Evaluation of Islington's 'Referral and Advice' Team
London Borough of Islington
We have been asked by Islington Council to undertake an evaluation of their recently established Referral and Advice (R & A) Team, which responds to all new referrals to Children's Social Care.
The team aims to ensure a swift and effective response to
requests for services, information and advice in order support children’s progress to achieve the Every Child Matters outcomes and safeguard them from harm. Objectives include increasing the quality of response to referrals to Children’s Social Care, increasing the quality of initial and core assessments and developing the integration agenda through increased partnership working.
- Examine any changes in service response and early outcomes since the R & A became operational
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the team between
September and December 2008 with emphasis on: joint working protocols and evidence of partnership
working; quality of intervention and assessment;
accessibility and efficacy of the service; workers and stakeholders’ perspectives of the effectiveness of the
R & A model of intervention; and service users’
perspectives on the model of intervention, social
workers, service response and support
- Explore similarities and differences between Islington’s approach and other authorities provision of ‘front door’ access to Children’s Social Care
- Cost R & A Team activity
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Collection and analysis of data from management information systems pre- and post implementation of the team to explore changes in responses to referrals
- Analysis of data to briefly map the characteristics of the children and families: evidence of changes in patterns of referral from different agencies; speed of response and allocation of a named worker, proportion of cases where a social work assessment is deemed unnecessary; quantity of assessments; and whether re-referrals have increased or decreased
- Audit of 30 initial and core assessments (15 cases pre-implementation and 15 cases post- implementation) to explore whether improvements have occurred
- Interviews with specialist social workers, children in need social workers and managers to explore expectations prior to implementation and the extent to which these are seen to have been met; what is working well; what could be working better; and the outcomes achieved to date
- Questionnaire and focus groups with other agencies
- Interviews with a sample of 12 families, including those that have previously experienced referrals and intervention (prior to implementation of the R & A team) to allow for examination of whether the new team is seen to be more effective
- In depth analysis of costs data being collected as part of the Cost Calculator extension project
The research team have recently begun fieldwork.
This work will independently assess the perceived value and outcomes of the new service and provide Islington with an
understanding of how well the system is working and any areas for improvement.
Emily Munro
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