The partnership aims to help parents successfully implement their case plan so that they can be reunited with their children or avoid care proceedings.
The approach has been widely adopted by child welfare agencies in the United States, and there is a growing evidence base for such programmes being effective in promoting the birth-parent voice in decision making.
While the benefits of parent partner programmes are clear, agencies face challenges in setting up programmes, recruiting parents, and sustaining and growing it.
POLICY AND REGULATION
Parent partners programmes have their roots in the family support movement of the 1980s. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (AACWA) of 1980 was the first family support legislation and clarified the relationship between parents and child welfare services. The act introduced the "reasonable efforts" requirement to support families and defined "child welfare services" as the provision of assistance to both children and their families.
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