8. What is realistic? Who can do what?

Clients and their family and the family worker

Clients and family workers will be explicit about the client’s situation and what they are working on. This involves family workers making explicit:

• the service models they are using
• the judgements they make about the client and the client’s situation.

This will require family workers

• using appropriate assessment tools and
• gathering relevant data
• reflecting on the analysis of the data to improve service practice.

It will require clients

• completing an assessment tool or survey
• completing follow up surveys or other tools
• reflecting on the results.

Family Support Services

Services will gather data on who receives what services.

They will systematically review the evidence for change taking place with clients and their situations.

In addition to the points above for family workers and clients, service staff will:

Collect data on all clients
Collate data on all clients
Analyse data
Report on the analyses
Use the analysis in reflection on service practice to improve service practice.

Peak bodies such as NSW Family Services

Peak bodies such as NSW Family Services will:

Gather monitoring and review data (as it has in the past with Census data from services).
Continue the development of the measurement tools discussed below.
Develop a research agenda in collaboration with other relevant organisations to work specifically on showing cause and effect links between services and outcomes.

Government

Government will have program monitoring and review information available at a regional and state level. This will require support from government for family support services’:

Minimum data sets
Data collation tools
Data collation and analysis systems.

Government will establish frameworks and systems for data to be gathered from the services network about clients, not just about individual services.

Government will fund services for the time and resources they spend on data collection, collation and analysis.

Government will fund research into family support outcomes, particularly research to show cause and effect linkages between service delivery and outcomes.

Other organisations and agencies

Universities and other academic organisations will undertake the necessary research to provide a sound basis for the use and interpretation of evaluation tools in family support.