Making integration happen: the families first policy experience

Abstract

Abstract This paper explores the implementation experience of a child and family policy with ambitious integration goals. The questions to be addressed here focus on the factors that facilitated integration, those that hindered it, and the meanings in practice of integration at the levels of service delivery, planning, and management. The policy is Families First, implemented in New South Wales, the largest state in Australia, beginning in 1998. Families First is an ambitious state‐wide initiative that aims to improve the health and wellbeing of children aged from birth to eight years, by supporting parents and carers. This is to be achieved by the development of a coordinated network of prevention and early intervention services that identifies children and families who require further assistance and links them to appropriate support early, before problems become entrenched. Based on the process evaluation of Families First's implementation, this paper argues that successful implementation of Families First as an integration policy was characterized by high levels of participation from a range of actors. We found a number of factors facilitated integration: inclusive practice; building relationships; empowerment; and time and resources. These findings also, however, raise larger questions about the application of integration policies in an early childhood context, where these facilitators are known to be in short supply. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.