NCB have secured a major, five-year investment from the Wellcome Trust in a collaboration with the University of Cambridge and the University of Kent, in conjunction with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children and the British Association of Social Workers.
The project looks at the decision-making process for providing social care support to children and families, the impact of offering particular support or not offering that support, and the lived experiences of assessments. Its starting point is Children in Need, including disabled children (as defined under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989), although the exact focus of the project will grow organically as the work progresses.
The research will draw on four key sources:
- Analysis of health, social care, benefits and educational records from over 350,000 participants, exploring the movement of children and families through different services over time.
- Three “experts by experience” groups, comprising disabled children and adolescents, care leavers, and parents of those who have undergone assessments.
- Interviews with people who were instrumental in developing the Children Act 1989 legislation, professionals who have conducted social care assessments, and children and young people who have themselves experienced these assessments.
- Archival research of key documents relating to the 1989 Children Act
The ambitious programme of activity aims to ensure engagement with civil servants, parliamentarians, policy makers and senior practitioners, in collaboration with MPs and Peers from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children. The team aim to allow the experiences of those affected to be heard at the highest levels in government and to enable evidence-based changes to improve the lives of those children and families involved in assessments.
For more information about the project please contact Tariq Anderson, NCB Research and Policy Assistant, tanderson@ncb.org.uk
Learn more about the Living Assessments programme:
Lived experience will be at the heart of the Living Assessments programme of work. We will be recruiting three Experts by Experience groups. Experts by experience groups are a way for people directly affected by policies to share their personal experiences in a meaningful way.
The groups will be formed of:
- Disabled children and young people
- Adult care leavers
- Parents and carers whose children have experienced social care assessments
In addition to recruiting Experts by Experience groups, NCB is working with the project’s academic partners to write a series of blogs centring the voices and experience of children and young people during the Covid-19 pandemic. To read any of the blogs click on the titles below:
- Children and young people’s views on what it means to be ‘vulnerable’
- Children and young people’s experiences of education and support in lockdown
- Vulnerable to over-use, article published in Children and Young People Now
- Supporting us during the pandemic
Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) is a new unique database of over a 1/3 of a million participants with anonymised, and linked health, education, welfare and social work records. This large and powerful database allows google style searching to enable questions to be asked producing qualitative and potentially statistically significant quantitative results.
NCB are also working in collaboration with the academic partners to develop journal articles analysing children’s social care interventions. We recently consulted with the Families Research Advisory Group (FRAG) about an upcoming journal article authored jointly with academics and NCB.
NCB have facilitated a policy seminar to bring together leading stakeholders from a range of sectors to discuss the work being developed by the academic partners.
Research on the 'Toxic Trio'
Parental mental ill-health, domestic violence and drug or alcohol misuse are undoubtedly important risk factors in children’s lives, but what do we really know about the combined effect of the so-called ‘toxic trio’? As part of the Living Assessments programme researchers from the National Children’s Bureau and University of Cambridge undertook a systematic review of research relating to the toxic trio in safeguarding policy and practice in England. They found the evidence base for the combined effect of the toxic trio is alarmingly weak and lacking in the precision, detail and depth on which policies should be based.
Find out more in our article in the Children and Youth Services Review, our summary article, news item and blog exploring the implications for children's social care.
All Party Parliamentary Group for Children
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Children is chaired by Tim Loughton MP and co-chaired by Baroness Tyler, and NCB is the secretariat.
The work of the APPGC is informed by the views and experiences of children and young people who are regularly invited to speak in Parliament alongside Ministers, parliamentarians and the children’s voluntary sector. The APPGC carries out regular inquiries on current issues in children’s policy. Most recently, the Group has been looking at children’s social care.
They APPGC have published two reports looking into children’s social care: No Good Options and Storing up Trouble. The findings from the reports led to the development of the Living Assessments programme and the APPGC are a partner. There will opportunities for collaboration throughout the course of the research; between parliamentarians, academics and the Experts by Experience groups.
For more information about the work of the APPGC click here.