Purpose: “Social Workers in Schools” (SWIS) is a school-based intervention aiming to reduce the need for children to receive child protection services in England. This article reports the findings of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) designed to evaluate SWIS. Method: The study was a two-arm pragmatic cluster RCT with an embedded process and economic evaluation. The intervention physically located social workers within schools. The primary outcome was the rate of child protection inquiries and secondary outcomes included care entry and educational outcomes. Results: 278,858 students in 268 schools were randomized to the intervention (136 schools) or control arm (132 schools). We found no statistically significant effects on primary or secondary outcomes. SWIS was implemented well and positively perceived. Discussion: SWIS appears ineffective in reducing the need for statutory services. The study demonstrates it is possible to conduct a large-scale school-based social work RCT. The study was registered at https://www.isrctn.com/ , ref: ISRCTN90922032.

中文翻译：

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英格兰学校社会工作者 （SWIS） 的整群随机对照试验

目的：“学校社会工作者”（SWIS） 是一项以学校为基础的干预措施，旨在减少儿童在英格兰接受儿童保护服务的需求。本文报告了一项旨在评估 SWIS 的随机对照试验 （RCT） 的结果。方法： 该研究是一项双臂实用整群 RCT，具有嵌入式过程和经济评估。干预在学校内实际定位了社会工作者。主要结局是儿童保护询问率，次要结局包括护理入学和教育结局。结果：268 所学校的 278,858 名学生被随机分配到干预组（136 所学校）或对照组（132 所学校）。我们发现对主要或次要结局没有统计学意义的影响。SWIS 实施良好，并得到积极评价。讨论：SWIS 在减少对法定服务的需求方面似乎无效。该研究表明，可以进行大规模的学校社会工作 RCT。该研究在 https://www.isrctn.com/ 注册，参考文献：ISRCTN90922032。