Summary

The Permanency Support Program (PSP) Evaluation was commissioned in late 2018 by the NSW Department of Communities and Justice and was delivered by an evaluation consortium led by the Centre for Evidence and Implementation (CEI) in collaboration with Monash University, the Cultural & Indigenous Research Centre Australia (CIRCA) and the Melbourne Institute at University of Melbourne.

The Permanency Support Program (PSP) was a major child protection and out-of-home care (OOHC) service reform implemented by the NSW government. Starting in October 2018, PSP was designed to embed the ‘permanency principles’ into practice across the sector to improve safety and wellbeing outcomes for children. PSP aimed to achieve four core objectives:

• Fewer entries into care: by keeping children and families together at home
• Shorter time in care: by increasing the number of children returning home to their families or finding other permanent homes for them, including guardianship arrangements or adoptions
• Better care experience: by investing in higher quality services
• Address the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the care system

The four-year evaluation sought to answer several key questions related to the implementation, scope, effectiveness, economic impact and sustainability of the PSP reform. The evaluation aligned with the RE-AIM Framework.

CIRCA’s Research Approach

CIRCA worked with the Consortium to design the Monitoring & Evaluation framework for PSP. CIRCA then developed the data collection approach and research tools for engagement with Aboriginal children, parents, carers, community members, and service providers. After receiving approval from the NSW AH&MRC Ethics Committee, CIRCA’s Aboriginal Research Consultants undertook 27 interviews with Aboriginal children, parents, carers, community members and 3 focus groups with 17 PSP Funded Service Provider staff. CIRCA’s qualitative research was undertaken to provide context to quantitative findings as well as to explore aspects of implementation with Aboriginal stakeholders, who are critical to understanding the benefits and challenges of any out of home care reform or policy.

Evaluation Findings and Outcomes

The findings of the evaluation contributed to understanding whether the four main goals of the PSP reform were achieved. CIRCA and the consortium also made recommendations on how to improve the design of future programs to overcome the barriers encountered by the PSP reform.

See the published report here:  The  Executive Summary and Summary Presentation outlines the key findings and recommendations. Full details are available in the PSP Evaluation Report.