This is the first-ever National Kinship Care Strategy to be published in the UK. The strategy establishes “the foundations for a future, transformed kinship care system in England.”

Dr Rhiannon Evans, Reader in DECIPHer, discusses a systematic review taken of international evidence to understand what programmes work for improving the mental health of care-experienced children & young people, how they work, and what m

This study reviewed the prevalence of mental health disorders among Looked After Children in the UK.

Bethan Carter, a research associate at Cardiff University, discusses the ReThink Project; a project run in collaboration with Adoption UK and Coram Voice to investigate what processes are linked to mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced young people and how they manage at two key transitions in life.

This global systematic review incorporated a comprehensive search of available literature from 1990 and captures the extant literature relating to process evaluations for interventions which address care-experienced children and young people’s mental health and well-being, and is one of the first syntheses of process evaluations in social care.

There is currently little consensus in the United Kingdom around the prevalence of violence against children: maltreatment, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, bullying, and community violence, and most existing studies focus on only a single or a few forms of violence. This study aims to produce data to highlight the current magnitude of the problem in the UK, to inform policy, drive action and allow for monitoring of progress over time.

This report explores, through responses to an online survey, interviews and focus groups, the opportunities, challenges, barriers and facilitators that members of the workforce identify as factors which bring about high quality experiences and outcomes for children, young people and families using services; close multi-agency working between practitioners across different services; continuity of support when young people transition to adult services; high quality support for the workforce and transformational change in services.

The biggest independent providers of children’s care in England made profits of more than £300m last year, as concern mounts over the conditions that some children are being placed in and the spiralling costs for councils.

Young people transitioning from the care system into adulthood are to receive a one-off Care Leaver Payment of £2,000 to support them to move into more independent living under proposals being considered.

A report into the deaths and serious injury of children in care, which the government tried to keep secret, uncovered evidence of stabbings, sexual exploitation and a lack of suitable placements. The nine-page review examined 89 instances of death or serious harm among the most vulnerable young people in society over a two-year period to June 2020.