Citation

Cameron RJS, Das RK. Br. J. Soc. Work 2019; 49(7): 1893-1912.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjsw/bcy125

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Children and young people in public care have long been recognised as a particularly vulnerable group in our society. Many have complex personal, inter-personal and educational needs as a result of pre-care maltreatment. Despite a number of initiatives to change the often negative outcomes for these children, results have remained stubbornly disappointing. The model of professional childcare, rooted in psychological research and theory, was designed to enable and empower foster and adoptive parents and residential carers to acquire a deeper understanding of their children's needs and to provide these young people with the informed support required to help them to lead more fulfilling lives. In this study, we examined the impact of the model in a three-year project involving fifty-three children and young people and their carers in local-authority children's homes on two UK areas (Northern and Southern England). Significant improvements in both behavioural and affective measures were observed following implementation of the model with these young people (Z(N=53) = 3.978, p < 0.001). These results demonstrate that this model of professional childcare can achieve positive outcomes for previously maltreated young people in children's homes.

METHODological constraints on implementation of the model are discussed.