Evaluating Springboard: impact of a family support programme in Ireland
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466660200600003 |
| Date | 01 April 2006 |
| Published date | 01 April 2006 |
| Pages | 16-28 |
| Author | Kieran McKeown,Trutz Haase,Jonathan Pratschke |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
16
1Social and Economic
Research Consultant,
Dublin, Ireland
2Social and
Economic Consultant,
Dublin, Ireland
3Dipartimento di
Sociologia e Scienza
della Politica,
Università degli
Studi di Salerno,
Italy
Journal of Children’s Services
Volume 1 Issue 1 April 2006
©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd
Abstract
The article reports results from an evaluation of Springboard, a family support programme introduced in
Ireland during 1998. The evaluation is based on a non-experimental design involving a pre-post
comparison of 319 children and 191 parents who participated in the programme. The two main outcomes
reported here are children’s psychological well-being (measured by the Strengths and Difficulties
Questionnaire – SDQ), and the parent–child relationship (measured by the Parent–Child Relationship
Inventory – PCRI). Results showed improvements in SDQ and PCRI scores, equivalent to an effect size in
the range 0.2 to 0.3, which is similar to the effect sizes produced by other family support programmes. At
the end of the intervention, there was still a substantial amount of unmet need among children. The
evaluation has two limitations: first, the use of a non-experimental method means that wecannot be
certain that all of the improved outcomes can be attributed to Springboard; second, the diverse
interventions which constitute Springboard, and family support programmes generally, means that it is
impossible to separate effective from ineffectiveinterventions within the programme.
Key words
Springboard; SDQ; PCRI; effect size; Ireland; well-being
Introduction
Like many countries, Ireland has a system that divides
care services for children into categories called child
protection, children in care and family support. Also like
other countries, most of the resources spent on these
services are allocated to child protection and children
in care. This has generated debate about the imbalance
in child care services, prompted in part by concerns
about the cost–benefit ratio associated with this
system of resource allocation but also by concerns over
the imbalance between prevention, early intervention
and treatment. This has led to increased investment in
family supportservices, of which the Springboard
programme is a significant example in Ireland.
This article describes the evaluation of
Springboard, which was based on a non-experimental
design involving a pre–post comparison of
programme participants on a range of well-being
indicators. To date, there has been almost no
evaluation of services involving child protection and
children in care in Ireland, illustrating a general
tendency that new services have to prove their value
but existing services do not. We begin by providing a
brief introduction to family support services in Ireland
and by describing the specific features of
Springboard as a family support programme. This is
followed by a description of the methodology used in
the evaluation, the key results that emerged, and the
main conclusions and implications.
Evolution of family support
services in Ireland
The rationale for family support services is that
families are a crucial influence on the well-being of
Evaluating Springboard:
impact of a family support
programme in Ireland
Kieran McKeown1,Trutz Haase2and Jonathan Pratschke3
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