Identification of need and prevention: How ‘adoptee-competent’ are health services and health professionals? Do they understand the impact of adopted children and young people’s early trauma and neglect and the implications of unknown family medical histories?
Background
Improving the physical health of care experienced children and young people is a complex challenge, not least because their health trajectories can differ substantially before, during and after periods of living in the ‘care system’. The Children’s Health in Care in Scotland (CHiCS) study shows that population wide linkage of social care and health records is possible at scale, and that care experienced children experience higher rates of mortality, prescriptions, hospitalisations, and a range of physical and neurodevelopmental conditions across the life course.
However, understanding health is not only about understanding the prevalence of conditions. Evidence from CHiCS also highlights the importance of how young people access and use health services, including patterns of preventive care, missed appointments, emergency admissions and other interactions across the system. This includes consideration of early childhood development, recognising the importance of physical growth, early development, and the foundations laid in infancy and early years. Administrative datasets alone provide limited insight into unmet need or how well services respond to children’s experiences and circumstances. Better evidence on service access, pathways, and the support required at key points in a young person’s journey would strengthen policy and help deliver health care that truly reflects the ambitions of The Promise.
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Related UKRI funded projects
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Comparing health outcomes for care experienced children and children in the general population in Scotland using linked administrative data
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This project directly addresses the question by comparing health outcomes for care experienced children in Scotland and has the necessary expertise to do so.
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While this project focuses on developing a research-ready dataset linking data on children and young people in London, it does not directly answer the question but could provide valuable insights for future research.
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This project focuses on a longitudinal survey of the mental health of children in State Care in England during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing relevant insights but not fully answering the question.