title: THE SAAF STUDY: evaluation of the Safeguarding Children Assessment and Analysis Framework (SAAF), compared with management as usual, for improving outcomes for children and young people who have experienced, or are at risk of, maltreatment: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Serious case reviews and research studies have indicated weaknesses in risk assessments conducted by child protection social workers. Social workers are adept at gathering information but struggle with analysis and assessment of risk. The Department for Education wants to know if the use of a structured decision-making tool can improve child protection assessments of risk.
  
  
  METHODS
  This multi-site, cluster-randomised trial will assess the effectiveness of the Safeguarding Children Assessment and Analysis Framework (SAAF). This structured decision-making tool aims to improve social workers' assessments of harm, of future risk and parents' capacity to change. The comparison is management as usual.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children's Services Departments (CSDs) in England willing to make relevant teams available to be randomised, and willing to meet the trial's training and data collection requirements.
  
  
  METHODS
  CSDs where there were concerns about performance; where a major organisational restructuring was planned or under way; or where other risk assessment tools were in use.Six CSDs are participating in this study. Social workers in the experimental arm will receive 2 days training in SAAF together with a range of support materials, and access to limited telephone consultation post-training. The primary outcome is child maltreatment. This will be assessed using data collected nationally on two key performance indicators: the first is the number of children in a year who have been subject to a second Child Protection Plan (CPP); the second is the number of re-referrals of children because of related concerns about maltreatment. Secondary outcomes are: i) the quality of assessments judged against a schedule of quality criteria and ii) the relationship between the three assessments required by the structured decision-making tool (level of harm, risk of (re)abuse and prospects for successful intervention).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first study to examine the effectiveness of SAAF. It will contribute to a very limited literature on the contribution that structured decision-making tools can make to improving risk assessment and case planning in child protection and on what is involved in their effective implementation.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ISRCTN 45137562 15 July 2014.
authors.affiliation: School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen's University, University Road, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK. Geraldine.macdonald@qub.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Geraldine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Macdonald
authors.forename: Evie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ghate
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cotmore
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Green
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002669:Child Welfare; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D004739:England; D040261:Harm Reduction; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012107:Research Design; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012947:Social Work / Q000193:education / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors