Cautious support for evidence-based programmes is given by Eileen Munro in the third and final part of her review of child protection.

Commissioned by the Westminster government to look at services in England, Professor Munro’s primary thrust is to create a rebalancing between central government instruction and professional autonomy.

She comments: “A one-size-fits-all approach is not the right way for child protection services to operate. Top down government targets and too many forms and procedures are preventing professionals from being able to give children the help they need and assess whether that help has made a difference.”

The review calls for government to put more trust in professionals and to move away from the “tick-box” culture that has emerged in response to successive abuse scandals. Munro also echoed the recent report, commissioned by the government, from Graham Allen MP, which called for early intervention. However, she goes further by recommending a duty on all services to co-ordinate help before problems escalate which then necessitate evoking child protection procedures.

The final report makes more play than Munro’s first two on the role of evidence-based programs. There is an extensive quotation from a submission made by Prevention Action editor Michael Little on the challenges of implementing proven policies and programs in mainstream systems like child protection.

However, Munro also refers to work by distinguished social work professor Eileen Gambrill that equates evidence- based programs with propaganda, by which she means encouraging beliefs and actions with the least thought possible.

Munro calls for more to be done to keep experienced social workers in practice, to dissuade the best practitioners with the greatest skills from drifting into management.

The review may fuel calls for greater investment in proven models of child protection, but its greater impact could be on clinical practice, and for the use of evidence in this context.

References

The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report, London, Department for Education, 2011

Eileen Gambrill, ‘Evidence-informed practice: antidote to propaganda in the helping professions’, Research on Social Work Practice, 20, 3, pp302-320, 2010

For more information, see Michael Little's blog on: Evidence Based Programmes, Child Protection and Munro