A significant new collaborative research project has launched to shed light on the effectiveness of the mental health and wellbeing support and treatment received by children and young people who have involvement with social workers.
The CAMHS Referrals and Outcomes for Adolescents and Children with Social Workers (COACHES) study is a four-year collaboration between the University of Cambridge, Kingston University, King’s College London, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB), the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the Care Leavers Association examining data from over 70,000 young people across two NHS trusts.
The project partners hope that the research findings could have a significant impact on how social care and mental health services are shaped and delivered to children and young people over the next two decades.
It follows the acknowledgement from the Independent Children’s Social Care Review that mental health is a key issue facing young people who are in or leaving care.
Specifically, the project aims to provide answers to the following questions:
· What factors influenced whether a young person’s referral to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) is accepted or rejected?
· What CAMHS treatments prove helpful for young people?
· What is the cost effectiveness of these treatments?
· How are young people with social care involvement depicted within CAMHS case notes?
· What are the experiences of young people with social care involvement of their treatment by CAMHS?
The study will look at examples of children and young people with social work involvement in two areas of the UK - South London, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
COACHES aims not only to be rigorous piece of research but through the evidence provided to inform policy and practice in the organisation and delivery of services in the future. COACHES is funded by Foundations and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
A practitioner advisory group for the project is chaired by Luke Geoghegan, Head of Research and Policy at the British Association of Social Workers. If you might be interested to join the advisory group, Luke can be contacted at luke.geoghegan@basw.co.uk NIHR recently changed its name from the National Institute of Health Research to emphasise its responsibility for supporting the development of social care research.
One of the ambitions of the project team working on COACHES is to contribute to the wider environment supporting children’s social care research, and they will be supporting practitioners to get involved with the study, in conjunction with the British Association of Social Workers. The NIHR Academy is also offering funding for Masters and PhD study for anyone whose research would contribute to the mission of local authorities and as part of this COACHES is pleased to host current and future NIHR award holders. If this might interest you, please message Robbie Duschinsky at rd522@medschl.cam.ac.uk.
The first outputs from the study are anticipated later in 2024, and will include:
· An analysis of the different forms of adversity experienced by young people with and without social care involvement, and how this relates to their mental health needs;
· An analysis of inequalities accessing CAMHS for young people with safeguarding needs; and
· A qualitative analysis of case notes, led by and co-conducted with Experts-by-Experience, examining how mental health services make sense of young people's safeguarding needs and histories of adversity
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