Talking Changes: Developing best practice in co-producing well-being outcomes with looked-after children in Wales

The project is designed to support and understand the implementation of the new Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 ('the Act') through a longitudinal, in-depth Action Research project.

The study investigates key features of the Act, namely co-production and outcomes focused care, and a key group for whom services need to be improved, namely looked after children. It was developed in close collaboration with Voices from Care, and care experienced young people will be actively involved in every stage of the project.

The research question is: how can social workers most effectively co-produce meaningful outcome measures with children and young people in care? The 'action research' study design simultaneously investigates, contributes to, and develops its subject with the intention of improvement during the research process.

The applicant will work closely with three children and families social work teams across Wales, with ten-12 social workers and two to three managers in each location (a total of 30-40 social workers and six-nine managers). Strand 1 is focused on identifying best practice in co-producing outcomes with young people.

This will be done through: a survey of local authorities and social workers across Wales to identify how they understand and use outcomes with young people; a mapping of training and support in Wales; a literature review regarding outcomes-based care and young people in care. Strand 2 involves collaborative work with the three teams.

The first stage will focus on understanding current practice and identifying positive examples of co produced outcomes. It will consist of three months of practice observation using ethnographic (i.e. observational theory development), qualitative unstructured and semi-structured interviews, and focus group methods to explore how organisation and practice cultures are adapting to the Act.

The applicant will carry out interviews and other forms of data collection with 30 looked after young people (aged six-18) allocated in these teams to generate rich, qualitative data regarding their views and experiences of outcomes-based care. After initial data collection, Strand 2 will combine sharing strengths and identifying areas for improvement in each team, using findings from the survey and the literature reviews to identify potential ways to improve the measures used or the process of co-production.

Teams will identify ways they wish to improve their practice in collaboration with the applicant. The final stage of Strand 2 will repeat much of the data collection processes from stage one to identify an in-depth picture of changes in practice and the way in which they influence experiences and outcomes for children, carers and social workers. The fieldwork will produce extensive qualitative data comprising: substantial volumes of field notes; 150 hours of interviews and practitioner focus groups.

This data will be coded through NVivo to generate emergent themes for analysis. Quantitative data produced will include survey responses and some coded content from qualitative analysis and will be analysed using SPSS. Other content produced includes the literature review, evaluation of outcome measures and mapping of national training and support.

Finally, Strand 3 of the project will produce reviews and practitioner guidance on both ways to measure outcomes and the process of co-production. The aim is for these to be co-produced and disseminated in partnership with care experienced young people.