Moving Best Practice to Evidence-Based Practice in Child Welfare

Abstract

Increased emphasis is being placed on improving outcomes for abused and neglected children served by the child welfare system. To achieve this goal, the notion of “best practice” is widely embraced. Unfortunately, there is no consensus on its definition. Various interpretations include (a) practice wisdom, (b) emulating other systems, (c) expert consultants, (d) professional guidelines, and (e) evidence-based practice. In this article, the authors describe the advantages and disadvantages of each of these definitions. While all of them have a role to play in improving results of child welfare interventions, the authors argue that best practice is optimally defined as evidence-based practice. At the same time, there are many difficulties in employing this form of best practice, including a lack of evidence, the transfer of information, and the organizational culture in which the worker operates. Suggested solutions to these difficulties are discussed.

Social Workers’ Preparation for Child Protection: Revisiting the Question of Specialisation

“…Within the social work literature, extensive debate continues about whether social workers should be involved with overt social control functions, particularly the exercise of statutory authority entailed in this work (Costello, 2003;Healy, 1998;Mason, 2005;White, 2006). These debates reflect ongoing tension between the humanitarian values of social work, with their emphasis on client self-determination (Banks, 2001), and the realities of statutory child protection practice, which involves the overt exercise of authority, working with involuntary clients, and a focus on assessing and responding to risk (Hodgkin, 2002;Kessler et al, 2005;Trotter, 2004). To point out tensions between ''social work'' values and child protection practices is not to suggest that social workers in statutory child welfare agencies cannot attempt to enter into positive and constructive relationships with service users (Parton & O'Brien, 2000).…”

Knowledge Transfer and Exchange: Disseminating Canadian Child Maltreatment Surveillance Findings to Decision Makers

“…With increasing demands for accountability and the delivery of cost-effective services, evidence-informed decision-making is gaining greater attention in many clinical, service and policy environments. Building on advancements in healthcare, the promotion and utilization of research evidence to inform practice and policy is being promoted within child welfare and social work (Gibbs and Gambrill 2002;Kessler et al 2005;Usher and Wildfire 2003).…”

“…It is perceived that traditionally child welfare policies and practices have been influenced primarily by stakeholder values, local political climates, the availability of resources or local best practices (Dudding and Herbert 2004;Kessler et al 2005). While there is increasing interest in promoting evidence-informed decision making in child welfare, the complexity of child welfare systems, structures, and processes has created challenges for implementation (Aarons and Palinkas 2007).…”

“…Waddell and colleagues (2005) identify that while research evidence is valued in child welfare decisionmaking, its role must be balanced with competing interests including stakeholder priorities', the public's response to negative events involving children, and the media's role in shaping that response. Another challenge to utilizing research evidence in the child welfare decision-making process is the concern that a strong base of evidence is only in the early stages of development (Kessler et al 2005;Usher and Wildfire 2003).…”

Examining Inclusion of Evidence-Based Practice on Social Work Training Program Websites

“…Social work education is likewise tasked with the challenge of adequately preparing practitioners to use the most current research evidence to inform practice decisions. For the past two decades, the EBP practice method has been widely embraced in the health care arena (Kessler, Gira, & Poertner, 2005;Steinburg & Luce, 2005). The EBP practice method conscientiously, explicitly, and judiciously uses current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual clients (Sackett, Rosenberg, Gray, Haynes, & Richardson, 1996) by integrating best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values (Institute of Medicine, 2001).…”