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How do we best support children, young people and their families within the social care system and prevent poor outcomes, including recruiting, retaining and training our workforce?

Background

A sizeable minority of children and young people in England face a significant range of vulnerabilities and disadvantages. These include those already known to children’s social care, children in need, those eligible for free school meals (FSM) because of low family income, those with SEND, in particular those who have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans and those who attend Alternative Provision. Given the human, economic and social cost of poor performance in this area, we are seeking evidence on the best ways to improve outcomes for these children and young people, before issues become acute and require more significant intervention

Next steps

If you would like to discuss previous, ongoing or potential research into any of the areas in this document, please contact [email protected].

Source

This question was published as part of the set of ARIs in this document:

Df E Areas of Research Interest 2024

Related UKRI funded projects


  • Looked-after children in Wales: An analysis of the backgrounds of children entering public care

    The doctoral research around which my fellowship is centred explored the differences between local authorities in Wales in the rates at which they place children in out of home care, referred to as being a 'looked after'...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it focuses on looked-after children in Wales, not specifically addressing the broader social care system.

  • Comparing health outcomes for care experienced children and children in the general population in Scotland using linked administrative data

    Children who are in the care of their local authority (care experienced children, CEC) are one of the most vulnerable groups of people in the society. In 2017 approximately 15,000 children in Scotland were visited by soc...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Glasgow

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it focuses on health outcomes for care experienced children in Scotland, not directly addressing workforce training and prevention of poor outcomes.

  • Development of a research-ready dataset linking data on children and young people in London held by Local Authorities and healthcare providers

    Background There are serious challenges facing social care, education and health services for children and young people in England. Beyond high profile cases of avoidable child deaths, the social costs of poor outcomes ...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: Imperial College London

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project aims to develop a research-ready dataset linking data on children and young people in London to improve outcomes and prevent poor performance within the social care system.

  • Transformative children's social care (Resilience Fund)

    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

  • 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

  • Childhood interactions with social services and risk of poor health and social outcomes in adulthood: a population wide data linkage study

    In 2015 around 5.5% of young people (aged 0-18 years) in Northern Ireland were known to social services as a child in need (n=23,834), with 2,875 in the care of the Health and Social Care Trusts (a "looked after&quo...

    Funded by: MRC

    Lead research organisation: Queen's University Belfast

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project utilizes existing administrative data to study the long-term social and mental health outcomes of children known to social services, providing insights for supporting children and young people within the social care system.

  • ADR England Community Catalyst: Children at risk of poor outcomes

    National and local organisations produce a wealth of valuable data, which can be used to understand how we can reduce the number of children at risk of poor social, health and educational outcomes. However, at present, t...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: Swansea University

  • Understanding Children's Lives and Outcomes

    Understanding Children's Lives and Outcomes, led by Morag Treanor and Fiona Mitchell, will provide new insights to help better understand and deliver the best possible outcomes for children, utilising existing datasets n...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Edinburgh

  • Centre for Care

    The Centre for Care is a collaboration between the universities of Sheffield, Birmingham, Kent and Oxford, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Office for National Statistics, Carers UK, the National...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Sheffield

  • Carers Assessment Support

    **A difficult time to care** Across the UK our social care system is more stretched than ever with increased demand and decreasing budgets. The lack of capacity in the system is placing additional pressures on the unpa...

    Funded by: Innovate UK

    Lead research organisation: UPSTREAM OUTCOMES LIMITED

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it focuses on carer support, not specifically on children, young people, and families within the social care system.