Permanency Practice Framework
The challenge
To support non-government organisations to achieve restoration, guardianship or open adoption for children and young people in out-of-home care.
Who we’re working with
- NSW Department of Communities and Justice
- Research Centre for Children and Families (RCCF), University of Sydney
- CareSouth (Illawarra)
- Wandiyali (Newcastle)
- The Benevolent Society (Hurstville, Sydney)
What we’re doing
We’re working with CareSouth, Wandiyali and The Benevolent Society to develop and pilot a Permanency Practice Framework to support consistent practice with parents and carers who are working towards the goals of restoration, guardianship or open adoption.
Drawing on our PracticeWorks methodology, we are working with staff at each of our partner agencies on a framework that will be available to the whole non-government out-of-home care sector. The framework will allow practitioners to translate best practice evidence in a way that allows them to tailor the approach to individual clients and their circumstances.
Importantly, we’re focused not just on building frameworks, but on helping the agencies put them into action, monitor how they work, ensure they support staff needs and, ultimately, make sure they lead to better outcomes for families.
The results so far
We are implementing a three-stage training and coaching process to support sustainability in the pilot.
- Stage 1: We train seven coaches (from the partner agencies) to provide ongoing onsite coaching support to practitioners. This ensures practitioners receive continued support to strengthen their skills in the Framework
- Stage 2: With agency coaches, we co-deliver onsite training to agency practitioners in how to use the Framework
- Stage 3: We provide monthly group coaching sessions to agency coaches, to continue to develop and support their coaching skills.
From June 2022 to February 2023, the three agencies will pilot the Framework with parents and carers. This work will be subject to an independent evaluation by the RCCF at University of Sydney to inform the development of a final framework.
Learn more
- Read more about our PracticeWorks method
- Evidence review of permanency practices (University of Sydney)