The NEST Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Nurturing Environments for Shaping Trauma-informed care and recovery in homes for cared for children: A Realist Co-production Study
IRAS ID
337194
Contact name
Sarah Parry
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 4 months, 2 days
Research summary
What is the challenge?
Young people entering the care system have often experienced multiple traumas and loss. Entering the care system itself can be traumatic as a child is removed from the care of people they know and placed in an unfamiliar and unpredictable environment. Of the nearly 84,000 children in care in England, the 10,818 young people in one of 3,119 homes for cared for children are some of the most vulnerable in society. The number of homes for cared for children has increased year on year since 2019, with over a quarter of placements located in Northwest England.What can be done?
Trauma-informed care is an approach that understands and responds to the impact of trauma for a person. Trauma-informed practice aims to provide physical and emotional safety for both the young person who has experienced trauma and their carers to create opportunities to rebuild a sense of safety, empowerment, and form safe relationships to support a fulfilling future. If children who have experienced many adversities do not experience safety in relationships during youth, the risks of exploitation, revictimization and poor health outcomes remains high. Unfortunately, due to a lack of clinical guidance and governance, there are no agreed standards for delivering trauma-informed care specifically in homes for cared for children. Suitable guidance could be developed through collaboration with young people and stakeholders, leading to a new trauma-informed care resource for use in practice.What will we do?
In this project, we will co-design and pilot a trauma-informed intervention toolkit across six homes for cared for children in the Northwest. The toolkit will provide clear guidance for staff training, trauma-informed supervision, trauma-aware care, and organisational governance to embed trauma-informed thinking into each element of a home’s operations. The project has the potential to enhance service quality and improve outcomes for young people, staff, and care providers.How will we do it?
Firstly, we will bring together existing information from the evidence base for trauma-informed care for young people to look at what works. Secondly, we will hear stories from experience from young people and staff in the children’s homes. Learning from these two activities will help us develop the new trauma-informed care intervention toolkit especially for use in homes for cared for children.This trauma-informed care intervention toolkit will be piloted across the homes over 12 months. Information from the staff and children will help us understand the impact of the intervention for positive change. Finally, we will share the resulting toolkit and research findings with care providers, local authority commissioners, and policy makers to promote system wide reflection, to raise standards, and increase the transparency of trauma-informed care. We will then develop a larger-scale project to test the intervention across a greater range of care providers, offering new opportunities for sector wide learning, development, and improvements in care in homes for cared for children.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/NW/0021
Date of REC Opinion
10 Apr 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion