Papers by Dott.ssa Sara Serbati
Children and Youth Services Review
Users' participation in Child and Family Social Work is widely acknowledged as a central ... more Users' participation in Child and Family Social Work is widely acknowledged as a central and hard-to-reach issue for successful and effective intervention. The article considers a methodological proposal in pursuing participation, called Participative and Transformative Evaluation (PTE) that uses instruments and data as a means of reflection and negotiation between all the actors involved, in order to justify choices and make decisions. The PTE is realised inside the Programme of Intervention for Prevention of Institutionalization (P.I.P.P.I.), involving 144 child care and protection cases (198 children) in nine Italian cities, in order to prevent out-of-home child placement and reduce child neglect. Inside the P.I.P.P.I. a series of case studies were developed to achieve an in-depth understanding of the effective processes undertaken by participants with families. The case selected for this article has been chosen because it reflects a best practice in using the PTE as well as the participation path and is undertaken following the indications of the Critical Best Practice. It allowed an in-depth understanding of the mother's and professionals' viewpoints about what built the success in their practice. During the discussion three components are considered: the technical solutions offered by research or science (technical components) become meaningful when participants not only apply them, but act upon them, building, internally, the meanings to be enacted (internal component). In the case study this came about through dialogue between people, and through negotiation and reflection on competence, visions and values (communicative component).
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The article proposes a theoretical reflection about the evaluation field of
Child and Family Soci... more The article proposes a theoretical reflection about the evaluation field of
Child and Family Social Work (CFSW) programmes and interventions. It
focuses on the relationship between ways for producing knowledge
through evaluation and whether and how such knowledge influence
practice. In the past years, several reports have highlighted the gap
between knowledge of effective treatments and practices delivered. The
article aims to discuss the features of an evaluation process seeking to
build a bridge between research and practice displaying the logical
process by which evaluation knowledge should be rearranged in order
to change practice. The value of the effort of evaluation in making
generalisations and rules for helping people operate efficiently and
effectively is considered. But from this view, misunderstandings about
the use of the meaning of ‘science’ are identified. The author introduces
a broader understanding of the ‘knowledge’ to be investigated by
evaluation, no longer intended only as ‘what works’ (external evidence),
but also as processes able to produce a change in people’s decisionmaking
(internal evidence) that happen within reflective and dialogical
contexts (communicative evidence). These reflections are looking for a
knowledge more appropriate to the CFSW field, able to improve and
change practice and to ensure access to quality services.
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Children and Youth Services Review, 2017
Users' participation in Child and Family Social Work is widely acknowledged as a central and hard... more Users' participation in Child and Family Social Work is widely acknowledged as a central and hard-to-reach issue for successful and effective intervention. The article considers a methodological proposal in pursuing participation, called Participative and Transformative Evaluation (PTE) that uses instruments and data as a means of reflection and negotiation between all the actors involved, in order to justify choices and make decisions. The PTE is realised inside the Programme of Intervention for Prevention of Institutionalization (P.I.P.P.I.), involving 144 child care and protection cases (198 children) in nine Italian cities, in order to prevent out-of-home child placement and reduce child neglect. Inside the P.I.P.P.I. a series of case studies were developed to achieve an in-depth understanding of the effective processes undertaken by participants with families. The case selected for this article has been chosen because it reflects a best practice in using the PTE as well as the participation path and is undertaken following the indications of the Critical Best Practice. It allowed an in-depth understanding of the mother's and professionals' viewpoints about what built the success in their practice. During the discussion three components are considered: the technical solutions offered by research or science (technical components) become meaningful when participants not only apply them, but act upon them, building, internally, the meanings to be enacted (internal component). In the case study this came about through dialogue between people, and through negotiation and reflection on competence, visions and values (communicative component).
