Longitudinal mental health trajectories of children growing up in State care in England: An exploration of patterns and influencing factors

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Children in care constitute a most vulnerable group of children in the society. The aim of this study is to contribute to our understanding of how mental health of children in care varies over time and to explore how these patterns of mental health are influenced by care experiences, individual factors and school related factors over time. At any given time in England, there are around 70,000 children being looked after by the State (also referred to as 'children in care'). More than 60% of these children are taken into State care due to experiences of severe maltreatment such as abuse or neglect. Consequently, being taken into care is an 'intervention' for this vulnerable group of children, with the expectation that State care will then ameliorate or at least stabilise their mental health. Despite this, numerous research studies indicate that mental concerns in this vulnerable child population is high, with 50% of children in State care having a diagnosable mental health concern, when compared to 10% of children in the general population. Despite the evidence of high prevalence of mental health need shown by this group of children, there is a dearth of knowledge on the longitudinal patterns of mental health of children in care in England.This project, which maps on to the ESRC strategic priority area of mental health, aims to fill this gap in knowledge through: (1) secondary analyses of longitudinal, national-level administrative data on children in care and (2) a survey of children in care in 15 local authorities, which will provide supplementary data to enable analyses of how children's characteristics, school and care related factors influence the mental health patterns of children in care. Apart from the use of secondary data, the study's main innovation will be to use statistical modelling techniques known as latent trajectory models. Use of advanced statistical methods such as these have been signposted as lacking in social work research by the ESRC Strategic Adviser for Social Work and Social Care Research, with recent reviews indicating that only a very small proportion of social work research studies currently use advanced quantitative methodologies. The study will benefit from the continuous involvement of and collaboration with a range of stakeholders through the establishment of both a 'stakeholder' advisory group (policy makers, practitioners, academics, charities and other organisations such as the Children's Commissioner) as well as a 'children in care' participation group at the outset of the project. The 'children in care' participation group will be directly involved in creating the survey for children in care and in designing feedback reports that will be sent to all children in care in the participating local authorities. Additionally, the research team will work directly with the management and practitioners of the 15 local authorities to feedback the results and organise peer-learning activities to facilitate changes to local policy and practices pertaining to the assessment of and provision for mental health services for children in care.In recent years, there has been renewed recognition of the mental health needs of children and young people, aided by a significant push by the UK Government to provide more streamlined support for children and young people with mental health needs. New and timely information from this study on the specific groups of children in State care who are most at risk for mental illness and the factors that positively/negatively influence mental health outcomes would enable policy makers, practitioners and other organisations who champion children's mental health to better inform policy formation, policy implementation and effective resource allocation for children in care, who will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this research.