Benefits and challenges in the adoption of evidence-based practices in the child and family services

Abstract

The Council of Europe’s Recommendation (Rec 2006/19) to promote positive parenting, aimed at fostering child development and protecting child rights, has emphasized a preventive approach to support all families, the need to strengthen parental capacities and empowering communities, and the adoption of evidence-based practices (EBP) to improve the quality of professional work with families. This paper, revolved around this Recommendation and expanded in three related directions: (a) described the modern view of parenting as articulated in three facets: dyadic parenting, team parenting, and social parenting, and their corresponding support needs; (b) proposed the challenges and redefinition of EBP for the field of child and family services; and (c) showcased the building of the national agency-university partnership, the translational research-practice bidirectional process, and the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based programmes to foster the adoption of EBP in Spain. The conclusions highlighted the benefits involved in this complex process of quality assurance.