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Evaluation is constantly requested by governments and decision-makers, to prove that social polic... more Evaluation is constantly requested by governments and decision-makers, to prove that social policies and actions undertaken are effective in responding to problems. Also, programmes contrasting child neglect are involved in such request to guarantee that children enjoy their childhood and ensure access to quality service. This paper focuses on an Italian evaluation experience of such a programme, thanks to the collaboration between University of Padua and Italian Ministry of Welfare. It is called P.I.P.P.I.-Programme of Intervention for Prevention of Institutionalisation. The paper questioned and challenged the experimental designs normally used for these evaluation purposes, highlighting how knowledge of effective treatments is far from the practices delivered. The study purposes an innovative evaluation path, intertwining the participative evaluation where the professionals build their own knowledge through an evaluation in the field, with the choice of matching as (quasi) experimental evaluation, responding to the Government's request of effective investments.
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Evaluation is constantly requested by governments and decision-makers, to prove that social polic... more Evaluation is constantly requested by governments and decision-makers, to prove that social policies and actions undertaken are effective in responding to problems. Also programmes contrasting child neglect are involved in such request to guarantee that children enjoy their childhood and ensure access to quality service. This paper focuses on an Italian evaluation experience of such a programme, thanks to the collaboration between University of Padua and Italian Ministry of Welfare. It is called P.I.P.P.I. - Programme of Intervention for Prevention of Institutionalisation. The paper questioned and challenged the experimental designs normally used for these evaluation purposes, highlighting how knowledge of effective treatments is far from the practices delivered. The study purposes an innovative evaluation path where coexist the participative evaluation where the professionals built their own knowledge through an evaluation in the field, and the choice of matching as (quasi) experimental evaluation, responding to the Government’s request of effective investments.
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The informal social support is part of the interventions envisaged in the national programme P.I.... more The informal social support is part of the interventions envisaged in the national programme P.I.P.P.I. (Programme of Intervention for Prevention of Institutionalization), launched in 2010 by the Italian Ministry of Welfare in collaboration with University of Padua. P.I.P.P.I. to date involves 123 cities, for 2,000 children that are experimenting new strategies in order to prevent out-of-home placement. Since the studies in this field and since the neurobiology findings on the positive relationship between social support and parents' positive behaviours and then between the social relationships and cognitive, emotional and social development of the child, the article explores the theories of informal social support and considers them in relation to the P.I.P.P.I. experiences. The aim is to identify effective strategies, in order to enhance social relationships and responding to problems connected to child neglect, intended as «a significant deficiency or a failure to respond to the needs of a child» (Lacharité et al, 2006: 384).
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Qualitative methods (i.e. semi-structured interviews) were used in this micro-research to explore... more Qualitative methods (i.e. semi-structured interviews) were used in this micro-research to explore the different ways in which young people and social and residential workers perceive the outcomes of the residential care experience. By comparing the participants " points of view, it was possible to investigate different ways of thinking about residential care plans and evaluating outcomes. Seven residential care paths were considered via a total of twenty-one interviews with young people formerly in residential care (7), residential workers (7) and social workers (7). The analysis focused on the young people " s life path and on the understanding of their family relationships. The results highlight the social workers " difficulty in sharing a care plan with residential workers and with the respective families, and underline the importance of thinking about ways of cooperating between different services and families: a methodology focusing on participation of families and children leads to an increased likelihood of successful intervention. INTRODUCTION International research has shown the high risk of social exclusion for young people after leaving care. They are more likely than those who have not been in care to have poorer educational qualifications, to be young parents, to be homeless, and have higher levels of unemployment, engage in offending behaviour and suffer from mental health problems, research has highlighted how the transition to adult life is faster for those leaving care: they leave care at an earlier age than young people in the wider population tend to leave home. Learning to manage a new home, finding a job and starting a family are often compressed into the period soon after leaving care. In these respects, young people leaving care have been expected to shoulder a broader range of responsibilities at an earlier age than is common for their peers (Cheung & Heath, 1994; Dixon & Stein, 2005; Courtney & Dworsky, 2006). Set against these difficulties there seem to be better outcomes when the transition to adult life comes together with some important elements, such as special care for family relationship, the building of a support net at the beginning of independent life and/or a gradual transition to adult life (The present research here represents an effort towards further documenting the positive and negative aspects of experiences in residential care, in order to suggest better ways of engaging families productively in the care path.
