Mental health pilot for children in care ‘needs more refinement’
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, December 1, 2021
Virtual mental health pilots for children in care need improvement if they are to be rolled out UK-wide, after evaluation found that just one centre involved in the trial plans to carry on offering the support.
The Department for Education-funded pilots ran from January 2019 until March 2021 and saw a virtual mental health lead appointed to support professionals working with looked-after children. The project also focused on including children’s views in support.
Evaluation found that “good practice exists” in particularly in offering a “person centred” approach.
But elements of the pilot “appear to require further refinement and further evidence is required, at scale, to demonstrate effectiveness”.
While the programme “was established with considerable ambition” only 116 of an expected 350 children saw their assessments completed by March this year, according to evaluators.
Despite the evaluation noting that children’s professionals welcomed the “significant role” of the virtual mental health leads in supporting young people, it “found limited evidence of this then leading to positive outcomes for children and their carers”.
Only one centre involved plans to continue with the pilot in its current form, evaluators found.
Six other sites said they “wanted to retain aspects of the pilot approach but, for various reasons, are unable to do so”. However, they did say that staff would continue using skills and experience gained during the pilot in supporting the mental health needs of looked-after children.
The boosting of children’s professionals’ knowledge around mental health and their increased confidence in supporting young people were among positive outcomes to emerge from the pilot.
One social work manager said the training helped “to have emotional wellbeing conversations” with children, which can be “quite difficult to have.” The training also helped social workers “focus on asking the right questions”, the manager added.
Pilot sites were selected based on a range of characteristics including rurality, disadvantage, ethnicity and rates of children entering care as well as admissions for mental health care as inpatients.
Originally nine pilot sites took part until September 2020. The deadline was extended amid the Covid-19 pandemic to March 2021 but only five sites took up this offer, with the others citing staffing issues during the health crisis.
