Study on outcomes in care settings

The initiative is part of the government-backed Knowledge Transfer Partnerships programme to improve the productivity of businesses.

Academics will analyse raw data on looked-after children from across more than 30 Bryn Melyn residential care settings. The data will be used to develop an outcomes measurement model that reflects how a complex range of services impact on the lives of young people in care.

Kevin Gallagher, chief executive of Bryn Melyn, said he hoped the tool would be rolled out nationally once the project was complete.

"There has been an ongoing debate in children's services about how to measure outcomes," he said. "This is about developing a tool for the whole sector to use. There will be a number of benefits for looked-after children."

Gallagher added that councils would be able to use the tool to help choose residential care settings for children and young people: "From a local authority perspective, it's about evidencing value for money."

Jonathan Stanley, manager of the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care, said the tool had the potential to radically improve children's homes.

"We need an agreed assessment and outcomes tool that will unite providers and commissioners, and that is applicable across all settings and approaches," he said. "We'd be able to identify settings that are particularly effective and transfer that practice across to other children's homes."