Children’s mental health research gets national coverage

Monday, September 22, 2014

Category: News

A research review synthesising over 100 studies on mental health interventions for looked after children commissioned from the Rees Centre by NSPCC was published on 3 September 2014.

It concluded that the quality of ‘ordinary care’ is crucial to the effectiveness of additional interventions aimed at addressing the mental health needs of children in care. The key to the experience of children in the care system lies in the foster carers and staff with whom they live. Enabling the right staff to be selected, trained, supported and supervised is crucial to creating an environment that best supports the child’s well-being. The report identifies the importance of making early decisions over whether a child should go into care while recognising that early intervention can enable parents to be given the best chance to bring up their children well.  We hope that the report will help practitioners and services to select and evaluate the impact of interventions and ‘ordinary care’ services on children’s mental health.

The full report and executive summary are available from both the NSPCC and Rees Centre websites.

  • Luke, N., Sinclair, I., Woolgar, M. & Sebba, J.  (2014) What works in preventing and treating poor mental health in looked after children? London: NSPCC/Oxford: Rees Centre.