Using a realist lens to understand the Victorian Family Preservation and Reunification Response in the first year of implementation — Towards a better understanding of practice

Programs for families where children are at risk aim to develop the conditions for safety and care that is rewarding, loving, stable and secure. Understanding what leads to outcomes is less clear, and realist research methods are a useful in unpacking this. The Social Care Theorising Model informed the collection of focus group data from practitioners and team leaders in a family preservation and reunification program being scale up across the state of Victoria in Australia. Demi-regularities (patterns of a program’s function that are reasonably stable) were generated to provide a rapid understanding of practice knowledge to inform data-driven decision making. This study combined the methodology from two studies to balance the need for realist informed findings without time and resource intensive processes of program theory development. Twelve demi-regularities were found which were grouped into three socio-ecological themes of family, organisation and system. At the family level, practitioners described what enabled engagement, readiness, the development of a therapeutic relationship and the need for supported closure. The organisational level suggested the preconditions to engagement, the caseload needed to work intensively, management of staff stress and work needed to operationalise goals. The systems level largely described the essential role of the Child Protection Navigator and how they enable service delivery. This study provides an understanding of what works, for whom, when and why in an innovative family preservation and reunification program.