The impact of regulation and registration on residential childcare V1

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    The impact of regulation and registration on the residential childcare workforce: comparing England and Wales.

  • IRAS ID

    321407

  • Contact name

    Martin Elliott

  • Contact email

    ElliottMC1@cardiff.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Cardiff University

  • Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

    Registration with Research Registry, researchregistry8417

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 11 months, 30 days

  • Research summary

    Children facing serious challenges with their care and family circumstances may go to stay in children’s homes. Some people think that requiring staff to register with a national body responsible for overseeing the social care workforce may benefit both staff and the children in their care. However, we don’t know whether that is the case because it has not been fully researched. Currently, staff in Wales need to register but staff in England do not. Our study will look at whether requiring staff to register makes a difference by comparing the situation in Wales and England.

    Research questions:
    What do stakeholders (people who are involved in this subject) see as the reasons for having registration of staff working in children’s homes? (RQ1)
    What do children’s home workers in Wales think about having to register? And what do children’s homes workers in two regions of England think about the possibility of doing so? (RQ2)
    What are the registration experiences of staff starting to work in children’s homes (in Wales)? (RQ3)
    What do we need to know and do to study of the impact of staff registration on longer-term outcomes, including those of children and young people? (RQ4)

    In this study we will:
    talk to people in groups to develop a theory or explanation of how registration is understood to work.
    - survey residential childcare workers in Wales and two regions in England to find out how staff registration and regulation are understood and experienced.
    - talk to people (in interviews) starting to work in children’s homes in England and Wales.
    - think about what would be needed for a future study to consider the impact of regulation on outcomes.
    - tell people what we have found.

  • REC name

    HSC REC B

  • REC reference

    22/HCRW/0042

  • Date of REC Opinion

    16 Feb 2023

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion