Transformative children's social care (Resilience Fund)

Coronavirus has reduced access to already scarce resources in children's mental health and social care. The most vulnerable children in the UK are more isolated than ever, and foster/residential carers and adoptive parents have less support to meet the psychological needs of their children, which have often been exacerbated by the pandemic and resulting lockdown. We propose to bring to market a transformative suite of psychological screening, training and support products, born out of clinical expertise and a decade of research and development with Looked After Children. We will pilot and evaluate the new products with over 1000 children across 8 local authorities, in a partnership between a clinician-led small tech business, the Commissioning Alliance of Local Authorities, and Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. We can improve the lives of vulnerable children and their carers whilst making significant cost savings for the public purse. Demonstrating this at scale will spread uptake across the UK and open up international markets.

More than £9billion/year is spent on children's social care services in the UK, but very little is known about children's needs or what is effective in improving their outcomes, although it is clear that children who have been in Care do much worse than their peers, with a 50-fold increase in the rates of imprisonment, substance misuse, homelessness, inpatient mental health stays, and their own children being removed into Care. This leads to excess lifetime costs of £2million to the public purse per Care leaver. Despite very high levels of mental health problems amongst Looked After Children, no reliable outcome metrics are used with this population.

We have developed an innovative digital tool set (BERRI) to identify the needs of individual children, in terms of their behaviour, emotional-wellbeing, mental health, development, risk to self/others, and ability to form relationships. It is the first properly validated measure able to assess the main psychological risk factors for the child's trajectory, and can provide individualised reports with advice for caregivers. We can then support carers with training and video consultancy, improving care and preventing placement breakdown. The data gathered can be used to advise commissioners about what placements/services are required, and track which are effective. Pilots have shown improved outcomes for vulnerable children, coupled with potential savings of £22,000/week or £1.14million/year in one local authority. Proof of concept at scale has the potential to cause a sea-change in children's social care.