Practitioner perspectives on the family risk evaluation tool : an aide to decision making or 'just another form to fill in'?

The findings of research that explored how child protection practitioners in Queensland used the Structured Decision Making (SDM) tools are presented, focusing on how the Family Risk Evaluation tool (FRET) was used in decision making. The main finding was that the FRET was not used to assist the decision making of practitioners and consequently was ineffective in targeting the children most in need of a service. For practitioners, it was 'just another form to fill in'. As suggested by the participants in this research, a better strategy than the implementation of the SDM tools to improve decision making is the development of practitioner expertise through higher education.