Abstract

LINKING CLINICAL, PROGRAM, AND POLICY OUTCOMES IN CHILD WELFARE:
THE PROMISE OF THE LOOKING AFTER CHILDREN APPROACH

Robert J. Flynn

This presentation will describe the Looking After Children approach to child welfare services and sketch its origin in the United Kingdom and implementation to date in a number of countries, including Canada. Looking After Children emphasizes high-quality substitute parenting, positive outcomes, and resilient trajectories in children and youths who are being looked after in out-of-home settings such as foster or group care. The Looking After Children philosophy is operationalized by means of seven age-appropriate versions of an instrument called the Assessment and Action Record (AAR), suitable for ages 0-21 years. An initial Canadian version of the AAR was published in 1997, followed by a second Canadian adaptation in 2001 (Flynn & Ghazal, 2001). This version was translated into French and has been updated annually (Flynn, Ghazal, & Legault, 2002, 2003). The instrument covers seven developmental dimensions: health, education, identity, family and social relationships, social presentation, emotional and behavioural development, and self-care skills. The revised AAR incorporates standardized items and measures from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (Statistics Canada & Human Resources Development Canada, 1995), thus allowing comparisons to be made between the outcomes of children and youths in care and those of their age peers in the general Canadian population. Yearly assessments can be made of the degree to which young people in care (whether specific individuals, groups served by a particular program or organization, or those in the child welfare systems of entire provinces or territories) are making satisfactory progress. By linking the individual, organizational, and service system levels, the AAR encourages the emergence of coherent, outcome-based clinical practice and social policy. Selected research findings will be presented and suggestions made for the ongoing improvement of child welfare policy and practice in Canada.

Bio

Brief biography: Robert J. Flynn

Present position: Professor, School of Psychology
Director, Centre for Research on Community Services
Faculty of Social Sciences
University of Ottawa

Memberships: College of Psychologists of Ontario
Canadian Evaluation Society
American Evaluation Association

Research interests: Resilience among children & youths in child welfare
Effectiveness and cost of child welfare services
Program evaluation & performance measurement

Current research: An evaluation of the implementation of Looking After Children in Canada and the outcomes associated with this social innovation.

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