11
Publications
Assessment and Care Planning
- Assessment and care planning: What’s important
A review of research over the past 10 years carried out by University of Bristol to get a better understanding of the links between the quality of assessments and outcomes for children. (Social work assessment of children in need: what do we know? Department for Education 2011) This resource summarises the key factors in assessment practice.
- My Social Care Journey
myView self-reporting has been developed for use by children and young people in initial children in need assessments to inform their plan, and subsequently to engage them in a continuous review of their ‘social care’ journey. This can include informing child protection reviews or Looked After reviews and ensuring that plans are co-produced.
Audio Computer Assisted Self Interviewing (ACASI)
- Using information technology to communicate about health and wellbeing
The evidence suggests that using computer-based questionnaires helps young people inform reviews and provides valid and reliable data about the wellbeing of children and young people who are looked after away from home. Young people may report circumstances that have not been raised before and provide health and other practitioners with opportunities to address individual needs.
- Experiences of using Viewpoint ACASI Open University
This study considers A-CASI’s use in two local authorities in England. It contrasts how the A-CASI methodology is experienced by children and young people and by child-care managers and explores how A-CASI may be contributing to the participation of young people in the delivery and management of their care. The study reveals a strong belief in A-CASI from a large number of participants, young people, and managers.
- Building Relationships with young people
The medium of the computer provides a method to understand a young person’s life and concerns. Computers can provide a neutral environment to engage children and young people. They provide an opportunity for expression and communication and can be particularly helpful to young people who find it hard to express their thoughts and feelings verbally.
- Using ACASI to facilitate consultation and participation
Asking questions electronically in a graphical and stimulating computer-based context seems to yield surprisingly rich and useful information from vulnerable children, whose views hitherto may have been hard to reach. This seems especially to be the case where the issues involved are seen by children as being sensitive or potentially embarrassing.
Child Development
- Social and Emotional Development
Social and emotional development is a child’s ability to experience, express and manage emotions, develop positive relationships with parents, caregivers and others, and explore their environment with curiosity. Research has consistently shown that children who develop a solid base of social emotional skills are more likely to achieve positive outcomes inside and outside school and better life outcomes.
- Pre-school child in difficulty
Much evidence has shown how effective intervention in preschool years can improve childhood noncognitive skills. Pre-school children are highly reactive to their environment. Social and family factors may be the most important influences bearing on the behaviour of young children.
Children with Communication Difficulties
- Picture Supported Assessment Tool
PicSat increases the capacity of young people with communication difficulties to communicate effectively about things that matter to them. It can be used to screen groups of young people and identify those with specific wellbeing needs. The resource enables young people with communication difficulties, to be genuinely included in planning the steps required to bring about positive change in their lives.
- What is it like to be a child with SEND? Achieving outcomes
The Guidance on ‘Area SEND Inspections: Framework and Handbook’ was introduced in January 2023. The inspections evaluate arrangements for all children and young people with SEND aged 0 to 25 including those who have an education, health and care plan (EHC) and who receive special educational needs (SEN) support. The focus is: What is it like to be a child or young person with SEND in the local area? The inspections will evaluate the experiences and outcomes of children and young people.
Participation
- Participation Wheel
A model showing the key factors underpinning children and young people’s effective participation in decisions that affect their wellbeing.
- Participation in Reviews
Feedback from young people and managers on the use of Viewpoint ACASI in reviews in two large authorities, examining effectiveness of information sharing and participation.
- Building self-efficacy: increasing confidence
Ensuring that young people contribute meaningfully to planning and decision making about their lives helps build self-efficacy. The most powerful source of self-efficacy is the experience of success in reaching self-defined goals. Research evidence shows that a young person’s ability to make choices about the activities he or she is involved in has a direct impact on their mood and well-being.
