Service delivery goals and underlying interprofessional practices: A scoping review to support interprofessional collaboration in the field of child protection

To improve outcomes for vulnerable children, there is a pressing need to strengthen collaboration between services that support children and families known to child protection. There is potential for shared service goals to enhance interprofessional collaboration in this field. To better understand shared service goals as an enabler of interprofessional collaboration, a scoping review was undertaken to critically explore (i) goals for children and for their parents/caregivers held by services for children and families known to child protection (ii) interprofessional practices underpinning these goals. Ninety-one studies met the inclusion criteria. Safety, family preservation and increasing parenting capacity were identified as the most universally common goals across the range of services included in the review. Findings to enhance interprofessional collaboration are presented including: the role and value of shared goals at both the organizational and individual client level, as well as interprofessional practices that underpin the attainment of these shared goals. Recommendations for future research are made including the need to explore involvement of consumers in design and evaluation of collaborative approaches and how work to support children’s wellbeing is balanced with work to improve the context in which they live.