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Some families face great vulnerability due to various factors such as personal and
familiar histo... more Some families face great vulnerability due to various factors such as personal and
familiar history, poverty, social isolation, etc. In such situations, the ability of parents to
take care of their children can be rather limited. In Italy, in order to support vulnerable families and more particularly neglectful ones, child -and-family educational home
interventions are widespread. However, to date there has been little far-reaching
evaluation of their effectiveness. This article reports the results of a joint researchtraining-intervention
project that involved 12 educators and 18 deemed negligent
families over an intervention period of 12 months. The evaluation permitted
identification of the key factors fostering the adaptation of these families
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A B S T R AC T This paper reports research carried out in Italy designed to investigate the usabi... more A B S T R AC T This paper reports research carried out in Italy designed to investigate the usability of Child Well-Being Scale (CWBS) for the outcome evaluation of home-care interventions for vulnerable families and children in need. Using a pre-and post-test design, the study traces the changes in 18 vulnerable families and 23 children in need included in a programme of home-care intervention over a period of 11 months. All the families and children were assessed twice: at intake and at the end of the intervention (after 6 months). Furthermore , 10 families and 11 children had a longer intervention and were assessed three times. Moreover, two focus groups involving 13 home-care workers and 11 face-to-face interviews were used to collect practitioners' points of views on CWBS. The results generally support the idea that families' and children's situation improved over time, as shown by an improvement in almost all of the considered dimensions after 6 months and after 11 months. Specifically, the families improved more on household adequacy in the long term while children on the child performance dimension improved in the short term. Practitioners reported that CWBS was an aid to multi-professional decision-making, as the systematic evaluation of the subscales was a practical base upon which to activate shared decision-making during the casework.
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by Sofiya An, Biffi Francesca, Vedat Işıkhan, Monique Eckmann, Izabela Jedrzejowska, Robert Meredith, Manning 91, Damoiseaux Daniëlle, Elena Allegri, Jerzy Krzyszkowski, Stefania Sguera, M.Elena Cuartero, Haluk Soydan, Sarah Lewis-brooke, Marta Sałkowska, Elaine Sharland, Raineri Luisa, Elisabet Sernbo, Anne Parpan Gt Switzerland, Anat Epstein, Sanela Sadic, Sarah Galvani, Christian Ghanem, Monica Kjørstad, Sissel Seim, Kristina Urbanc, Parkinson Patricia, Pieter Vliet, Lars E-mail, Cabiati Elena, Vincent Waal, Sanela Basic, Sylvie Van Dam, Pia Eriksson, Yishih Cheng, Fiona Med, Vjollca Krasniqi, Martin Webber, Mairhofer A, Marie Spilackova, Klimentova Eva, Tamara Fsd, Wendy Mitchell, Gašper Krstulović, Adir Adler, Ard Sprinkhuizen, Varda Soskolne, Alexander Reznik, Katalin Katz, Thierry Atangana, Rebecca Davis, Sharon Borja, Maja Laklija, Matteo Di Placido, Gisela Hauss, Liz Fern, Erika Bejko, Haneen Elias, José Luís D`Almeida, Brian Taylor, Dott.ssa Sara Serbati, Nina Žitek, Kerstin Svensson, Viv Cree, Alison Brammer, Torunn Ask, Aila-leena Matthies, Andrea Bánovčinová, Vittorio Vezzetti, Michel S.L. Tirions, Havlíková Jana, Serenella Oletto, Judith Metz, Marijke Sniekers, Universitat De Barcelona Josefina Fernández Barrera, Kateřina Kubalčíková, Alastair Christie, Joanna Fox, Mark Hardy, Shalhevet Attar-schwartz, אייל מידני, René Schalk, Ronald Marks, Darja Zavir, Nina Mešl, Erik Jansen, Maria Sjölund, Aino Kääriäinen, Marjo Kuronen, Sharon Walker, Jane Boylan, Barbara Samaluk, Barrie Levine, Tim Vanhove, Rosine van Dam, Joanna Rawles, roni berger, Peter Raeymaeckers, Elona Dhembo, Linda Bell, Lia Levin, Talia Meital Schwartz-Tayri, Urban Nothdurfter, Lars Evertsson, Amra Sabic, Vendula Gojová, Sarah Banks, Kim Holt, Salenius Paula, Kati Närhi, and Rea Maglajlic More than 400 abstracts from the April 2015 conference of research in social work conference of t... more More than 400 abstracts from the April 2015 conference of research in social work conference of the ESWRA, which was held in Ljubljana in April 2015; Welcome address by Darja Zaviršek, chair;
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Familles à risque (no 16, 2012) by Dott.ssa Sara Serbati
Résumé
Certaines familles sont caractérisées par un grand niveau de vulnérabilité en raison de d... more Résumé
