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The mental health of care experienced young people is a public health priority, with these individuals more at risk of experiencing poor mental health. While most mental health interventions have previously been delivered in-person, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic many services were forced to change to a digital or blended format. While digital methods have been of great research interest, to date there has been scant research investigating the use of these methods with care experienced young people. The objective of this study was to explore the viewpoints of professionals who had experience of delivering digital mental health support to this group. A qualitative research design was employed, with ten semi-structured interviews conducted and analysed using a grounded theory approach. Themes relating to the move to online working, ensuring privacy and confidentiality online and accessibility of digital methods are discussed, as well as professionals’ intended method of future service delivery. Professionals were cautious to remove all in-person work with care experienced young people but were optimistic that, by providing an option to work digitally, there was the potential to provide services to a whole new group of service users who had previously been unable to access help.

The Coronavirus pandemic and its associated lockdowns and restrictions prompted a move from face-to-face interactions to remote forms of engagement that relied on telephone or online contact. This had consequences for the type and frequency of mental health and wellbeing services and interventions that were available to care-experienced children and young people and their foster and kinship carers. \ud\udThis report presents the views and experiences of online mental health and wellbeing provision among young people, carers, and health and social care professionals in Wales during the Coronavirus pandemic. Data were produced in online qualitative interviews with 23 participants, including care-experienced young people (n=3), the biological child of a foster carer (n=1), health and social care professionals (n=9), and foster and kinship carers (n=10). The participants discussed the strengths and challenges of online and in-person services and offered recommendations for future practice and interventions. \ud\udOnce the interview data was generated and analysed the project team met with three advisory groups to discuss the findings of the study and refine the recommendations for policy and practice. These meetings involved foster and kinship carers (n=10) who were members of The Fostering Network’s All Wales Foster Carers’ Advisory Forum, which is facilitated by The Fostering Network in Wales, care-experienced young people (n=4) who were part of CASCADE Voices, and young people (n=4) who were members of The Fostering Network in Wales Young People’s Care Forum. \ud\udThe findings from the study noted some benefits of online mental health and wellbeing services and interventions for care-experienced children and young people, including accessibility, privacy and being able to engage or disengage remotely without the pressures of face-to-face interactions. However, accessibility, a lack of privacy and the format of online interactions were also cited as some of the challenges of remote forms of contact. Therefore, the advantages and disadvantages of online versus in-person contact were complex and intertwined.\ud\udThis complexity reflects the important point that care-experienced children and young people are not a uniform group. Rather, care-experienced young people need to be seen as individuals and to be afforded a choice about the provision of health and wellbeing interventions that best support their particular needs and requirements. \udThe report offers recommendations in six key areas, research; training; awareness and access; resources; choices and flexibility; safety, and protection and risk. The findings of this report aim to support improvement of both remote and face-to-face services and interventions to support the mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people as we move beyond the restrictions of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs) in the UK are licensed to deprive young people referred to them by court of their liberty. Young people placed in SCHs are either sentenced or on remand through the justice system or placed due to local authority concerns that a young person is a serious risk to themselves or others. At present SCHs lack sufficient capacity to provide a place for all young people referred to them for welfare reasons. When this happens, local authorities must provide an alternative accommodation that meets the young person’s needs and keeps them safe. With little knowledge of the experiences of young people from England who receive a secure order for welfare reasons, this study set out to explore and compare similarities and differences between the journeys and outcomes of young people placed in SCHs and those housed in an alternative accommodation.