Conceptual frameworks in evaluation of multidisciplinary services for children with disabilities

Child disability services are under pressure to evaluate what they provide. Evaluation encompasses both the procedures they adopt and the outcomes for their clients, that is, for children and families. This paper presents practical frameworks for service evaluation, with examples from experience and from published literature. Individual services cannot carry out evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of particular interventions, but they can clarify their goals, institute regular audit projects, develop guidelines for their practice through participatory evaluation, and sample parents' views of the quality of the services they provide. Practical suggestions are made for the measurement of outcomes for individual children and families.