The Care Trajectories and Nature of Care Received by Children Aged 5–11 Who Are in Need of Therapeutic Residential Care
A new research study has highlighted the unmet needs of some younger children (aged 5-11) who are looked after in Scotland.
The article, written by SCRA’s Research Manager Dr Catherine Nixon, draws upon interviews conducted with residential and foster carers to understand more about when and how residential care is used for younger children.
The research found that younger children who entered residential care often had complex trauma histories, with many having grown up in households characterised by parental substance misuse, domestic violence and poverty. Many of the children had experienced a lack of parental care, and had been physically, emotionally or sexually abused.
The study highlighted that many of the children were experiencing extreme distress and behavioural and mental health difficulties, and often did not have access to the therapeutic supports they needed. Foster carers were not always adequately equipped to provide appropriate care and support. This led to foster care placements breaking down, which in turn heightened the behavioural and mental health difficulties experienced by children. For some children lack of support and lack of services created a vicious cycle of placement breakdowns.
Dr Catherine Nixon said: “Behaviour is often an expression of unmet need in children, particularly when they lack the verbal skills necessary to communicate their needs. The level of distress being experienced by these children paints a disquieting picture of the impact that early exposure to violence and trauma can have on children’s development. It is clear from our study that foster carers were doing their absolute best to address the needs of these children, but lacked both support and access to specialist resources that could have potentially supported the child to remain living in foster care.”
The study highlighted that in the absence of community based supports, therapeutic residential care delivered in homely environments can be beneficial for younger children (age 5-11). These placements allowed for a team to be built around the child, and provided both the time and space required for children to recover from their experiences of trauma. It also provided children with access to therapeutic and mental health supports that could not be accessed within the community. This was either done through clinicians working directly with children, or through providing residential care staff with advice about how to manage the behaviours they were witnessing on a daily basis.
Alistair Hogg SCRA’s Head of Practice and Policy said: “Residential care is often viewed as a placement of last resort. This research challenges that view by demonstrating that therapeutic care, delivered in a relationship-based and trauma-informed manner by well trained professionals, can provide a period of stability and healing for children who have experienced significant trauma. It also highlights that there is a need to consider whether residential care should be used earlier within the care journeys of some children.”
Neil Hunter SCRA’s Principal Reporter/Chief Executive added: “Although this research focuses on the experience of younger children, the findings have wider implications for how we address the needs of the most vulnerable children in society. Many of the themes raised by this research reiterate the need for Scotland to Keep The Promise. This includes ensuring that children in care have better and more timely access to mental health services, and that the adults who are caring for them receive the appropriate support and training to provide trauma-informed and responsive care and that all decisions taken about the care of children are designed to minimise the harm that repeated breakdown of placements and ruptured relationships can cause to children.”
You can read the article in full here.