Applying BERRI to support child mental health at the edge of care

Children are ending up in public care due to unmet mental health needs (Children's Commissioner, January 2020). The numbers of children in care are increasing. Social care needs to work more effectively with families to keep children safely out of care (Independent Care Review, May 2022). To form effective collaborative working relationships, social workers must recognise parents' concerns about their child's behaviour, development and mental health. We propose to bring to market a transformative suite of psychological screening, training and support products to support social workers and parents with their child's psychological needs, born out of clinical expertise and a decade of research and development.

Founded by a consultant clinical psychologist with specialist expertise about the mental health of vulnerable children, we are passionate about using technology to make psychological expertise accessible to children and families. Our BERRI digital toolset can identify and help to support children's psychological needs, across the domains of Behaviour, Emotional-wellbeing, Relationships, Risk and Indicators of underlying conditions, providing individualised reports for carers and professionals. This is a giant step forward compared to paper measures that take clinician time to score and interpret. BERRI has already demonstrably saved millions of pounds for local authorities when used with children in public care. An independent social-and-economic-impact-analysis shows a return of £108 to the public purse for every £1 spent on our services.

However, NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services are harder to reach than ever; less than 1/8 of children with mental health needs receive professional input. This issue is particularly acute post-pandemic, at a time when cost of living pressures are adding significantly to family stress.

We therefore propose to develop a version of BERRI to support families at the edge of care, and help them to meet the needs of their children. We will offer psychological screening for at least 100 families with BERRI, with online psychological consultancy to social workers and parents, in a pilot to keep children out of care. We will collect normative data, whilst using a randomised controlled trial design to show efficacy, plus an independent social and economic impact evaluation to calculate human and financial impact.

Improving child mental health and keeping families together has numerous positive impacts on society. Making happier young people who can engage in education, and less stressed parents who can engage in employment, it will reduce health and social care costs across the lifespan.