Improving outcomes for children and staff in residential children's homes: An evaluation of the RESuLT training programme

Lack of placement stability of children in residential care has been identified as having an adverse effect on children’s short, medium and long term educational, health and broader life outcomes. This presentation will draw... [ view full abstract ]

Lack of placement stability of children in residential care has been identified as having an adverse effect on children’s short, medium and long term educational, health and broader life outcomes. This presentation will draw on new research to explore the effectiveness of RESuLT, a 10 session, whole-team training course for residential child care workers who are looking after adolescents. This draws heavily upon the application of Social Learning Theory and has been designed by the National Implementation Service (NIS) in consultation with the sector. It has been designed to help staff develop skills to appropriately respond to young people’s needs and balance behaviour management with helping young people develop life skills and self-efficacy. The programme is currently being evaluated with principal investigators from Loughborough University (Lisa Holmes), and the University of Bristol (David Berridge), as well as researchers from Ipsos MORI as part of the wider Department for Education (DfE) Innovation Programme in Children's Social Care. The evaluation is exploring whether the training programme can be effectively delivered to whole-staff teams in residential homes and whether the training leads to changes in staff confidence, attitudes, knowledge, skills and practice. In the longer term ongoing evaluation of the RESuLT programme will explore whether outcomes for young people in the homes improves following the training.

The RESuLT training was provided to staff in six local authorities in England between September 2015 and January 2016. A mixed methods approach including both quantitative and qualitative data collection was used. At the end of each training session, staff were asked to complete a short questionnaire. In addition, heads of homes or key workers in homes were asked to provide monthly data about the young people at their home, including number of days missing, planned or unplanned moves, permanent or temporary school exclusions and reports to police for a recorded offence. In each area a comparison home was identified, where the same data on young people was recorded on a monthly basis. At the end of the training course, researchers conducted semi-structured face to face interviews with staff and young people in the intervention homes in each area in order to gain an understanding of how staff practices may have changed during and after the training and whether young people have noticed a difference in staff behaviour.
Emerging findings suggest that staff rated the training overall positively and found it useful particularly with regard to being trained as a whole staff group and being off-site. Staff appreciated getting to know each other better and discussing children’s behaviours and best ways of addressing these. Some young people also noticed positive changes in staff behaviours and practices. Data comparing outcomes for children in intervention and control homes are currently being collated and will be ready for presentation in September 2016.
Drawing on all data sources, including feedback on training sessions, staff and young people interviews as well as comparing children’s outcomes in control and intervention homes, this presentation will discuss the implications of providing the RESuLT training to staff in residential homes, especially with regard to perceived outcomes by staff and young people, as well as placement stability measures.
The findings from this evaluation will provide important evidence on the effectiveness of whole-team training interventions and will be of interest to all those working in the sector.