Trialing new mental health assessments for looked after children
CORC, alongside a group of other organisations has been awarded to trial new high quality mental health assessments, that ensure children are assessed at the right time, with a focus on their individual needs as they enter care. Statistics show that 62 per cent of looked after children are in care due to abuse or neglect, which can have a lasting impact on their mental health and emotional wellbeing. Currently half of all children in care meet the criteria for a possible mental health disorder, compared to one in ten children outside the care system.
CORC are providing support for the nine pilot sites across the UK to capture an holistic understanding of the mental health and wellbeing strengths, difficulties and needs of children in care. This support focuses upon using a mentalizing approach with the meaningful use of a suite of practice tools (outcome measures), capturing a range of relevant perspectives from across a children’s network, to form this understanding. Our support is for front line practitioners, project leads and Virtual Mental Health Leads to embed the pilot approach and capture the learning arising from it.