Research: Exploring the workforce wellbeing of children’s home workers

Research summary

• March 2020 to August 2021

There are currently 78,150 children in care in England.

On 31 March 2020, there were 2,460 children’s homes providing residential care for 12,175 children - a 7% increase since March 2019 (Ofsted, 2020).

Typically, 11% of the most vulnerable children in care will be in residential homes at any point, due to multi-type traumas and therapeutic needs.

Children in care are overly represented across youth and adult forensic services, and homeless populations, and more likely to experience re-victimisation and exploitation if they have not experienced positive and secure relationships during childhood.

The therapeutic relationships experienced with frontline staff are incredibly important for healing, regulation and developmental trajectories.

Children’s home workers

Residential children’s home workers have been systematically overlooked in terms of research, adding to the challenges of supporting them to care for our most vulnerable children throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and related hardships.

Even under typical working conditions, the demands on residential children’s workers are extremely high and involve:

• long hours

• low pay

• responsibility for safety

• emotional support

• discipline

• boundaries

• managing crises

This valuable but overlooked occupational group often experience high levels of stress at work and subsequent burnout. Burnout affects emotional availability and therefore therapeutic outcomes for children.

This results in frequent staff turnovers in residential children’s care, compounded by recruitment and retention challenges during COVID-19.

Traumatic stress specifically attributed to role-related stress may also go unreported across caring professions and be under-supported, resulting in accelerated burnout and stress-related leave.

It is essential that the children’s residential care workforce is supported during and after the pandemic due to existent risk factors, which are likely to be significantly exacerbated due to COVID-19.

Research outputs

Academic papers

• Burbidge, CE, Keenan, J and Parry, S (2020) “I’ve made that little bit of difference to this child”: Therapeutic parent’s experiences of trials and triumphs in therapeutic children’s homes. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health. 35(4), pp.256-278

• Parry, S and Weatherhead, S (2014) A critical review of qualitative research into the experiences of young adults leaving foster care services. Journal of Children’s Services. 9(4), pp.263-279.
• Reflections from the forgotten frontline: ‘The reality for children and staff in residential care’ during COVID-19

• Restorative Parenting: Delivering Trauma-Informed Residential Care for Children in Care