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Agency Workers’ Perceptions of Cross-System Collaboration to Support Students in Out-of-Home Care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2018

Amy Gill  and
Grace Oakley
Amy Gill*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
Grace Oakley
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Amy Gill, Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia, M428, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. E-mail: amy.gill@mq.edu.au
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Abstract

Children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) experience a wide range of educational issues at rates disproportionate to their peers. Collaboration between child protection and education systems is critical to addressing unique educational needs within this cohort. This article presents a qualitative case study investigating child protection workers’ perceptions of their work with primary and high school educators in Western Australia. Methods included policy analysis and in-depth interviews with a purposeful sample of 11 Case Workers and Education Officers employed by The Department for Child Protection and Family Support in metropolitan, regional and remote locations in Western Australia. Overall, participants reported that a jointly established Memorandum of Understanding had helped strengthen mutual accountability for education planning to support students in OOHC. However, difficulties obtaining Documented Education Plans and limited access to supplementary educational supports within both systems were considerable sources of tension. An adaptation of Whittington's (2003) Two-Stage Model of Collaboration illustrates the hierarchical nature of the influences on cross-system collaboration in the present study. While the size of the study limited its scope to one stakeholder group, the study offers frontline insights that may inform the development of future education and child protection agency initiatives.

Keywords

out-of-home careeducationchild protection workerscross-system collaborationsocial policy
Type
Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 47 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018 

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