Information use project specification
The project aims to enhance the long-term quality of life for young people with care experience. Collecting and sharing relevant information about individuals will help to ensure they get the support that they need, for example in commissioning appropriate services. North Yorkshire puts relationships at the core of its work with young people, not least through listening to them. Information needs to reflect young people’s needs and wishes, so that they feel listened to and valued, and so that the most appropriate decisions are made. Those decisions also need to be informed by the expertise and knowledge of those who work with the young people every day. This project has a core commitment to strengthen their voices in and about collected information, as well as how that information is used. Young people will be involved in the ongoing research and project design.
Update on progress
In the second half of 2023 work in North Yorkshire moved beyond the discovery phase, and the first full round of data collection was completed. This work focused on the nature and availability of information about care leavers covering the eight domains identified during the discovery phase fieldwork. Following a workshop in summer 2023, the site project team, and research team collaboratively designed a series of research activities to understand more about care leaver data in North Yorkshire, and the integration of voice within data. Data collection activities included observations of interactions between personal advisors and care leavers, exploration of case records and a series of interviews and focus groups with representatives of data teams and the care leaving services. The fieldwork culminated in a wreath making workshop and focus group with care leavers in December 2023.
Of the eight domains identified in the discovery phase, the further research has ascertained that four are already reasonably well defined, recorded and analysed in the existing dashboards. Although they could be refined. The remaining four (physical health; wellbeing; 'safe' risktaking; financial preparedness) are largely absent from the existing dashboards, so the project will increase its focus on these aspects.
The embedded data analyst has also been working on mapping data between case records, and local data dash boards, and national administrative datasets. This mapping has been constructed around the eight domains referred to above.
Plans for next year
The learning from the fieldwork carried out in late 2023 will be compiled, and the Sussex based research team have an analysis day scheduled in early February. The team will also be linking with other pieces of work in North Yorkshire, specifically the collaboration between North Yorkshire and Coram I focused on reimagining data. A meeting has been scheduled for early February. Following these scheduled events, a detailed plan for the next twelve months will be co-produced.
Connections are also being made with other research and local projects focused on care leavers, and the 2024 plan will include work to move the focus from internal to external areas of potential influence. As detailed above 2024 will also see the introduction of closer working between the two sites (North Yorkshire and Hampshire) focused on children’s social care.
“NYC is looking forward to the next phase of the research project in 2024 as we continue to work with our care leavers and the research team to explore what data is collected and how this can be improved and used more effectively by us and the young people in order to enable them to embrace and live their best life”.
The team
The research team work flexibly across sites however Prof. Lisa Holmes, Dr Perpetua Kirby and Dr Caitlin Shaughnessey are key members of the team working with North Yorkshire. In the site, key team members include Sam Clayton, Maggie Allen, Nicki Watkinson, David Gillson, Chris Houghton plus many more.
