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Research Key Processes Informing Policy / Improving Practice through Research
Research Key Processes Informing Policy / Improving Practice through Research
Informing Policy and Improving Practice through Research
The concern of whether or not research results or findings are published/disseminated is a challenge for researchers. It is important for agency leaders to have mechanisms in place to respond to the information learned from the research. A research study can only improve performance if the agency makes the necessary changes - based on the research findings – to impact practice and inform policy. Agencies can maximize their use and implementation of research on best practices by sharing data, discussing outcomes and learning from one another through workshops, trainings and publications.
Workers who are well trained and interested in using research can provide the agency with the knowledge and motivation to conduct its own studies. They can also effectively integrate the findings into their work with children and families.
The following examples show how agencies have used research to inform child welfare practices:
Child welfare research has made significant contributions over the last 60 years. In 1959 Henry Maas and Richard Engler published the first study that showed many children who were placed into foster care never returned home and, instead, had multiple placements while in foster care. The authors concluded that the child welfare program needed to better emphasize reunification and permanent guardianship. This study was central to launching subsequent permanency planning programs and presaged an impressive new cluster of studies that are showing the significant adverse effect of having multiple placements while in foster care.
More recently, public health researchers have come to understand that many of the children who were dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (which plagued child welfare agencies because they have so many infants in their care) could be dramatically reduced by having children sleep in cribs and on their backs.
Perhaps the most significant randomized clinical trials ever conducted in child welfare were completed in Illinois based on a Title IV-E waiver that allowed relatives who became guardians to receive an ongoing payment, akin to an adoption subsidy. This research study paved the way for components of the recently passed Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (PL 110-351) that have expanded the use of federal funds to pay for support of kinship guardianship.
Another descriptive, longitudinal study that influenced the passage and makeup of PL 110-351 is the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth3, which demonstrated that Illinois youth who remained in care past age 18 outperformed the youth in other Midwest states that did not allow youth to remain in care until age 21. This is an excellent example of a quasi-experimental study (as youth cannot be assigned to different states to see how their policies will work out for them) that was carefully done and had a major impact.
Many studies have also had an influence on state policy. Research concerning differential response performed by the Institute of Applied Research in Missouri and Minnesota, and current studies in Ohio and Nevada, have significantly advanced the child welfare reform efforts and state policy and practice. In Minnesota, the randomized clinical trials established that children were as safe or safer under the family assessment response as under an investigative response, and over time the service costs were less than under the investigative response. The study findings were instrumental in garnering legislative support for statewide implementation of the program and for state policy that identifies family assessment as the preferred response for reports of alleged child maltreatment not involving substantial child endangerment. Reports concerning these studies can be found on the Institute of Applied Research website: www.iarstl.org.
More recently, public health researchers have come to understand that many of the children who were dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (which plagued child welfare agencies because they have so many infants in their care) could be dramatically reduced by having children sleep in cribs and on their backs.
Perhaps the most significant randomized clinical trials ever conducted in child welfare were completed in Illinois based on a Title IV-E waiver that allowed relatives who became guardians to receive an ongoing payment, akin to an adoption subsidy. This research study paved the way for components of the recently passed Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (PL 110-351) that have expanded the use of federal funds to pay for support of kinship guardianship.
Another descriptive, longitudinal study that influenced the passage and makeup of PL 110-351 is the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth3, which demonstrated that Illinois youth who remained in care past age 18 outperformed the youth in other Midwest states that did not allow youth to remain in care until age 21. This is an excellent example of a quasi-experimental study (as youth cannot be assigned to different states to see how their policies will work out for them) that was carefully done and had a major impact.
Many studies have also had an influence on state policy. Research concerning differential response performed by the Institute of Applied Research in Missouri and Minnesota, and current studies in Ohio and Nevada, have significantly advanced the child welfare reform efforts and state policy and practice. In Minnesota, the randomized clinical trials established that children were as safe or safer under the family assessment response as under an investigative response, and over time the service costs were less than under the investigative response. The study findings were instrumental in garnering legislative support for statewide implementation of the program and for state policy that identifies family assessment as the preferred response for reports of alleged child maltreatment not involving substantial child endangerment. Reports concerning these studies can be found on the Institute of Applied Research website: www.iarstl.org.
Additional Sections:
Deciding When to Engage in a Research Activity
Identifying Common Barriers in Achieving Research Goals
Identifying Research Funding
Identifying Valuable Research
Practice-Based Research
Criteria for Evaluating Research
Program Monitoring and Evaluation
Continuous Quality Improvement
Identifying Common Barriers in Achieving Research Goals
Identifying Research Funding
Identifying Valuable Research
Practice-Based Research
Criteria for Evaluating Research
Program Monitoring and Evaluation
Continuous Quality Improvement