A new national resource designed to help commissioners and service leaders improve mental health support for children and young people in care has been launched at a well-received webinar hosted by the UK Trauma Council. Shaping Futures Together – a free, three-module e-learning package – aims to support evidence-based, collaborative decision-making across health and social care.
The resource is the latest major output from the ADaPT project, funded by PenARC alongside ARC North East & North Cumbria, ARC West, and ARC North Thames. Developed with input from more than 100 commissioners and decision-makers from Integrated Care Boards and local authorities across England, the modules also draw on the lived experiences of care-experienced young people.
The launch event brought together findings from the ARC-funded national recommendations report with the introduction of the new e-learning. The panel conversation, chaired as part of the Anna Freud Centre’s UK Trauma Council Insight Series, featured Professor Rachel Hiller (University College London), Professor Pasco Fearon (University of Cambridge) and Shaunna Devine, a care-experienced advocate and researcher at Liverpool John Moores University.
Public Health Specialist Jo Lewitt, from Devon County Council, attended the webinar and described it as an outstanding example of the value of applied research for frontline practice:
“As I left the webinar… I typed into the chat that it was the ‘best webinar I’d ever attended’. I wondered if I was being too dramatic, but I noticed that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way”.
She highlighted the accessibility, clarity and relevance of the new resources:
“The resources that were being launched are free and easy to access and download. They have been developed through examination of the research and evidence-base and the developers have consulted with children and young people as well as commissioners and decision-makers…The work was a good example of how research and academia can be applied, relevant and practical for people working in the field.”
Shaping Futures Together joins a portfolio of co-developed e-learning, training videos and animated resources produced through the ADaPT project. These materials are freely available via the UK Trauma Council and at childtraumaresources.com.