The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has published a literature review identifying the existing evidence in relation to children and young people’s experiences of fostering and adoption services. It aims to provide lead officers and members with information on how decisions around service delivery may impact upon the experiences of children and young people in care. Findings include: although although children felt that the decision to go into care was the right one for them, they often had little choice about where they would live, and did not have much involvement in their care plans; and children were aware of local budget cuts and the impact these have had on their social workers caseloads.
The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) has published research identifying a number of warning signs to help employers recognise and prevent the abuse of children and vulnerable adults by social care staff and volunteers. Findings include: incidents of abuse against children are rarely one-off incidents, and are more likely to be a pattern of repeated or multiple incidents or behaviour.
The Department for Education has published research on the Care Placements Evaluation (CAPE). It compares outcomes for young people who enter multidimensional treatment foster care (MTFC) placements, and those in other types of care placements including foster and residential care. Findings include: the additional benefit of MTFC for older children and adolescents in care with complex needs is small.
The Department of Health has published a report evaluating the costs and impact of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF), a standardised approach for the assessment of children and families. Findings include: most parents/carers interviewed were positive about CAF, reporting it enabled them to access the support they needed; and professionals reported that CAF had generally resulted in increased awareness of the range of services available.
The Department of Health has published a report evaluating the Teens and Toddlers programme, aimed at tackling social exclusion and preventing teenage pregnancy. Findings include: the scheme had an impact on confidence, self-esteem and interpersonal skills; no direct impacts on improved educational attainment or engagement, but it did help them see the connection between how they applied themselves at school and their future prospects. A randomised controlled trial was also conducted to access the impact of the scheme, and found no evidence that the intervention was effective in changing any of the primary outcomes (such as using contraception and their expectation of teenage parenthood).
The Department for Education has published the second report from research on decision making processes influencing the life paths of very young children identified as being at risk of significant harm before their first birthdays. This part of the research focuses particularly on the experiences of children aged 3-5 who are entering education, looking at education providers’ perceptions of their role in safeguarding children, and how far decisions made in the early years impact on subsequent life chances. Findings include: by the time they were three, almost three quarters of the children appeared to be adequately safeguarded.
Crisis has published a report calling for better protection for homeless young people. Findings include: the biggest cause of homelessness for young people is being told to leave home by their parents; other causes include leaving care and being unable to pay rent; 30% of homeless young people have been in care; 40% have experienced abuse at home; and many go to desperate measures to avoid sleeping rough, including committing crimes or resorting to sex work.
The Department of Health, Social Services & Public Safety in Northern Ireland has released quarterly figures detailing the number of children on the Child Protection Register and the number of Child Protection Referrals for the quarter ending 31 March 2012.
Children and Young People Now report that the Youth Justice Board will be launching an information sharing policy. It aims to increase the number of mandatory documents that YOTs provide to the YJB placement service so as to improve the suitability of custody placements for young offenders.
The Criminal Records Bureau has announced that strengthened identity checks are now in place as of 28 May 2012. The number of documents accepted for identity verification has been reduced, with only those that involve tighter checks with the document issuer (such as a passport or driving licence) being accepted.
