Evaluation report on implementing the Reunification Practice Framework

Evaluation of the Reunification Practice Framework and its effectiveness in improving the success of the reunification of children with their parents after a child has been looked after. The Reunification Practice Framework was developed by the NSPCC, in partnership with the University of Bristol, to support social workers' professional judgement and decision making about if and how a child should return home. The evaluation involved interviews with a senior manager in three participating local authorities and questionnaires with practitioners and managers. It covered: how useful the participants had found the Practice Framework; the barriers and facilitators to implementing it; what changes, if any, were found in the skills, confidence, approach to practice and /management; and the likelihood of other local authorities being able to implement the Practice Framework without outside help. The evaluation found that practitioners and mangers were very positive about the Framework. Most practitioner also felt the Framework would be useful in helping them to: assess risks; assess parental capacity to change; undertake chronologies; make decisions about whether to reunify a child and engage parents fully in assessment and work towards return. Barriers to implementation included capacity issues and uncertainty about how the Framework fitted with other processes. Most of the managers thought that the Framework would be implemented in their authorities in the next year, fully or partially