Exploring good practice in Irish child and family services: Reflections and considerations

Abstract

The prospect of furthering good practice in child and family services is something that is in everybody's interest, service users, practitioners, policy makers and academics alike. However, it is a task fraught with difficulty due in part to the wide range and diversity of child care practice as well as a lack of fora for dissemination. In the Republic of Ireland, child and family services have undergone rapid development since the implementation of the Child Care Act 1991 and child and family provision is now a blend of new and established approaches and models delivered in a range of settings. With the aim of supporting the development of good practice and profiling positive work taking place in child and family services, the Department of Health and Children initiated a process of identifying, describing and analysing good practice approaches in work with children and families. As part of this initiative, a framework of good practice principles, focused on management and operational levels, was devised and used as a means of relating to the experience of 26 service profiles nominated by local Health Service Executive regions. This article describes the methodology and process of the initiative, including the various methodological challenges that were faced and discusses key aspects of the learning that emerged in relation to good practice and the project's attempts to understand and relate to it.

Adolescent well‐being and supporting contexts: A comparison of adolescents in Ireland and Florida

“…The Irish findings suggest that 'other adults' played a significant role in providing esteem support. This finding is noteworthy also in the context of an increase in child-adult mentoring programmes, such as 'Big Brothers Big Sisters', being adopted in countries such as Ireland (Brady & Dolan, 2007) and the well-established movement in the USA (Grossman & Tierney, 1998;Tierney, Grossman, & Resch, 1995).…”

“…A variety of studies show that young people's attachment to afterschool programmes, groups and organizations is invariably linked to their relationship with a caring adult involved in the intervention (see Albanesi, Cicognani, & Zani, 2007;Ferrari & Turner, 2006;Jarrett, Sullivan, & Watkins, 2005;Paisley & Ferrari, 2005), while mentoring programmes across the world, such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters (Brady & Dolan, 2007;Grossman & Tierney, 1998), are becoming increasingly popular and effective forms of support. This research illustrates that the qualities of support from 'other adults' emerge from such relational features as authenticity, empathy, collaboration and companionship (Spencer, 2006).…”

Factors Influencing the Uptake of Research Evidence in Child Welfare: A Synthesis of Findings from Australia, Canada and Ireland

“…It must also be acknowledged that the notion of evidence‐informed practice is not without its critics. It has been argued that research is not readily translatable into practice, particularly given the vulnerability of studies to methodological flaws (Brady and Dolan, ). In a similar vein, Gough () has pointed out the fallacy of presuming that research is intrinsically good when it can be poor quality, costly and mistaken in its conclusions.…”

Adolescents and their networks of social support: real connections in real lives?

“…). Mentoring programmes across the world, such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters (Brady & Dolan ), are becoming increasingly popular and effective forms of support, and illustrate the significance of ‘other adults’ whose support derives from such relational features as authenticity, empathy, collaboration and companionship (Spencer ). Within school, Dryfoos et al .…”

“…Young people's attachment to after-school programmes, groups and organizations is invariably linked to their relationship with a caring adult involved in the intervention (Paisley & Ferrari 2005;Ferrari & Turner 2006;Albanesi et al 2007). Mentoring programmes across the world, such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters (Brady & Dolan 2007), are becoming increasingly popular and effective forms of support, and illustrate the significance of 'other adults' whose support derives from such relational features as authenticity, empathy, collaboration and companionship (Spencer 2006). Within school, Dryfoos et al's (2005) research reveals that teachers, along with parents, can be seen by at-risk students as an important primary source of support, in terms of emotional support, practical assistance and for general appreciation of effort.…”