Barnardos Family Welfare Conference Service South Tipperary

Abstract

The Barnardos Family Welfare Conference (FWC) service in South Tipperary was established in 2006. The service aims to improve the welfare of children and young people in South Tipperary through use of the FWC model. It operates under the remit of the Children Act 2001 as well as other policy and legislation emphasising the need for community and family based supports for young people at risk. This evaluation study was undertaken in order to provide feedback to stakeholders regarding how the service is operating and to examine the perspectives of people involved regarding its value and operation. It examines the outcomes from family conferences for young people and identifies areas of strength and potential improvement for the service. This introductory chapter describes the FWC model and summarises key findings from international and Irish studies of its implementation. The policy and legislative context for the service is described and a brief background to the development of the service in South Tipperary is given. Finally, the methodology for the study is outlined and the chapter concludes with a brief analysis of statistics in relation to the service outputs.