Most residential children's social care services in England, including children's homes, are operated by for-profit companies, but the implications of this development are not well understood. This paper aims to address this gap by undertaking the first longitudinal and comprehensive evaluation of the associations between for-profit outsourcing and quality of service provision among English local authorities and children's homes.

Child welfare and juvenile justice placed youths show high levels of psychosocial burden and high rates of mental disorders. It remains unclear how mental disorders develop into adulthood in these populations. The aim of this study, based on adolescents in Swiss residential care, was to present the rates of mental disorders in adolescence and adulthood in child welfare and juvenile justice samples and to examine their mental health trajectories from adolescence into adulthood.

Several youth facilities have devoted considerable resources to improving the quality of practice and the interest in understanding the safety needs of youth in residential care has grown. However, there is limited research that considers how youth in residential facilities themselves define and experience safety, what their safety concerns are, and how they would like systems and staff to respond to their needs. Therefore, this current study investigated youth perceptions of safety in residential facilities in Norway and their experiences of and reaction to staff behaviors and attitudes.

This Insight draws on research and policy, as well as practice experience to explore friendship, why it matters and how it can be better supported. It looks critically at the nature of friendship and the impact that aspects of the ‘care system’ can have on children and young people making and maintaining friends. It highlights how significant friendships can be for children and young people who are ‘looked after’ in the UK.

Previous studies have shown that mental health disorders (MHD) among parents might be an important mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of out-of-home care (OHC). The current study aimed to further study this interplay by investigating the associations between OHC and MHD within and across generations in a Swedish cohort.

This report is a culmination of an independent review of the UK's care system in order to build recommendations for how the system can be improved and to continue feeding in a wide range of views. The work and outcomes of the review were guided by the views of people that have lived experience of the children’s social care system in the UK.

This is the first report from The Promise Oversight Board on progress that Scotland is making to keep the promise. It was a promise made to care experienced infants, children, young people, adults and their families. It was also made to families who live around the ‘care system’ and whose lives are impacted by its decisions. The promise made reflects a commitment that had already been made through the National Performance Framework - that every child grows up loved, safe and respected and able to realise their full potential.

This paper describes a mixed methods approach that was applied to evaluate the complex intervention Fostering Connections: The Trauma-Informed Foster Care Programme, a recently developed trauma-informed psychoeducational intervention for foster carers in Ireland.

This study looked at how well matched children in England are to their homes and the extent to which their participation, views, wishes and feelings are considered in the decision-making process. The study looked at a small group of children who have a very wide and diverse set of needs and who live in children’s homes that were visited by Ofsted inspectors in late 2019.

Emerging evidence suggests that distant placements and multiple moves may be detrimental to young people in care settings. Less is known about the characteristics of young people in secure care most affected by these processes. This UK study examined distance from home and number of previous placements in English young people detained in secure care and their relationships with organisational and individual characteristics.