Assessing effectiveness of two service transformation projects in Community Forensic CAMHS and the Secure Estate
CORC has been working alongside colleagues in the Evidence Based Practice Unit (EBPU) and the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families (AFNCCF) who have been commissioned by NHS England to evaluate the effectiveness of two Workstream Projects within the Health and Justice and Specialised Commissioning Children and Young People Mental Health Transformation Workstreams. These are being implemented across England as part of the Children and Young People Mental Health Transformation Programme in response to Future in Mind and the Five Year Forward View.
The projects involve collecting data from staff, children and young people and parents/guardians from 13 specialist services provided by Community Forensic Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (F:CAMHS) and 19 secure settings across the Children and Young People Secure Estate (SECURE STAIRS).
The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of the new Community F:CAMHS service model and the Framework for Integrated Care through a combination of collecting routine service information alongside feedback from children and young people, parents/carers and the staff working in these settings.The first question we want to explore is whether children and young people engaged with Community F:CAMHS and SECURE STAIRS are receiving care where there has previously been gaps in services in a cost effective way, as the findings from the evaluation will feed into commissioning decisions.
These are three-year funded evaluations during which time we will report to NHS England and aim to disseminate our findings after the close of the evaluation, in 2021. CORC is really pleased to be involved and to share learning in what we are sure are very interesting and worthwhile projects.