Home > Recovery Programme > Outcomes
2007 2006 2005 2004Outcomes
Since 2004, SACCS has commissioned various studies and research into the short and longer term outcomes of the children in our care. Overtime this research has grown to our most recent independant longitudinal study on the long term recovery of traumatised children which will span almost 16 years of children we have cared for; the findings of which will be published January 2008.
To learn more about the research we have carried out, please click on the year(s) above.
Developing a '24 outcomes' based approach
Many of you will be working with children traumatised by abuse and neglect. Your first concerns are likely to be for the child's safety and protection, followed closely by their future development. However, without clarity around the desired outcomes of intervention, we may become overly focused on matters related to safety and the quality of provision, rather than the results of intervention for the child.
At SACCS, we work in a therapeutic framework with some of the most severely traumatised children in the UK. We put the child's recovery at the centre of our practice and have developed a specific approach to achieving outcomes, going far beyond the national guidelines in Every Child Matters.
The recovered child
Initially we defined what we expect a ‘recovered child' to look like, in other words what kind of abilities and capacities an individual child leaving SACCS would need to stand them in good stead for leading a positive and healthy life. This process generated what we know as the 24 outcomes of recovery, including concepts such as ‘when the child is able to make appropriate adult and peer relationships' or 'when the child is no longer hurting themselves or others'. Having identified these outcomes of recovery, we established the tasks needed to meet each outcome, and finally, how each task should be carried out. This work has resulted in SACCS having a clearly defined, measurable therapeutic approach to the treatment of traumatised children.
SACCS recovery assessment
Alongside the work on outcomes, we have created a recovery assessment which clearly measures each child's ongoing progress towards achieving the 24 outcomes. The full therapeutic circle is then completed when the recovery assessment establishes a strategy to help the child achieve specific tasks as part of their individual recovery plan.
The foundation degree
This whole process is supported by a comprehensive internal staff training programme based on the SACCS Recovery Model. Unique among care providers, we are proud to offer a foundation degree course in therapeutic child care for our residential care workers, currently being developed in collaboration with the University of Wales at NEWI
SACCS' success continues to be determined by outstanding work with severely traumatised children. The cornerstone of our approach is a clearly defined Recovery Model based on an outcomes-led approach which defines the therapeutic task, and an accurate model for assessing and measuring the child's progress towards recovery.
