News
An effective approach to supporting families
06/11/2007
New research has been published which evaluates the CHILDREN 1ST Directions Projects in the west of Scotland and concludes that early, targeted family support can bring real results for children and their families.
Families in Scotland today face many challenges. On the one hand our family provides most of us with the happiness, love, support and inspiration which helps us succeed but on the other it is also where we experience our most intense moments of sadness and loss. In the face of such complexity in family life the design and delivery of services to meet the needs of families also involves overcoming many challenges.
This evaluation represents a journey which started with a grant from the Scottish Executive in 2003 to provide support to families and it plots the progress of the CHILDREN 1ST Directions Projects. It highlights that evidence based practice can support families to build resilience and strength to overcome adversity.
The evaluation combines qualitative and quantitative evidence which explores the issues and challenges facing families with children who have problematic behaviour. The evaluation team have sought to convey a sense of the experiences of those participating in the development of the services. It arrives at the conclusion that a targeted family support service, providing early intervention, using well-evidenced programmes, located within a multi-agency arena and working with individual communities, may be one of the most effective ways to help Scotland's most vulnerable children and their families. This also fits with the Scottish Government's current initiatives.
The full report, and a summary report, is attached below.
Evaluation of Directions Projects (Summary report, pdf, 390kb)
Evaluation of Directions Projects (Full report, 1.4Mb)
Last updated: 11/04/2009
