Family‐Led Decision‐Making Meetings as an Alternative to Initial Child Protection Conferences: Findings From a Realist Evaluation of the Safeguarding Family Group Conferencing Pilot in England

ABSTRACT Safeguarding Family Group Conferencing (FGC) is a family‐led decision‐making process offered to some families in England as an alternative to an Initial Child Protection Conference when Children's Services have safeguarding concerns. A realist evaluation was conducted within three local authorities piloting this approach to build understanding around how Safeguarding FGC works in relation to desired outcomes. Qualitative data including semi‐structured interviews ( n = 27) with families and professionals, meeting observations and researchers' reflective notes were generated and used to develop, test and refine a programme theory about how the intervention works. In this paper, we highlight two key generative causal mechanisms, which help explain how Safeguarding FGC works—information sharing between families and professionals and the capacity of the family's network. The programme theory could help policy‐makers and practitioners interested in adopting family‐led approaches to child protection social work like Safeguarding FGC in England and further afield by articulating clearly the ways in which the intervention could lead to important outcomes for families.