Research

Parental Advocacy in Wales: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of its Effectiveness in Supporting Parents Wales currently has the highest proportion of children in care among UK nations, and it is a policy priority of the Welsh…

The  Serious Organised Crime Early Intervention Service Evaluation is now available. Click below to view it SOCEIS Final Evaluation The aim of this evaluation is to examine the implementation, delivery and impact of the Serious Organised…

This is a project to look at the needs of children in Wales with a parent in prison. We will interview parents in prison, their partners in the community, and education staff, with the aim being to…

Funded by Health Care Research Wales, This 18-month exploratory research project is aimed at creating a toolkit for an effective service response to improve the outcomes for children at risk or involved in county lines.…

A Linking survey and administrative data to enhance understandings of risky behaviours and potential protective factors in children receiving social care: A feasibility study. This project will provide a more nuanced and intersectional understanding of young people’s…

This research is the first attempt to build a robust evidence base on ethnic and religious minority child welfare in Wales and among the first in the UK to study health and education outcomes for…

The National Youth Advocacy Service Cymru (NYAS) has been working with Caerphilly since April 2017 to provide advocates for parents. In 2020 NYAS was awarded funding by the Welsh Government to provide advocacy services across…

Overview People Offering parents Support (POPS). This project is an evaluation of a peer mentoring project, supporting parents with drug and alcohol difficulties, who are accessing social work services. The evaluation will commence in October…

This two-year evaluation of the first Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) in Wales aims to support the delivery and development of FDAC in Wales, and enable a rigorous large-scale evaluation in future. Overview The…

PhD Overview A PhD study being undertaken by Bridget Handley of young care experienced people’s experiences of navigating mental health services. The study aims to explore the gaps in service provision, multi-agency working, assess what…

Family group conferencing for children and families: Evaluation of implementation, context and effectiveness Overview Overview of the Family VOICE study https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXR4yXlyUzA A Family Group Conference (FGC) is a meeting where the wider family discuss children…

This project builds on the findings of an earlier project to co-design and build a resource hub offering information and links to mental health and well-being services for care-experienced young people across Wales. https://youtu.be/33_59ZeP1Xw Overview…

How can we help autistic children and those with high levels of autistic traits who are in care get the help they need to achieve the best outcomes? This Fellowship will investigate this by looking…

It is widely known that many care experienced young people find education to be difficult and experience some form of school exclusion. What is less well understood is what happens next for these young people at the age of 16.  …

Children looked after who have come into contact with the law are some of the most vulnerable members of society. The over-representation of care experienced young people and those from racially and ethnically minoritized groups…

Academics from three Welsh universities have recently been awarded seedcorn funding for an interdisciplinary project that originated through discussions at the 2023 Welsh Crucible. Dr Rob Smith (University of South Wales), Dr Edith England (Cardiff…

Schools are increasingly called upon to support children and families with social needs beyond education, including safeguarding, prevention of extremism, and tackling youth violence. Overview There has been a movement towards greater cross-agency collaboration, where…

How are young people in care supported to remain in their home once they turn 18? Overview An international review of post-18 care provision for young people leaving state care and will specifically focus on…

What affects the chances of children’s successful reunification with their birth families from care? Overview This study is exploring the factors that are associated with children being successfully reunited with their families after a period…

Understanding how looked after children engage online and experience social and digital forms of media. Overview The overall aim is to understand how looked after children engage online and experience social and digital forms of…

The aim of this 15-month project is to develop a prototype of a training tool which represents a young person’s journey through the youth justice system including the various challenges that they may face.  Overview Understanding…

There are two strands to the project: 1) to build a picture of which families in Wales have Special Guardianship Orders using the SAIL Databank, and to explore in more depth; and 2) with the…

The aim of the research project is to evaluate the pilot of Step UP Step Down in Wales. It has run in Northern Ireland previously and been well received. Overview Instead of removing children and…

Supporting care-experienced parents Overview This project aims to challenge stigma, discrimination and poor outcomes for young parents in and leaving care.  The project will work closely with young people and other key stakeholders to consider and…

The children’s residential care workforce is often undervalued and seen as transient and low skilled,despite its work with children who have often experienced significant trauma, who are often placed in children’s homes as a ‘last…

The children’s residential care workforce is often undervalued and seen as transient and low skilled,despite its work with children who have often experienced significant trauma, who are often placed in children’s homes as a ‘last…

Sure Start (Northern Ireland) is a flagship policy that aims to reduce health and educational inequalities in the early years and beyond. For more than two decades, Sure Start has supported families with children aged…

Following on from three pilot studies which showed evidence of promise, the SWIS trial will evaluate the programme on a larger scale to establish the impact it has on some important social care and educational…

The Welsh Government are offering care leavers who turn 18 between July 2022 and June 2023 the opportunity to take part in a basic income pilot. Those who take part will receive £1,600 before tax…

Research has shown that meaningful participation in decision-making can enhance young people’s confidence, self-efficacy, and self-worth. Despite legislative provisions and guidance promoting children and young people’s involvement in care-planning, young people still report limited opportunities…

Aiming to understand Higher Education Institutions’ interventions in Wales that target care-experienced young people and assess the success or otherwise of these interventions in order to develop a model of best practice Final report now…

A study of the implementation of the new Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) guidance in Wales Overview The central purpose of the study is to gain an understanding of how the new Welsh Government Child Sexual…

The aim of this study is to understand stakeholder experiences of delivering and receiving mental health and wellbeing provision for care-experienced children and young people (aged 11-25) in secondary schools in Wales and in the…

Funded by Health and Care Research Wales, this two-year project builds on the findings from the study, ‘County lines: a co-ordinated Welsh community response to child criminal exploitation’. Overview Child criminal exploitation refers to children…