1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The purpose of this chapter is to document and discuss some of the practical issues that arise and must be addressed in adapting longitudinal and spatial analysis tools to support quality assurance and program planning for child welfare organizations, implementation monitoring, and policy development for government funders.» (p. 435)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

The authors argue that «[c]hild welfare administrative data are an underutilized source of rich information that should inform researchers, administrators and policy makers […]. Access to–and interpretation of–these data, however, require the development of appropriate tools, infrastructure and an evidence-based culture […]. The transition to evidence-based decision making requires a significant investment of resources and time to develop a new planning and management culture.» (p. 450) «Other potential methodological problems include: rates and treatment of missing data, differences in inclusion and exclusion criteria in defining denominators, and use of “other” catch-all categories. The latter has been a problem in comparisons in permanency outcomes that we have been trying to examine across Quebec. [T]he rate of children placed in out-of-home care who return home within 36 months varies across Quebec from a low of 34.2% to a high of 65.0%. In discussing this variation with staff from several jurisdictions it became clear that the problem was that faced with a list of over 40 placement termination codes, many workers opted for the convenient “other” category to refer to family reunifications where the “family” to which a child is reunified may have a different composition than the family of origin. This code, therefore, obscures the service outcome, making it difficult to evaluate the efficacy of the specific service interventions used in each case.» (p. 445)