How effective are the key reforms set out in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ in response to the Care Review that seek to improve the provision of children's social care across Local Authorities? These include recruitment of foster carers, support for kinship carers and provision of children's care placements.

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 research.engagement@education.gov.uk.

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 the key reforms in response to the Care Review.

  • 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 the key reforms in response to the Care Review.

  • Care pathways and outcomes: The teenage years

    Across the UK, when children enter care, they live in a range of different placements, such as foster care, kinship care (with relatives or friends), adoption or with their birth parents. However, adoptive placements are...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Ulster

    Why might this be relevant?

    Partially relevant as it focuses on care pathways and outcomes for children in Northern Ireland, not the key reforms in response to the Care Review.

  • Does local authority care make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children? Longitudinal analyses of a retrospective electronic cohort

    The proposed research aims to examine, over time, education and healthcare outcomes of children who are looked after (CLA) by the local authority (i.e. in care). Existing studies that use only one point in time have show...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project specifically focuses on examining the outcomes of children in care and the impact of pre-care experiences, directly addressing the effectiveness of key reforms in children's social care.

  • 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

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project proposes transformative psychological screening and support products for vulnerable children in care, aligning with the goal of improving outcomes in children's social care.

  • Caring Communities 1800-present: Rethinking Children's Social Care

    Children's social care has long been in crisis with reports of abuse, growing numbers of children entering care, declining numbers of carers and diminishing quality of care. The 2022 inquiry into children's social care i...

    Funded by: FLF

    Lead research organisation: Newcastle University

  • Improving social care systems and practices for safeguarding young people at complex risk: what promotes and sustains innovation?

    A key challenge for children's social care is how to improve service experiences and outcomes for some of the most vulnerable members of our society in the face of complex social problems, increased demand for services, ...

    Funded by: ESRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Sussex

    Why might this be relevant?

    While the project focuses on innovation in social care for vulnerable young people, it does not directly address the specific key reforms outlined in the question, but it could provide insights into improving service experiences and outcomes.

  • 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

  • Communities in care: a scoping review to establish the relationship of community to the lives of looked after children and young people

    Friendship networks and relationships with communities are important parts of the lives of looked after children and young people (LACYP). Much of legislation, policy, practice and research focuses on 'the care experienc...

    Funded by: AHRC

    Lead research organisation: University of Lincoln

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