PROJECT DETAILS

Let’s Connect Fostering Communities

This protocol summarises plans for a pilot RCT study of Let's Connect, an intervention to improve mental health and wellbeing of foster and kinship families.

Status

/ In progress

Estimated completion

June 2024

Delivered by

Barnardo’s

Evaluated by

Coram

Key Figures

Local authorities 3

WWEICSC have commissioned Coram to conduct a pilot randomised controlled trial of the Let’s Connect programme in Hull, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire, which aims to improve the mental health and wellbeing of foster/kinship families. The programme is being delivered by Barnardo’s.

The Let’s Connect intervention is a support programme developed by Barnardo’s, based on the Copeland Centres Wellness Recovery Action Planning model (WRAP). Barnardo’s are delivering WRAP to foster/kinship communities, with the aim of improving the mental health and well-being of foster/kinship families. Sessions will be delivered to Foster Carers, Kinship Carers, Children in Care, and Birth Children in three different Local Authorities (Hull, North Lincolnshire, and North East Lincolnshire).

WRAP guides participants through the process of identifying and understanding their personal wellness resources (“wellness tools”) and then helps them develop an individualised plan to use these resources on a daily basis to manage their mental health and wellbeing. WRAP will be delivered to participants in the following group sizes:

  • Adults: three full-day sessions with a maximum of 16 participants per programme
  • Foster children: 10-week sessions with maximum of 8 participants per programme
  • Birth children: 10-week sessions with maximum of 12 participants per programme.

For more detail on the intervention, please see the Intervention Protocol

The evaluation of the Let’s Connect programme consists of three elements: a pilot impact evaluation, an implementation and process evaluation, and a cost analysis. For the pilot evaluation, Coram will explore the evidence of promise through a series of primary, secondary and exploratory questions. The primary outcome is foster/kinship carer wellbeing and will be measured using the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. Secondary outcomes include the well-being health of children (as reported by carers), carer peer support networks, carers’ family relationships, and placement stability. The implementation and process evaluation will focus on the evidence of feasibility, fidelity, acceptability, and readiness for a full-scale trial.

Let’s Connect will be a 15-month programme, running from April 2023 to June 2024. The report will be published in early 2025.