Certaines familles sont caractérisées par un grand niveau de vulnérabilité en raison de différents facteurs tels que l’histoire personnelle et familiale, des situations de pauvreté, d’isolement social, etc. Dans ces situations, la capacité des parents à prendre soin de leur enfant peut se révéler plutôt limitée. En Italie, dans le but de soutenir ces familles vulnérables, et celles qui sont négligentes en particulier, les interventions éducatives à domicile en faveur de l’enfant et de sa famille sont fort répandues, mais elles ont très peu fait l’objet d’évaluations scientifiques rigoureuses. Dans cet article, nous présentons les résultats d’une démarche partenariale de recherche-formation-intervention d’une durée de 12 mois impliquant 12 éducateurs et 18 familles considérées comme négligentes. L’évaluation de cette démarche a ainsi permis d’identifier les facteurs clés favorables à l’adaptation de ces familles.
//
Abstract
Some families face great vulnerability due to various factors such as personal and familiar history, poverty, social isolation, etc. In such situations, the ability of parents to take care of their children can be rather limited. In Italy, in order to support vulnerable families and more particularly neglectful ones, child -and-family educational home interventions are widespread. However, to date there has been little far-reaching evaluation of their effectiveness. This article reports the results of a joint research-training-intervention project that involved 12 educators and 18 deemed negligent families over an intervention period of 12 months. The evaluation permitted identification of the key factors fostering the adaptation of these families.
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Papers by Dott.ssa Sara Serbati
Child and Family Social Work (CFSW) programmes and interventions. It
focuses on the relationship between ways for producing knowledge
through evaluation and whether and how such knowledge influence
practice. In the past years, several reports have highlighted the gap
between knowledge of effective treatments and practices delivered. The
article aims to discuss the features of an evaluation process seeking to
build a bridge between research and practice displaying the logical
process by which evaluation knowledge should be rearranged in order
to change practice. The value of the effort of evaluation in making
generalisations and rules for helping people operate efficiently and
effectively is considered. But from this view, misunderstandings about
the use of the meaning of ‘science’ are identified. The author introduces
a broader understanding of the ‘knowledge’ to be investigated by
evaluation, no longer intended only as ‘what works’ (external evidence),
but also as processes able to produce a change in people’s decisionmaking
(internal evidence) that happen within reflective and dialogical
contexts (communicative evidence). These reflections are looking for a
knowledge more appropriate to the CFSW field, able to improve and
change practice and to ensure access to quality services.
familiar history, poverty, social isolation, etc. In such situations, the ability of parents to
take care of their children can be rather limited. In Italy, in order to support vulnerable families and more particularly neglectful ones, child -and-family educational home
interventions are widespread. However, to date there has been little far-reaching
evaluation of their effectiveness. This article reports the results of a joint researchtraining-intervention
project that involved 12 educators and 18 deemed negligent
families over an intervention period of 12 months. The evaluation permitted
identification of the key factors fostering the adaptation of these families
Familles à risque (no 16, 2012) by Dott.ssa Sara Serbati
Certaines familles sont caractérisées par un grand niveau de vulnérabilité en raison de différents facteurs tels que l’histoire personnelle et familiale, des situations de pauvreté, d’isolement social, etc. Dans ces situations, la capacité des parents à prendre soin de leur enfant peut se révéler plutôt limitée. En Italie, dans le but de soutenir ces familles vulnérables, et celles qui sont négligentes en particulier, les interventions éducatives à domicile en faveur de l’enfant et de sa famille sont fort répandues, mais elles ont très peu fait l’objet d’évaluations scientifiques rigoureuses. Dans cet article, nous présentons les résultats d’une démarche partenariale de recherche-formation-intervention d’une durée de 12 mois impliquant 12 éducateurs et 18 familles considérées comme négligentes. L’évaluation de cette démarche a ainsi permis d’identifier les facteurs clés favorables à l’adaptation de ces familles.
