Brighter Futures early intervention evaluation: interim report 3

• Fiona Hilferty, and others
• Social Policy Research Centre

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02 June 2010This report looks at the performance of the Brighter Futures program in providing targeted support to vulnerable families with young children who are at risk of being abused or neglected. The aim is to help families at an earlier stage of intervention, to stop them escalating within the child protection system. The program is being administered in partnership with 14 non-government agencies across NSW.

The staged roll out of Brighter Futures across NSW began in 2003, and is part of a shift in child protection policy and practice towards preventive, family-focused support and service provision.

The Social Policy Research Centre was commissioned in 2006 by Community Services to lead a consortium that is currently evaluating the program. The evaluation will provide a final report in September 2010. This is the final interim report which presents findings from the Results Evaluation.

The aim of the Results Evaluation is to assess if the program is meeting the needs and improving the outcomes for program families. The three main outcome measures used to assess the program and present findings for this report are the Family Survey, Risk of Harm Reports, and the Intensive Outcomes Study (IOS). Details on each of these measures are provided in chapter 2, which provides comprehensive detail on evaluation design and methodology.