CORC analyse mental health and wellbeing data and report findings. Our outcome measure analysis and reporting helps organisations understand the impact of their support and discover new insights from their data, based on understanding the specific needs and priorities of each service.
We aim to understand the extent to which children and young people’s care is helping them and how real-world evidence can support and improve child and youth mental health services.
This includes analysing change on outcome measures, breaking down results by areas/teams/demographic groups and comparing change with other organisations (benchmarking). We produce clear and understandable reports on complicated data, enabling discussions about the findings and how improvements can be made.
Outcome measure analysis
Our analysis and reporting enables organisations to:
Understand, demonstrate and celebrate the impact that different types of support are having on children and young people
Explore how support is helping different groups of children and young people, for example, gender or ethnic groups
Consider how the outcomes of their support compare with the outcomes of other organisations
Identify areas for further investigation and improvement
Benefits of CORC reports
CORC reports are designed to provide clear insights that can be readily absorbed and used in various ways to drive improvement:
CORC reports provide a clear, objective presentation of the findings from outcomes and experience data
CORC reports enable productive discussions with staff, service leads and commissioners about the findings and how improvements can be made
The findings from CORC reports can be used to engage service users and their families about the impact of support
The opportunity to benchmark against other organisations enables useful comparisons and discussions of possible reasons for differences
Our approach
We listen to the needs and priorities of each service to determine the most useful approach. We consider the outcomes measures used in a service, by whom, over which timeframe and how the data is captured (the system used and format of data). After reviewing the data we set out possible options for analysis. This includes the option to explore analysis of team, or pathway data (for example, 0-18 core CAMHS service, the eating disorder service, a particular project or intervention).
How do we report on outcome measures data?
We specialise in analysing data from outcome and experience measures completed by children, young people, parents, carers and professionals. This includes cleaning data, scoring measures, analysing change between time points and considering how meaningful these changes are.
Our analysis considers metrics of mean change between time points as well as reliable change. We report how likely it is that changes could be due to measurement error. Analysis can be broken down by demographics where this data is collected, for example by age, gender, ethnicity or geographic area.
1. Example analysis: mean change
2. Example analysis: individual changes
3. Example analysis: comparisons with other services
4. Example analysis: analysis by gender
How can CORC receive data?
Any data provided for analysis must be effectively anonymised in accordance with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) draft guidance on anonymisation, pseudonymisation and privacy enhancing technologies. As part of this, please ensure files do not contain any information from which people could be readily identified e.g. names, dates of birth, addresses, email addresses, NHS numbers.
Please note that we analyse change on measures that have been completed at time point 1 and time point 2 by 10 or more people. If this is not the case for a particular measure, we advise collecting more data at both time points before providing it for analysis.
When anonymised data are ready for submission, please contact CORC@annafreud.org. We will invite you to upload your data to a secure Data Transfer Portal, for which a guide can be accessed here.
Guide to uploading data to the Data Transfer Portal
How much does it cost?
Data analysis and reporting is available to full members of CORC and to other organisations on a costed basis.
For members, the approach and extent of analysis is agreed between the member and the CORC team. Please contact your Regional Improvement Officer to discuss your requirements and preferences.
Non-member organisations can contact CORC@annafreud.org for a quote. Work varies from simple analysis of change on a single measure (approximately £500 + VAT) to analysis of multiple measures, demographic breakdowns and comparisons across teams and areas or with data held by CORC.
We aim to work flexibly with organisations to produce any analysis or reporting in a timely way that meets their needs. However, if you would like us to work to fixed timeframes or deadlines, we ask for three months’ notice of that deadline, to enable lead-in on this request.
How to get started?
Contact us to discuss your needs with a member of the CORC team: CORC@annafreud.org
CORC Outcomes Spreadsheet
This template has been created by CORC to aid data analysis and interpretation. If you have any questions, please get in touch with the CORC Team at corc@annafreud.org.
Do you have a question that could be looked into using the CORC data set?
The Child Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC) dataset and Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) dataset (2011-2015) are held by the CORC Team. By submitting data, CORC member services consent for their data to be used for secondary purposes, including research.
We are keen to work with researchers and practitioners to explore the CORC data further, with a view to using the results to inform our members and the wider community of those supporting children and their families with mental health concerns. We encourage members and others to suggest research that uses the CORC data, to be carried out in collaboration with the CORC team. Where it makes sense to do so, we also consider research proposals for independent projects and can work with interns or students who are interested in conducting research using CORC data.
All research proposals need to be made in writing using this template. Proposals are assessed by the central team and put to the CORC management team. Please note, proposals are reviewed on a monthly basis. Please contact corc@annafreud.org for more information.
Request for use of CORC data set
Useful Links
CORC membership
Some of our membership options include data analysis support, to suit the needs of organisations and services operating across different sectors.
More info and to get in touch
Childhood Childhood First’s Deputy CEO reflects on the lessons from their CORC data analysis report
Read here
Working with Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (CAMHS)
Read here
A window into how services evolve, adapt, and ultimately improve the young lives of those they work with.