//
Abstract
Some families face great vulnerability due to various factors such as personal and familiar history, poverty, social isolation, etc. In such situations, the ability of parents to take care of their children can be rather limited. In Italy, in order to support vulnerable families and more particularly neglectful ones, child -and-family educational home interventions are widespread. However, to date there has been little far-reaching evaluation of their effectiveness. This article reports the results of a joint research-training-intervention project that involved 12 educators and 18 deemed negligent families over an intervention period of 12 months. The evaluation permitted identification of the key factors fostering the adaptation of these families.
Child and Family Social Work (CFSW) programmes and interventions. It
focuses on the relationship between ways for producing knowledge
through evaluation and whether and how such knowledge influence
practice. In the past years, several reports have highlighted the gap
between knowledge of effective treatments and practices delivered. The
article aims to discuss the features of an evaluation process seeking to
build a bridge between research and practice displaying the logical
process by which evaluation knowledge should be rearranged in order
to change practice. The value of the effort of evaluation in making
generalisations and rules for helping people operate efficiently and
effectively is considered. But from this view, misunderstandings about
the use of the meaning of ‘science’ are identified. The author introduces
a broader understanding of the ‘knowledge’ to be investigated by
evaluation, no longer intended only as ‘what works’ (external evidence),
but also as processes able to produce a change in people’s decisionmaking
(internal evidence) that happen within reflective and dialogical
contexts (communicative evidence). These reflections are looking for a
knowledge more appropriate to the CFSW field, able to improve and
change practice and to ensure access to quality services.
familiar history, poverty, social isolation, etc. In such situations, the ability of parents to
take care of their children can be rather limited. In Italy, in order to support vulnerable families and more particularly neglectful ones, child -and-family educational home
interventions are widespread. However, to date there has been little far-reaching
evaluation of their effectiveness. This article reports the results of a joint researchtraining-intervention
project that involved 12 educators and 18 deemed negligent
families over an intervention period of 12 months. The evaluation permitted
identification of the key factors fostering the adaptation of these families
Certaines familles sont caractérisées par un grand niveau de vulnérabilité en raison de différents facteurs tels que l’histoire personnelle et familiale, des situations de pauvreté, d’isolement social, etc. Dans ces situations, la capacité des parents à prendre soin de leur enfant peut se révéler plutôt limitée. En Italie, dans le but de soutenir ces familles vulnérables, et celles qui sont négligentes en particulier, les interventions éducatives à domicile en faveur de l’enfant et de sa famille sont fort répandues, mais elles ont très peu fait l’objet d’évaluations scientifiques rigoureuses. Dans cet article, nous présentons les résultats d’une démarche partenariale de recherche-formation-intervention d’une durée de 12 mois impliquant 12 éducateurs et 18 familles considérées comme négligentes. L’évaluation de cette démarche a ainsi permis d’identifier les facteurs clés favorables à l’adaptation de ces familles.
//
Abstract
Some families face great vulnerability due to various factors such as personal and familiar history, poverty, social isolation, etc. In such situations, the ability of parents to take care of their children can be rather limited. In Italy, in order to support vulnerable families and more particularly neglectful ones, child -and-family educational home interventions are widespread. However, to date there has been little far-reaching evaluation of their effectiveness. This article reports the results of a joint research-training-intervention project that involved 12 educators and 18 deemed negligent families over an intervention period of 12 months. The evaluation permitted identification of the key factors fostering the adaptation of these families.