Exploring the Family Nurse Partnership Model across systems
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Digging down and scaling up: a psycho-social exploration of the Family Nurse Partnership
IRAS ID
212784
Contact name
Rachael Owens
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Sussex
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The Family Nurse Partnership is a voluntary, preventative and relationship-based home-visiting programme for first time, vulnerable parents. Originally from the USA, it was piloted by the Department of Health in 2007, it is now well established throughout England and Scotland. Its aims are to improve health, social, financial and educational outcomes for parents, their children and the wider community.
This research study takes place in the context of a collaborative doctorate between the FNP in England's National Unit and the University of Sussex. The Chief Investigator's scholarship is jointly funded by both institutions.
The study was initiated by FNP to provide a rich understanding of its work for future programme improvements. A qualitative research approach was chosen in order to provide an interpretive analysis which complements previous FNP quantitative studies.
The overall aim is to gain an in-depth and multi perspectival understanding of the Family Nurse Partnership model as it is operationalised across system levels. The specific research questions are:
1) What is the FNP model and how is it understood, operationalised and experienced in practice?
2) What are the opportunities and obstacles to operationalising the FNP model across the micro, meso and macro domains?
3) How can psycho-social research methods help to answer these questions?
There are two stages to the research.
Stage 1 will be over a 9 month period at one FNP site. Data will be collected using a tool-kit of psycho-social methods observations and interviews with FNP clients and their closely connected family or friends; FNP staff, and other professionals linked to FNP clients.Stage 2, over 3 months, will be a series of three focus groups within three separate FNP sites. These will be used to triangulate and consolidate the data from Stage 1 and will enable the findings to be more readily applied across the FNP system.
REC name
South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/SC/0118
Date of REC Opinion
7 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion