How can we best identify and intervene early to support vulnerable children and their families before they enter the social care system?

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


  • 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?

    This project specifically focuses on the health outcomes of care experienced children in Scotland, which aligns with the vulnerable children and families in the social care system.

  • 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?

    This project examines the education and healthcare outcomes of children in care over time, addressing the question of identifying and intervening early to support vulnerable children.

  • 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

    Why might this be relevant?

    The project addresses the identification and early intervention for vulnerable children and their families before they enter the social care system, utilizing expertise in children's mental health and social care.

  • 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?

    This project directly addresses the question by studying the long-term outcomes of children known to social services, providing insights on early intervention and support.

  • 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?

    While the project focuses on vulnerable children and social care, it does not specifically address early intervention and support before entry into the social care system.

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

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