- Communication with children and young people
Good communication is central to working with children and young people. It helps build trust and is an important way of demonstrating respect. It is key to establishing and maintaining relationships. The medium of the computer provides a method to understand a young person’s emotional life and concerns, to enter the child’s world and to empathise with their predicament. The computer mediated environment provides a method to enhance communication with a young person. It is not an end in itself, it is a process. There is an interaction between the child or young person and the practitioner in which they work together to understand the child’s world through the process of ACASI.
- Improving participation of Children and Young People in care
This paper discusses a project in Western Australia designed to promote the participation of children and young people in decision-making. Audio Computer Assisted Self-Interviewing (A-CASI) was introduced as part of the regular care planning process to increase young people’s participation at both individual and collective levels. The project has revealed enthusiasm amongst young people for using A-CASI, and identified the opportunities it provides for workers and managers in the field.
- A child’s journey – achieving goals, building self-esteem
A young person can get caught up in the intensity of particular issues; it becomes difficult for them “to see the wood for the trees” Being helped to have a broader perspective is more likely to bring about long-term well-being.
- Building Participation - what works?
This document describes the key elements required in an organisation to build effective participation by children and young people in decision making. It can be used by managers and Participation Officers to review practice within an organisation.
Practice
- Nothing About Me without Me
Best practice guidance about creating plans together with young people so that they see their plans as a means to help them move towards important life goals.
- Solution Focused Practice
Solution Focused Practice is an approach that focuses on what people want to achieve rather than focusing on problems, difficulties, and things that are not going well. The approach focuses on the present and the preferred future. Viewpoint ACASI questionnaires used together with Reflective Practice and Appreciative Inquiry can support this process.
- Trauma Informed care
When working with young people who have experienced trauma, it is important to be aware of the ‘Five Guiding Principles’ of Trauma Informed Care.
- Solution Based Casework
This paper describes the basic tenets of Solution Based Casework. Solution Based Casework requires the development of plans that target skill development in everyday life events and the setting of objectives. Viewpoint questionnaires incorporate individual objectives and monitor the extent to which they had been achieved.
- Life Story
Losing track of the past can make it difficult for children to develop emotionally and socially. Many young people say they lack ‘life story’ photos and information. Children in care may have changed families, social workers, homes and neighbourhoods. Their past may be lost, much of it even forgotten.
Safety
- Safe and Settled: Looked After Children
An analysis of the views of Looked After Children in 24 local authorities. This identifies a significant minority of young people who do not feel both "safe and settled" and who report their experiences negatively. Viewpoint ACASI provides a valid and reliable means of making observations and judgements about the experiences of groups of looked after children.
- Safe and Settled: Analysis of Care Plan Reviews
This report is based on Care Plan Reviews in Australia. The dataset contains responses for 632 children in care aged between 11-15. The analysis focuses on children’s reports of feeling both safe and settled in care. First, an analysis of the factors that predict feeling safe and settled (SAS) in children is conducted, then the relationships between feeling SAS and various outcomes of interest, such as children’s health and wellbeing, are explored.
Social Pedagogy
- Social Pedagogy
- Viewpoint and Social Pedagogy
- Viewpoint Approach and Social Pedagogy
Social pedagogy provides a theoretical and practice framework for the Viewpoint approach. These leaflets provide information about social pedagogy and the way in which Viewpoint practice uses the framework.
Service Quality
- Measuring Service Quality
Service quality is best achieved through a clear focus on the needs of current and potential service users. It is the individual’s experience of a service that forms the basis for their assessment of service quality. This paper identifies the key factors that inform service quality.
- An interactive new-media tool for user satisfaction
This paper describes the development and application of an interactive, computer based system for consulting service users, particularly young people, and refers to the results from projects in which it has been used to determine service user satisfaction. The initial findings are that young people prefer to express their views using computer based systems, rather than being interviewed or required to fill out paper based questionnaires.
- Children’s views of services
With the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child a framework was set for encouraging children and young people to participate in decisions which affect their lives. 'Children’s views of services' summarises the conclusions and recommendations from research examining children and young people’s views and expectations of services.