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Dr Rhiannon Evans, Reader in DECIPHer, discusses a systematic review taken of international evidence to understand what programmes work for improving the mental health of care-experienced children & young people, how they work, and what might be the challenges to delivery and engagement.
Find out more about the winter conference series 'On The Journey: Navigating Mental Health'.
Located within the Cardiff University School of Social Sciences, CASCADE Research Centre is concerned…
Abstract
Background
The mental health and well-being of care-experienced children and young people remains a concern. Despite a range of interventions, the existing evidence base is limited in scope, with a reliance on standalone outcome evaluations which limits understanding of how contextual factors influence implementation and acceptability. The care-experienced children and young people’s interventions to improve mental health and well-being outcomes systematic review (CHIMES) aimed to synthesise evidence of intervention theory, outcome, process and economic effectiveness. This…
The focus of this document is to support, inform and empower social workers across the UK in their ongoing practice and consideration of issues that arise in relation to people arriving and staying under the UK Ukraine visa schemes. It will be of particular use to UK social workers who through their work are:
- Employed in roles that involve initial or ongoing risk management or support/intervention with hosts/ prospective hosts; and/or,
- Find themselves working with individuals and families from Ukraine who are or may be at risk and/or entitled to social work, social…
Abstract
The term ‘toxic trio’ was coined to describe the risk of child abuse and neglect stemming from a combination of domestic violence, parental mental health issues and/or learning disability, and parental alcohol and/or drug misuse (Brandon, 2009). Although concerns about the language have been raised in some quarters, it has become a dominant reference point in children’s social care in England and, to an extent, internationally over the past two decades. It has become embedded in the family justice system, child protection assessment processes and national data collection. There is…
Abstract
This article presents a critical review of research into post-adoption support in educational settings using a rigorous systematic methodology. This is an important topic as effective support services at every stage can be transformative to adopted children’s school experiences and achievements. Relevant studies were found to be limited in number and methodological quality. Aspects of effective support identified across 11 studies were classified under four themes: strategies for support; shared understanding; communication; and monitoring. These themes can inform collaborative…
This targeted literature review provides the context for a Nuffield Foundation funded project that seeks to explore how to disrupt the routes between care and custody for girls and women. Whilst many children in care do very well and do not come into conflict with the law, the over-representation of care experienced individuals in criminal justice settings is a persistent problem. There is increasing recognition that this is explicable in part by the fact that they may be subject to unnecessary criminalisation. There has been a surge of interest in this issue recently in England and Wales,…
In 2017 more than 2,000 unaccompanied children sought asylum in the UK. This article summarises the policy and research literature on the mental health needs and experiences of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in the UK, with the aim of suggesting how to enhance practice and improve outcomes for this vulnerable group. UASC have significant mental health needs with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety; the asylum process greatly affects their well-being.
Higher levels of distress in older adolescents who are seeking asylum suggests that lower…
Overview
A Special Guardianship Order (SGO) gives one or more individuals, usually family members, parental responsibility for a child who cannot live with their birth parents. Although the making of an SGO enables the person who holds the Order to exercise that responsibility ‘to the exclusion of all others’, the basic legal link between the child and their birth parents is preserved.
In the development of the policy framework for SGOs, there was a strong focus on people who were already caring for children – family members or foster carers in particular. However, they are now most…
Abstract
Introduction: The increasing number of children and young people entering statutory care in the UK is a significant social, health and educational priority. Development of effective approaches to safely reduce this number remains a complex but critical issue. Despite a proliferation in interventions, evidence summaries are limited. The present protocol outlines a scoping review of research evidence to identify what works in safely reducing the number of children and young people (aged ≤18 years) entering statutory social care. The mapping of evidence gaps, clusters and…
Abstract
Mental health outcome measures are being increasingly used to monitor the efficacy of interventions put in place to support children. For Looked After Children (LAC), mental health outcome measures are of further importance for placement planning. It is important that the measures used for these purposes are psychometrically robust. Literature Review: The psychometric properties of 25 informant rated mental health outcome measures for young people were systematically reviewed. A novel quality appraisal tool was developed to evaluate evidence pertaining to internal consistency,…