Understanding outcomes and experiences: How do mental health experiences and outcomes vary by age, caring environment, care history, and timing of entry to and exit from care, and which groups show the greatest gaps between identified concerns and access to appropriate support?
Background
The Children’s Health in Care in Scotland (CHiCS) study (2021) demonstrated that population‑wide linkage of social care and health records is feasible at scale, linking cohorts of care‑experienced children and young people and their peers to administrative health datasets, to better understand service use including prescriptions and hospitalisations for mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders. The Promise Data and Evidence Group is working to establish routine monitoring of selected outcomes through the CHaMP (Children's Health and Monitoring The Promise) project, led by Public Health Scotland.
However, existing administrative datasets still cannot be used to understand the underlying level of need, the extent to which demand for support is being met, nor the effectiveness of different forms of help offered across the system. This includes early social and emotional development, particularly in infancy and early childhood, recognising the importance of attachment, relationships, and early experiences in shaping lifelong wellbeing. Data linkage is currently not possible for children under 5, as until recently a child’s Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) has been used to link social work and health records. Work is currently underway to address this gap, using additional identifiers to enable linkage and improve coverage for under 5s.
Within GIRFEC, wellbeing is understood in a holistic way, reflecting all aspects of a child or young person’s life and development. It is commonly considered through the eight wellbeing indicators—Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included (SHANARRI)—which together support a rights-based, strengths-based approach to understanding and improving wellbeing. Questions in this section focus specifically on mental health and wellbeing. This includes social and emotional development, particularly in infancy and early childhood, recognising the importance of relationships, attachment, and early experiences in shaping longer-term wellbeing outcomes.
A recent longitudinal evidence review published by The Promise Data and Evidence Group shows that care experienced children face markedly higher risks of poor mental health, but also highlights substantial gaps in data coverage, particularly around preventive care, early childhood, and variation across caring environments.
Strengthening the evidence base on what supports are needed, who needs them, and what works in practice will be essential for delivering timely, effective, and equitable mental health support in line with The Promise.
Next steps
Get in touch with [email protected]
Topics
Research fields
Related UKRI funded projects
-
Applying BERRI to support child mental health at the edge of care
Children are ending up in public care due to unmet mental health needs (Children's Commissioner, January 2020). The numbers of children in care are increasing. Social care needs to work more effectively with families to ...
Funded by: Innovate UK
Lead research organisation: BERRI LIMITED
Why might this be relevant?
Partially relevant as it focuses on supporting child mental health at the edge of care, but does not address the specific factors mentioned in the question.
-
Transformative children's social care
Coronavirus has reduced access to already scarce resources in children's mental health and social care. The most vulnerable children in the UK are more isolated than ever, and foster/residential carers and adoptive paren...
Funded by: Innovate UK
Lead research organisation: BERRI LIMITED
Why might this be relevant?
Partially relevant as it addresses children's social care and mental health needs, but does not specifically cover the factors mentioned in the question.
-
Longitudinal mental health trajectories of children growing up in State care in England: An exploration of patterns and influencing factors
Children in care constitute a most vulnerable group of children in the society. The aim of this study is to contribute to our understanding of how mental health of children in care varies over time and to explore how the...
Funded by: ESRC
Lead research organisation: University of Bristol
Why might this be relevant?
Fully relevant as it specifically focuses on the mental health trajectories of children in State care, addressing the factors mentioned in the question.