Research
For the past 20 years SACCS has provided care and support to children traumatized through early life experiences. During that time, we have had the opportunity to gather and assess a significant body of quantitative and qualitative data which has influenced practice.
The Mary Walsh Institute will further enhance this assessment by establishing a Research Department. In partnership with academic institutions, this new department will identify and report on issues of holistic and childhood assessment, the value of therapeutic care (a longitudinal study of past, present and future), and social care training.
The Importance of Research at SACCS
The Development of the SACCS Recovery Programme (SRP)
In 2002, SACCS began its work to define its therapeutic model and all of the processes involved, i.e. an integrated model, of life story, therapy and therapeutic parenting as described in detail by the SRP. Whilst the SRP is an extensive document of the processes involved in work with traumatised children, it is also an outcomes-based approach defined by the achievement of the 24 Outcomes. The SRP is centered on the assessment of children against these outcomes and the Individual Recovery Plans, designed to meet the identified needs of each child.
An Outcomes based approach is one where methods that are evidenced to work are favoured over ones that look good on paper but provide little evidence of success. At the same time, with the publication of Every Child Matters (2003) the Government has also put outcomes clearly in the centre of all matters regarding children.
The SRP has been a leading example of developing an Outcomes Based Approach and has achieved national acknowledgement. Assessing the Needs of Traumatized Children to Improve Outcomes (Tomlinson, 2007) will be published in the Journal of Social Work Practice later this year. A shorter version of this paper was included in the NCB document, Care Planning for Children in Residential Care (Kane, S. 2007) which acknowledged the SACCS model as an example of ‘best practice’.
Evidence-based practice
Currently there is little evidence as to what actually works in enabling positive outcomes for Looked After Children. The strongest evidence backed by the Government is that children who leave care with educational qualifications do better in the long term than those with few or no qualifications. A programme such as the SRP aims to improve a child’s overall emotional well being and state of mental health. Therefore, it is important to evidence how SRP actually makes a difference in these areas. The foundation for the evidence is first of all consistent practice. This is why the solidity of the SACCS Recovery Assessment and Plan process is so important.
It is clear that the independent validation of evidence based outcomes is likely to become a requirement for the commissioning of specialized services. A validated treatment programme can be adapted for work with different groups of traumatized children, in different settings and in different parts of the world.
SACCS already has an outcomes based approach and an assessment process that provides significant evidence of outcomes achieved by each child.
To achieve the objectives above ideally we need independent validation in the following 3 areas,
- How well does the SRP enable children to achieve the 24 Outcomes during their placement at SACCS
- Is it possible to measure this accurately using a specialized assessment model
- How do these short term outcomes correlate with long term outcomes for these children
The process of independent research encourages a culture of enquiry; openness to critique and learning that is also supportive of the reflective practice described in the SRP. This is likely to lead to many other benefits such as improvement of practice in terms of both its effectiveness and cost. Improved clarity of the treatment task will also have further benefits for staff training and development.
Your support and contribution is invaluable, not only to the Recovery of the children placed with us but to our mission of improving outcomes for traumatized children, wherever we can and as widely as possible.
