Background information
Nursing homes play a crucial role in facilitating children’s welfare. Since children have various needs and capabilities, understanding how to deal with each one is an essential skill. Child welfare organizations are bodies charged with the regulation of childcare programs to ensure that needs are met according to expectations. One of the key factors to consider for effective child welfare programs is foster parents’ skills level and competence (Dudley, 2020). For this reason, a training program has been proposed which will instill vital skills in foster parents through a six-session program, each one lasting at least three hours. This outcome evaluation assesses the success of the program based on the results attained and their impact on the target group.
Purpose of Evaluation
The assessment of a program’s final outcome is known as outcome evaluation. Companies conduct outcome evaluations in order to calculate the influence of the outcome or end result of a change-producing activity. The majority of outcome evaluations focus on the participants’ inputs and how the activity influenced or changed them (Dudley, 2020). It is about how much of a difference the program made for them. One can also use outcome evaluation to see how well a program’s objectives were met. This type of analysis might be beneficial to companies with both a flat and a tall structure. The evaluation effectively displays which direction the program can move in the future based on the current program’s outcome or outcomes. The outcome evaluation also shows how excellent or awful the program’s implementation idea was in the first place.
In this case, the outcome evaluation is focused on assessing the success of the new training program for incoming foster parents. It evaluates the results obtained and their connection to the original aims. Since the program was to impact new foster families and facilitate their service delivery to children, this evaluation analyzes how close the objectives were met and any negative consequences realized in the process. The trainers will use this plan to understand the relevance of the program and, where possible, formulate changes for better results. As a social worker, one needs to ask crucial questions about the impact and importance of their program by focusing on the results obtained (Plummer et al., 2014). Therefore, this evaluation answers critical program questions that reveal the perception, impact, and continuation of the new training program for foster parents.
Evaluation Questions
- Q1. Was the planned content delivered within the planned six sessions?
- Q2. Did the new foster parents gain valuable information from the program?
- Q3. Has the program contributed to better foster care and children’s welfare?
- Q4. Are the foster parents in a better position to pass on their acquired knowledge to fellow workers?
- Q5. What challenges did the child welfare center encounter in meeting its objectives?
- Q6. Were the results close to the expected outcomes? What caused any deviations? How did the program change foster parents’ perception of their work?
These questions are centered on one main point; did the child welfare center and foster parents benefit from the program as expected? Answering these questions will help the program implementers to learn from the process and find ways to improve the outcomes in the future. In addition, these questions shape the future of this program’s application in similar setups. If the results were not met, its use would be limited.
Data Collection for the Outcome Evaluation
One of the key elements of a program evaluation is the data. It gives qualitative and quantitative proof regarding the program’s implementation and its impacts. In this case, the data collection is focused on the achieved objectives. For this reason, foster parents are the targeted audience for data collection. Since the program was expected to directly impact their parenting skills, questionnaires and interviews are the most appropriate data collection methods. In this case, questionnaires will be prepared and distributed to all the regional centers. Each center will randomly pick four foster parents who took part in the training program. They will be required to answer the questionnaire anonymously to facilitate their cooperation and contribute authentic information.
Although the questionnaire will help to generate a wide range of data from participants, their feelings and perceptions may not be easily revealed. Therefore, interviews will be conducted in each center involving at most two individuals chosen randomly. The main purpose of the interview is to have a one-on-one conversation that will help the assessor to understand personal feelings about the program’s outcome. Through interviews, an evaluator can tell whether the foster parents were delighted by the results or not and note any factors that could have contributed to the different perceptions.
Since the program was aimed at changing the service delivery to foster children, case studies will be used to compare the trained and untrained individuals. Using a control group helps to qualitatively and quantitatively measure the impact of the program by observing the changes in performance (Plummer et al., 2014). In every center, a few days will be taken to observe the differences in behavior and service delivery between the trained and untrained foster parents. This will be done without informing the subjects to avoid having biased data due to pretending changes. These three methods will be sufficient to provide data that can be analyzed for outcome improvement and reporting.
Data Analysis Techniques
Data analysis entails using the data collected to draw valuable information that facilitates a better understanding and presentation. McNamara (2006a) argues that data would not be helpful without analysis and would constitute resource wastage. Analyzing data will help the center for child welfare generate valuable details that can be used in future applications and facilitate any changes in the current program. It will help the program implementers to understand the extent to which their objectives were met.
The inferential analysis will be used since only a sample of the subject is used in data collection. The results will inform the analysts of the results’ implications on the entire group of foster parents. Descriptive and diagnostics analysis will also be helpful in the qualitative evaluation of the outcomes and the contributing factors. Essentially regression analysis and cohort analysis techniques will give evaluators an opportunity to see the impact of training on foster parents. By extension, these techniques highlight the differences between expectations and actual outcomes.
Information Reporting
Reporting is a crucial part of the outcome evaluation process that consolidates all gathered information into presentations that can be easily understood and used in policy formulation. According to McNamara (2006b), evaluation reporting facilitates accountability and decision-making processes. In this case, the information generated will be presented through pie charts showing the various levels of satisfaction among the foster parents and line graphs showing the change process due to the training.
References
Dudley, J. R. (2020). Social work evaluation: Enhancing what we do (3rd ed.) Oxford University Press.
McNamara, C. (2006a). Contents of an evaluation plan. In Basic guide to program evaluation (including outcomes evaluation).
McNamara, C. (2006b). Reasons for priority on implementing outcomes-based evaluation. In Basic guide to outcomes-based evaluation for nonprofit organizations with very limited resources.
Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. (Eds.). (2014). Social work case studies: Concentration year. Laureate International Universities Publishing.