Previous work - 2004
- An innovative service to support families where parents have mental health problems
- Evaluation of a project working with traveller children
- Research briefings for local authority councillors
- Best value review of service effectiveness for adults in community and residential settings
- Audit of need to inform behaviour improvement programme
- Evaluation of school-based programmes and training about loss and grief
- Best value review of mental health services for children
- Parental mental health and its impact on children
- Evaluation of parenting programmes
- Designing and implementing a common assessment and planning model for use across children's services
- Training - assessment framework
- Serious case reviews
- Training in assessment forms compliant with the AF
- Evaluation of an early intervention service for adolescents and families
- Using need data to develop an outcome tool
- Audit of need to inform multi-agency CAMHS strategy
- Best value review of adult services
- Audit of need to inform commissioning of drug and alcohol services
- Audit of needs of looked-after children
- Multi-agency training in IRT/ISA
An innovative service to support families where parents have mental health problems
Developing a proposal and funding application for this new type of service. Including collecting evidence of the needs of children and parents, consulting with key stakeholders providing services to children and adults in the Borough, and designing a service specification for a holistic service for families.
Commissioned by Greenwich Council + Greenwich PCT + Oxleas NHS Trust, via the National Children's Bureau
Evaluation of a project working with traveller children
Consultation with traveller children and parents to gauge the impact of after-school clubs, youth clubs and holiday schemes in reducing the social isolation of traveller children, enabling them to develop meaningful relationships with their peers, and making a successful transfer from primary to secondary school.
Commissioned by LB Sutton Children's Fund
Research briefings for local authority councillors
A series of research briefings with the aim of providing information about key research findings, good practice, and policy developments that will help councillors improve outcomes for children and families in need by ensuring that adequate and effective services are provided for them.
- Disabled Children
- Intervening in the Early Years
Commissioned by Research in Practice
Best value review of service effectiveness for adults in community and residential settings
An audit of the needs of 189 adults with 'high dependency needs' in order to compare the effectiveness of provision in the community and in residential settings.
Commissioned by Gloucestershire County Council
Audit of need to inform behaviour improvement programme
An audit with teachers, of the needs of 110 children, drawn from 10 schools in a local cluster to inform the local Behaviour Improvement Programme. Audit work validated by a group of local parents.
Commissioned by Thurrock Council
Evaluation of school-based programmes and training about loss and grief
A study to help respond to the loss or grief experienced by a large proportion of children in a local multi-agency audit of need. Agencies wanted to deliver a programme in schools to help children come to terms with their loss, as well as providing training and support for school staff to help them support children. The study reported on what is known from the literature about what works or is promising in this area of activity, and made recommendations about programmes worth implementing.
Commissioned by LB Sutton Childre's Fund
Best value review of mental health services for children
An examination of the need for services across the County for children with mental health needs, with a particular focus on services provided by CAMHS. To cover service capacity and organisation and, in relation to user perspectives, the views of a sample of the general population, group discussion with vulnerable groups, and one-to-one interviews with children and parents who have recently used CAMHS.
Commissioned by Lincolnshire County Council and the Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Trust, via YoungMinds
Parental mental health and its impact on children
A review of impact and intervention studies that explore parental mental health problems and their effect on children. With particular focus on relevant aspects of the Assessment Framework, evaluated programmes and lessons for policy and practice developments with children and their families.
Commissioned by research in practice
Evaluation of parenting programmes
An evaluation of the effectiveness of parenting programmes for parents of adolescents, in circumstances where family relationships have broken down and/or where young people are offending. Parents attending the programmes include those subject to Parenting Orders.
Commissioned by LB Sutton Community Services
Designing and implementing a common assessment and planning model for use across children's services
Designing an assessment model, compliant with the DfES CAF, for use across children's services and based on the concepts Need, Seriousness, Outcome and Service. Producing formats for recording individual assessments linked to aggregated data for planning purposes. Training professionals on a multi-agency basis to use the model. Training a team of dedicated workers to demonstrate and implement cross-agency assessment and service delivery. Producing a training pack and programme of training for trainers.
Commissioned by Gloucestershire County Council SSD
Training - assessment framework
Designing and delivering training for newly-appointed workers in the use of the National Assessment Framework.
Commissioned by Hampshire County Council SSD
Chairing five serious case reviews under the auspices of Working Together and undertaking independent reviews of two other cases which fell outside the criteria for serious case review but where authorities were keen to learn lessons for single and multi-agency practice.
Commissioned by 6 local authorities in England and Wales
Training in assessment forms compliant with the AF
A rolling programme of half-day and longer courses for new social work staff and senior practitioners and team managers in Camden. Including a refresher about the Assessment Framework, an introduction to the staff Induction Pack, and coaching on the use of the Borough's assessment forms.
Commissioned by Dartington-i
Evaluation of an early intervention service for adolescents and families
A two-year exercise to enable staff to track and evaluate progress in the work of the Joint Adolescent Service, a new project in which social services and CAMHS combined their resources to offer short-term focused intervention to young people and their families in order to try and prevent family breakdown. Using pre- and post-intervention scales to measure the extent to which identified outcomes were achieved during the first year of the service. The service was developed from an earlier, multi-agency audit of need facilitated by RTB.
Commissioned by LB Sutton Community Services
Using need data to develop an outcome tool
Using the Matching Needs & Services audit tool, with local professionals, to identify the pattern of need among young children and their families across the Borough, to complement an earlier audit of children newly referred to social services, also facilitated by RTB. The aim was to develop an outcome tool that can be used across all agencies, to inform the commissioning of new services and help evaluate both current practice and future developments.
Commissioned by Greenwich PCT and LB Greenwich Children's Partnership & Integration
Audit of need to inform multi-agency CAMHS strategy
An audit with health, social services and education of 124 children, to inform the emerging CAMHS strategy, with production of outcomes and a service map for each of the need groups identified.
Commissioned by Thurrock Council
Best value review of adult services
An audit of the needs of people with learning difficulties, physical disabilities and mental health difficulties in residential care and an analysis of the way these needs are met.
Commissioned by Gloucestershire County Council Social Services Department
Audit of need to inform commissioning of drug and alcohol services
A multi-agency audit of the needs of the children of parents misusing drugs or alcohol or both and of young people misusing drugs or alcohol or both, together with an analysis of the way these needs are met; focus groups with professionals and young people; service mapping; and a review of research evidence of effective and promising interventions.
Commissioned by LB Islington
Audit of needs of looked-after children
An audit of 100 looked-after children and a more detailed file analysis of 20 cases to identify needs, analyse how these needs are met, and provide some explanation for the high number of children on care orders, in order to inform the planning of future services.
Commissioned by Brighton and Hove City Council
Multi-agency training in IT/ISA
A series of half-day courses in Camden, one of the DfES trailblazer authorities, to train professionals in the pilot site to use the IRT/ISA model.