The Journey to Evidence: Adopting Evidence-Based Programs in an Australian Child Welfare Organization

ABSTRACT

In response to a crisis in the child welfare sector in Australia, the OzChild executive leadership team (ELT) moved to adopt evidence-based programs (EBPs) to deliver improved outcomes to children and families. This case study focuses on the adoption and implementation of the first suite of EBPs, examining the strategies, decision-making processes and challenges addressed by the ELT. Interviews with leaders and managers involved are situated within existing research on organizational change and EBP adoption in human service organizations. The case study concludes with a set of questions to encourage discussion and reflection.

KEYWORDS:

• Child welfare
• organizational change
• evidence-based programs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The forcible separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and communities occurred from initial colonization in the late 1700’s and through various settler-colonial policy iterations, with explicit policies of child removal remaining in place until around the mid-1970’s. While at the time some of these policies were considered benevolent, such as providing western education and training, they are now understood to have wide-reaching negative impacts. The emotional, physical and sexual abuse of the children affected by these policies and practices is documented (Australian Human Rights Commission [AHRC], 1997; Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, 2017). The tearing apart of families and associated denial of identity, language and connection to country is now understood to contribute to current disadvantage through interconnected impacts including intergenerational trauma, racism and structural inequality. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people consider the continuing high levels of child removal to be evidence of the ongoing systemic practice of targeting Indigenous children for removal (Rowse, 2005).

² In their study of the implementation of five family and parenting EBPs in Australia, Albers et al. (2020) found that overseas support needed to be quickly supplemented with strong local implementation capacities. Moullin et al. (2019, p. 11) argue that bridging factors, including relationships between organizations and purveyors, are key areas to consider in implementation research.