasised FGC as an original Indigenous model, as it still incorporates much of what we would hope to have included in child protection practice-the inclusion and participation of, and partnerships with, families; respect for and acceptance of locally grounded knowledge; the willingness to work with different contexts and situations as described and experienced by the people themselves.…”

Promoting Best Practice in Assessment and Intervention: The Challenges of Working in Times of Cutbacks and Change

“…Assessment and the need for culturally appropriate assessment tools are reinforced in our second paper in this issue by Aunty Sue Blacklock and colleagues () from Winangay Resources Inc. and the University of South Australia. These researchers evaluated the social and cultural acceptability of the Winangay Kinship Carer Assessment Tool (the Winangay Tool) for practitioners who are responsible for assessing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship carers.…”

“…Blacklock et al . () conclude by drawing attention to the implementation literature which highlights that a key factor in the successful implementation of a new assessment approach is if stakeholders view the new practice as acceptable and it can be conducted feasibly within their practice setting (Proctor et al ., ).…”

“…As Blacklock et al . () also concluded, ensuring the engagement and buy‐in of all stakeholders is a central feature of effective interventions and implementation science.…”

Towards Culturally Specific Solutions: Evidence from Ghanaian Kinship Caregivers on Child Neglect Intervention

“…This practice appears to have a positive impact on children because it is culturally informed and prevents family breakdown by making sure children remain within the family environment. Culture is known to be healing and keeping a child within their culture is preventative of breakdown (Blacklock et al, 2018). Child welfare workers should endeavour to integrate these cultural practices in their approach with families by encouraging early intervention of family members upon suspicion of parental child neglect.…”