Research: Developing a model of excellence for residential care
Our work with Quality Protects Children will help shape new ways of looking after young people in care and assessing the effectiveness of support services.
Summary
Research summary
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August 2020 to August 2022
We are evaluating the services provided by residential care provider Quality Protects Children (QPC).
The research will help shape QPC’s services, including its Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress (SPARCS) group treatment, which aims to improve the social, emotional and behavioural functioning of adolescents who have experienced complex trauma.
We also aim to develop a new model of excellence for the residential care sector based on the progress QPC has made since adopting SPARCS.
We will use qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate and explore a range of areas, including:
- what QPC does, and how it does it
- the views and experiences of the young people and staff involved with SPARCS
As part of the evaluation, we will:
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develop two scales of resilience, one for children in care and one for residential care workers
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establish a protocol for assessing, recording and measuring interventions and outcomes for looked after children and the people and systems that support them
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identify key factors for children, staff and organisations that influence service delivery and trauma-informed care
Children in care statistic
Trauma-informed care in context
Trauma-informed care in context
According to UK Government estimates, around half of all children in care meet the criteria for a possible mental health concern - five times the rate of those outside the care system.
Many looked after children have experienced more than one traumatic event in their lives.
And the impact of these traumas can still be felt in adulthood. Children who have been in care are:
- less likely to be in education, training or employment at age 19
- overly represented in the justice system and homeless populations
- more likely to be victimised in later life if they have not experienced positive and secure relationships during childhood
There has been increasing recognition of trauma-informed care in recent years - an approach that acknowledges the impact of traumatic events, builds therapeutic relationships and uses sensitive assessments and coping activities to aid recovery and resilience.
Recruitment
Have you lived in residential care? Or worked in this sector?
We want to hear about people’s experiences of residential care. We’re setting up consultation meetings – opportunities for us to ask questions and listen to people’s views. What we hear will affect our recommendations and how we share our findings.
We’re looking for people with personal experience of residential care, including:
- residential care leavers
- practitioners and service leads in residential childcare
- psychologists
- other researchers
- policy makers
We’ll ask most people to do telephone interviews. But we also want up to five people to form an advisory board to help guide the project.
If you’d like to be involved, please get in touch.
Outputs
Research outputs
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Academic papers and reports will be linked from here when they are published. The final report is expected in April 2022.
Team
Research team
Lead researcher
- Dr Sarah Parry
Research associates
- Dr Nora Andriopoulou
- Dr Nigel Cox
- Dr Shabana Roscoe
- Scarlett Collins
Funding
With funding from
Quality Protects Children
Contacts
Contact us
If you have a question or want to join the project mailing list, you can email us.
