Mental health Mental and Behavioural Disorders
Conditions
Interventions
There are two study arms. One group (intervention arm) will attend the Reflective Fostering Programme alongside Usual Support and the other (control arm) will receive Usual Support only. Usual suppor
Sponsors
University of Hertfordshire
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: 1. The carer is currently fostering a child aged between 4 and 13 years 2. The child has been in this placement for at least 4 weeks 3. The care plan is for the child to remain in this placement for more than 4 months 4. The inclusion criteria are in place to ensure that the intervention targets carers of children in medium to long-term placements, rather than respite care or emergency placements
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Recruitment of foster carers in England and Wales specifies that they must have sufficient English language ability to engage with the child’s school and other services. For this reason, participating LAs have confirmed that they would expect no foster carers to be excluded on this basis. However, the process evaluation (see below) will include the number of potential participants excluded due to not meeting the language criteria, to check if this assumption is correct. The recruitment screening logs will also include this. Those with poor literacy will be supported through having a research assistant read questionnaires to them. 2. To ensure health inequalities are addressed, foster carers of any child with a disability (e.g. autism, developmental delay), and those currently caring for more than one child will be eligible to take part. If carers or the child in their care are currently receiving any other form of counselling or mental health support, this will not be a reason to exclude them from participating in the study. Attendance at the Reflective Fostering Programme is not designed to replace such usual support.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Emotional and behavioural difficulties measured using Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at baseline, 4 and 12 months | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| All measures will be collected at baseline, 4 and 12 months: 1. Caregiver functioning, the functioning of the child, and the level of stress in the caregiver-child relationship, measured using the Parenting Stress Index – Short Form (PSI 4-SF) 2. Carers’ capacity for reflective functioning in their caregiving role, measured using the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (PRFQ) 3. Compassion fatigue and burnout measured using the Professional Quality of Life Questionnaire 4. Carer’s view of a child’s emotional self-regulation and dysregulation, measured using Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) – Questionnaire 5. Achievement of carer's personalized goals in relation to the child, measured using the Carer Defined Problem Scale 6. Health-related quality of life measured using the Child Health Utility instrument (CHU9D), completed by the carer for use in cost-utility analysis 7. Service use in children in care, measured using Child and Adolescent Service Use Schedule, adapted (CA-SUS) 8. Changes of social worker, change of school or placement change and reasons for any change, recorded in Placement Stability Log | — |
Countries
England, United Kingdom
Outcome results
None listed