A Randomized Controlled Trial of Functional Family Therapy: An EIF Partnership between Croydon Council and Queen's University Belfast

This application proposes to undertake a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a new intervention aimed at families with children and young people who are at risk of juvenile offending and/or being placed in local authority care. The main aim of the intervention will be to reduce risk of offending and risk of children being placed in care. The intervention aims to intervene at the family level using Functional Family Therapy (FFT). FFT is a strengths-based behavioural family intervention.

FFT has shown positive results in terms of reducing juvenile offending during previous design experiments and RCTs in the USA. However, the proposal details a with a plan to systematically examine the impact of FFT using an RCT as it is introduced as a new initiative as part of the Early Intervention Foundation Centre work in Croydon. Data is not yet available that provides a definitive answer as to how this programme will translate to the Croydon context.

The design of the work is an RCT. Families will be randomly assigned to treatment (FFT) or control group (treatment as usual). Primary outcomes will be risk of offending and risk of care orders. Secondary outcomes will include family functioning and school attendance. Data will be collected over a six-month treatment period. All families assigned to control group will be offered FFT after a wait time if FFT proves to be of benefit. Strong checks and measures are in place to finish the RCT early if overwhelming evidence arises as to the benefit of FFT to families. In this instance all families would be reassigned to treatment group.

One of the strong feature of this proposal is the collaboration between Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and the Early Intervention Foundation Centre in Croydon (EIFC). This goes beyond data sharing. The partnership will help evaluate the efficacy of the introduction of FFT in Croydon in a systematic manner. Staff will be 'seconded' to QUB from Croydon and this will help with data collection and organization as well as building evaluation skills in EIFC that will exist beyond the life of the project. The project shows a strong commitment to knowledge exchange, both within EIFC and externally to the sector at large. The strong professional practice of the team at EIFC and the credible and scientifically valid work of the staff at QUB should enable compelling arguments to be presented regarding whether this intervention has positive outcomes or not.

There will be a number of beneficiaries from this research. Firstly, and foremost there may be a positive impact for families in crisis and at risk in terms of the fact that they will be able to stay together and build a future without the complexities of coping with juvenile detention or children in local authority care. It will provide high quality information on whether Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is an effective intervention for families in this position. It will provide high quality data on the impact of FFT on juvenile offending, care orders, attendance at school and family functioning. If data indicates that FFT is effective in this respect, then a wide range of impact and knowledge exchange activities will ensure this message is taken to therapists (who will be encouraged to use FFT), local authorities and academics. In this respect then it is hoped that therapists would adopt this therapy as an intervention for families who may benefit from it. In order for this to happen then local authorities would need to be convinced that investment in FFT will be worthwhile. The research will provide compelling evidence if this is the case. In addition then there will be a need to engage with academics who are training future therapists. To this end papers will be made freely available via open access publishing and members of the academic community will be sent these papers. There is a company based in the USA who manualised FFT. Whilst they would have no part in measuring outcomes of the research (quite rightly) they are in a position to roll out the manualised version of the therapy to UK based therapists should it prove to be an effective intervention. If FFT proves to be effective it is hoped that there will be wider benefits to society. Although these are difficult to quantify then one could look at potential savings through less demand placed on juvenile justice system or less children going into care. Enhanced attendance at school could lead to greater qualifications being gained and less risk of ending up on benefits. These benefits would accrue directly within the jurisdiction of Croydon Council, but it would be hoped that beneficiaries would widen as impact and knowledge exchange activities increase. In addition more socially adjusted individuals and lowered crime may benefit people in the local communities where the intervention is used directly in terms of their quality of life. Finally, the researchers and wider staff will benefit the researchers involved. The high integrity design will lead to a high quality data set that should enable researchers to publish international quality research. ESRC awards are prestigious, but few and far between in Northern Ireland. This will bring status and credit to the researchers (you will note three of the researchers at QUB are early career and involvement in a successful ESRC funded research project should enhance their careers) and If the therapy is effective then the therapists delivering it might find enhanced employment opportunities.