There are two strands to the project:
This study was led by Dr Lorna Stabler from CASCADE, with co-applicants Professor Katherine Shelton and Dr Amy Paine from Cardiff University School of Psychology, and Dr Nell Warner from CASCADE. The overall aim of this study was to build an understanding of special guardianship in Wales. This included two main approaches:
- Linking public sector data sources held in the SAIL Databank to develop a picture of which families in Wales receive Special Guardianship Orders (SGO), which children in care are most likely to receive an SGO within the first three years of them entering care, and to highlight any inequalities in terms of how SGOs are being used across Wales.
- With the Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU) at the Cardiff University Centre for Human Development Science (CUCHDS) to profile the strengths and needs of children aged 4 – 7 with an SGO or in long-term kinship care to create a better understanding of what these children may need as they enter school.
Overview
The use of kinship care within child welfare has increased over the last decade, including using Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs) for children leaving care. In Wales, in 2022, 285 children left care for adoption, and 295 on an SGO. SGOs are also granted through private law proceedings.
There are some indications that Special Guardians, like other kinship carers, may face challenges supporting the children in their care, and children might need support based on their experiences prior to the SGO being granted. However, there is limited understanding of factors within SGOs that could be protective for children.
The UK government published the first ever kinship care strategy at the end of 2023 and announced tailored support and training for kinship carers. Within Wales, the Welsh government has affirmed their commitment to developing an improved and consistent needs-based approach to supporting Special Guardianship families across Wales. There is an existing framework for Special Guardianship support services. However, the lack of evidence base regarding characteristics, circumstances, and needs of these families makes it difficult for local authorities and national government to know which services to prioritise.
This project provided an opportunity to draw on expertise in a multidisciplinary collaboration comprising the Neurodevelopment Assessment Unit (NDAU) at the Cardiff University Centre for Human Developmental Science (CUCHDS; School of Psychology), The Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE) and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank. This enabled the application of methods used with adopted children and their families, children in care, and families in the general population to address our aims.
The project is groundbreaking in the focus on the methods used, and has the potential to make a step-change in our understanding of structural, social, and psychological factors that could impact on long-term outcomes for children subject to SGOs.
Findings
The project ran from April 2024 – June 2026. Three reports present the main findings from the study.
Report 1, Summary Report provides a high-level summary of the key findings. This will give you a good understanding of what was studied, and what the implications are.
Report 2, Characteristics and Care Pathways, presents in detail the linked data study, giving in depth findings on the characteristics of children and households in Wales with a Special Guardianship Order. This report highlights key regional variations, characteristics of children and risk factors within families that seem to influence whether or not a child leaves care on an SGO in the first three years of a care order being granted. It also presents in detail the methodology used, and key limitations of the data and the approach.
Report 3, Identifying Children’s Strengths and Support needs, presents the findings from the psychology study. This report includes the cognitive, emotional developmental profiles of the 42 children who took part in the study, and the findings from teacher and carer questionnaires, including the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. It also includes details of the measures used and the analysis approach.
To find out more about the study, for future collaborations, or for media enquires, please contact Dr Lorna Stabler by email stablerl@cardiff.ac.uk
Lead Person
| Principal Investigator | Lorna Stabler |
Academics and Researchers
Related Information
| Related Schools | N/A |
| Related partners | School of Social Sciences School of Psychology |
| Funders | Nuffield Foundation |
| Related publications | N/A |
| Related links | N/A |
| Related documents | N/A |
Contact
Lorna Stabler
StablerL@cardiff.ac.uk