2009 -2011, pilot in English residential child care homes

 Update on the DCSF funded pilot programme of Social Pedagogy in Children’s Residential Care in England:

Updated 2nd February 2010

The pilot programme investigating the impact of a social pedagogic approach in children's residential care has been running for 16 months. The development part of the project is being run by Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) Insitute of Education University of London and the evaluation, which began in November 2009, is being completed by teams at the Universities of Bristol and York.

Local authority children's homes in London, Hampshire, Bournemouth, Dudley, Blackburn and Darwen, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Surrey, Liverpool and Lancashire are taking part, as are private and voluntary sector providers Quarriers, Ingleside, Appletree, Lioncare, St Christopher's and Break.

34 Social Pedagogues have been recruited, with only a few vacancies to fill. The first appointments began on 1 June and are continuing. The recruitment process was ably facilitated by Jacaranda Recruitment.

A programme of training and support is in place for the managers and staff in the children's homes and for the social pedagogues. This includes: access to a project officer via telephone and email; a web platform for exchange of ideas and experiences; review visits, reflective sessions with staff groups, specialist workshops for managers and networking events.

In 2010, the team is developing conferences and workshops for children's services practitioners beyond children's residential care, raising awarenss of and skills in social pedagogic theory and practice.

The experience of the pilot so far is that learning about social pedagogy can happen in many ways from late night conversations on shift about the value of 'reflection' to in-house staff training designed and led by social pedagogues, to group networking and formal seminars.

The TCRU team consists of Claire Cameron, Aleaxandra Jasper, Stefan Kleipoedszus, Pat Petrie and Valerie Wigfall. They are contactable by email ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )  

 What happened so far:

 Autumn 2009

The DCSF Pilot Programme is now well underway:

•  Local authority children's homes in London, Hampshire, Bournemouth, Dudley, Blackburn and Darwen, Staffordshire, Cheshire, Liverpool and Lancashire are taking part as are private and voluntary sector providers Quarriers, Ingleside, Safeguarding Children's Services, Appletree, Lioncare, St Christopher's and Break

• 26 Social pedagogues have been recruited, with just a few vacancies remaining to fill

• The first appointments began on 1 June and will continue through the summer

• The recruitment process was ably facilitated by Jacaranda Recruitment

• Participants who face further staff vacancies in 2009 may contact the TCRU team to discuss further recruitment of social pedagogues

• The evaluation tender is going out shortly; it is anticipated that the team will be in place by Autumn 2009

• Two regional events have taken place for children's homes managers

• One induction week for Social Pedagogues has taken place and another is scheduled

 The Care Matters implementation plan, Care Matters: Time to deliver for children in care, published jointly with the DCSF, the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS), the Local Government Association (LGA) and others, on 26 March 2008, is the culmination of a rich and powerful dialogue that began with the Care Matters Green Paper and was subsequently taken forward in the White Paper.

• See Social Pedagogy pilots on page 13 of the Care Matters implementation plan

• See DCSF press release

Implementation of the Care Matters White Paper – Detailed Action Log, published jointly by HM Government and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services and the Local Government Association on behalf of the Children’s Inter-Agency Group. This paper supplements the implementation plan Care Matters: Time to deliver for children in care. It aims to provide a detailed log of each of the commitments set out in the Care Matters White Paper, published in June 2007, with a date for implementation and a description of how each action is being taken forward. The log frequently refers to parts of the statutory and regulatory framework. 

• See initiative to pilot a programme to evaluate the effectiveness of social pedagogy in residential  care on chapter 3, point 18, page 11 of the Detailed Action Log
  

The deadline for those parties interested to tender for a DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A PILOT PROGRAMME TO DETERMINE THE IMPACT OF A PEDAGOGIC APPROACH WITHIN ENGLISH RESIDENTIAL CHILDREN'S HOMES - DCSF Ref: GO 08032710/01 - passed on 12 May 2008.

Many children's homes, across the country, applied to participate in the DCSF Pedagogy Pilot Programme that is being implemented by the Thomas Coram Research Unit.  The TCRU team was very pleased with this response and had the difficult task of selecting participants.  They were looking at a range of criteria for including homes.  For example, getting a balance between public, private and voluntary sector homes and looking at geographical considerations, so as to facilitate occasional meetings between pedagogues.

The TCRU team visited applicants on a long short list and applicants were informed about decisions in Spring 2009. Those not included will be kept in touch with progress on the pilot.  They will be invited to dissemination events and there will be opportunities to discuss options for staff to access pedagogy training and education, and for recruiting pedagogues directly.

It was anticipated that approximately 30 children’s homes will participate in the pilot project. It was further anticipated that the study will involve some Social Pedagogues already working in the UK as well as the recruitment of approximately 60 Social Pedagogues from Germany and Denmark.