Verso’s work in child protection, youth and family services has been groundbreaking – we have delivered on our mission to impact positively in diverse communities by working to improve the lives of children and their families. We have worked closely with government departments and service providers to evaluate programs, develop systems and improve recruitment strategies.
We have a team of experienced consultants with specialist skills and a passion to improve the lives of vulnerable children and young people. We provide targeted, cost-effective consulting projects that ensure results are achieved and outcomes are clearly documented.
Reviews, evaluation and quality improvement are critical in the delivery of evidence based care programs. Systematic collection of input and outcome data is essential for effective resource allocation and improved care practice. We work closely with our clients and key stakeholders to identify the goals of the project and propose a methodology which combines project management and field research methods based on the unique specifications of the project.
We are skilled in the review and consideration of planning documents, service provision data and program development strategies. This, combined with sensitive stakeholder consultation, helps us to identify issues, outcomes and learnings that may not have been fully documented or examined in the past. This allows us to identify successes and improvement opportunities. We work in partnership with policy makers and providers to measure progress towards benchmarks and set achievable short and long term targets.
Major Projects
> Out-of-Home Care Policy & Procedure Manual
> Review of Placement Prevention & Reunification Services for Aboriginal Children and Families
> Child Services System Development
> Best Practice Manual for Out-of-Home Care
> Foster Care Communication & Recruitment Strategy Evaluation
> Evaluation of Therapeutic Residential Care
Citations & References
Our work in child protection, youth and family services is respected by our peers and has been cited in the following academic documents and conference presentations:
- Anglin J “Building a Trauma-Informed Organisation” presentation at Being Trauma Informed in the Social Service Sector, 20/10/15
- Anglin J “Creating a System of Quality Therapeutic Residential Care” presentation at Association of Researchers of Study and Research Centres on Children and Adolescents (NECA), 27/11/14
- Anglin JP, “Towards an Understanding of Therapeutic Residential Care with Children and Adolescents” Developing Practice, 2015:41, Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies and NSW Family Services, Sydney
- Bath H & Smith B, “Practice Challenges in the Shift to Therapeutic Residential Care” Developing Practice, 2015:41, Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies and NSW Family Services, Sydney
- Berry Street (2014). Submission in response to Commission for Children and Young People Own Motion: Inquiry into the adequacy of the provision of services to children and young people who have been subjected to sexual exploitation or sexual abuse whilst residing in residential care (unpublished), Berry Street, Melbourne
- Campo, M., & Commerford, J. (2016). Supporting young people leaving out-of-home care (CFCA Paper No. 41). Melbourne: Child Family Community Australia information exchange, Australian Institute of Family Studies.
- CREATE Foundation (2013). Submission to the Queensland Child Protection Commission of Inquiry: Response to discussion paper (unpublished), CREATE Foundation, Albion, Queensland
- Department of Human Service, Victoria (2012). Program requirements for the delivery of therapeutic residential care in Victoria, DHS, Melbourne
- Encompass Family & Community, PeakCare Queensland & Paul Testro Consultancy Services (2015). Final Report: Stage One (Development of a proposed trauma – informed therapeutic framework for residential care), Queensland
- Jones G & Loch E, “What we have learnt about Therapeutic Residential Care: It’s more than just ‘good resi’” Developing Practice, 2015:41, Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies and NSW Family Services, Sydney
- MacKillop Family Services (2015), A guide to developing and implementing a senior practitioner role in Specialist Homelessness Service organisations: A project in the Workforce Development Fund for the Homelessness Sector Development Project, a partnership between Domestic Violence NSW, Yfoundations and Homelessness NSW, Sydney
- McHugh M (2013). Projected Downstream Savings to Governments: Foster Care Integrated Model, University of NSW: Social Policy Research Centre, Sydney
- McKinnon M, “Pillars of Practice: A framework for embedding the whole organisation in therapeutic practice” Developing Practice, 2015:41, Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies and NSW Family Services, Sydney
- McLean S, Price-Robertson R & Robinson E, “Therapeutic residential care in Australia: Taking stock and looking forward” Australian Institute of Family Studies, NCPC Issues No 35, November 2011
- McNamara P “Therapeutic residential services in Victoria, Australia: Toward healing trauma” presentation at International Association for Outcomes-based Evaluation and Research on Family and Children’s Services, 13/9/13
- Mendes P, Baidawi S & Snow PC (2014). Good Practice in Reducing the Over-Representation of Care Leavers in the Youth Justice System. Leaving Care and Youth Justice – Phase Three Report. Melbourne: Monash University
- Nowell C “Give Every Child in Out of Home Care High-Quality Therapeutic Placements” blog 19/2/16, http://vcoss.org.au/blog/give-every-child-in-out-of-home-care-high-quality-therapeutic-placements/, accessed 18/7/16
- The Salvation Army Australia (2014). Submission to the Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Out of Home Care (unpublished), The Salvation Army Australia, Canberra, ACT
- Tucci J & Mitchell J (2013). Submission to ACT Out of Home Care Issues Paper (unpublished), Australian Childhood Foundation, Melbourne
- Victorian State Government (2015). Victorian Government Submission to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into Out of Home Care (unpublished), Victorian State Government, Melbourne
- Wanstall C, Pocock J & Jones A (2014). Submission to Senate Inquiry Out of Home Care (unpublished), Berry Street, Melbourne
- Whittaker J, Valle JF, Holmes L (eds) 2014. Therapeutic Residential Care for Children and Youth: Developing evidence-based international practice, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London