Continuing Care for Children and Young People in Doncaster – a review of needs and services
In common with all areas of the country, local agencies in Doncaster are supporting and caring for a number of children with continuing care and complex needs.  Meeting their needs usually involves a partnership between a number of services and agencies.  Their families and siblings may also need help and support to enable them to maintain their own health and continue to care.
 
The main agencies involved in the care of these children in Doncaster were keen to improve the planning, co-ordination and quality of services for these children and their families but were hampered by the lack of both national guidance on continuing care for this group and local knowledge about their numbers and needs.  As a result, Acton Shapiro was commissioned to:
  • establish a clearer picture of the overall number of children in Doncaster with continuing care and complex needs and gain a better understanding of their needs
  • review current services for these children and suggest ways that services could be improved
  • develop guidelines that will help local health, education and social services work together. 

The project had two main elements:

Firstly - identifying the number of children with continuing care and complex needs, including:

  • applying nationally-available epidemiological data to the population of Doncaster to make estimates of the number of children with continuing care and complex needs locally
  • an estimate of the number of children currently known to each local statutory agency
  • a simple census of staff working in relevant roles
  • an extract of relevant (anonymised) data from the Together Information Exchange (TIE) database of over 200 local families who have registered with TIE
  • estimated and actual figures relating to specific services, provided by staff interviewed as part of the service review.

Secondly, a review of local services for children with continuing care and complex needs, including:

  • interviews with key professional and managerial staff from local health, education and social services
  • a postal questionnaire to parents of children with continuing care and complex needs completed about the services they received
  • workshops where parents and professionals could work together on issues and solutions.

In addition to the final report on this work, Acton Shapiro also prepared for the Steering Group a separate draft Continuing Care and Complex Needs Policy for Children and Young People.