Study on outcomes in care settings

The initiative is part of the government-backed Knowledge TransferPartnerships programme to improve the productivity of businesses.

Academics will analyse raw data on looked-after children from acrossmore than 30 Bryn Melyn residential care settings. The data will be usedto develop an outcomes measurement model that reflects how a complexrange of services impact on the lives of young people in care.

Kevin Gallagher, chief executive of Bryn Melyn, said he hoped the toolwould be rolled out nationally once the project was complete.

"There has been an ongoing debate in children's services about how tomeasure outcomes," he said. "This is about developing a tool for thewhole sector to use. There will be a number of benefits for looked-afterchildren."

Gallagher added that councils would be able to use the tool to helpchoose residential care settings for children and young people: "From alocal authority perspective, it's about evidencing value for money."

Jonathan Stanley, manager of the National Centre for Excellence inResidential Child Care, said the tool had the potential to radicallyimprove children's homes.

"We need an agreed assessment and outcomes tool that will uniteproviders and commissioners, and that is applicable across all settingsand approaches," he said. "We'd be able to identify settings that areparticularly effective and transfer that practice across to otherchildren's homes."