Looking SHARP!

10 January 2007

St Christopher’s unveils Specialist Homes Action Research Programme in three centres.

We have developed new ways of providing residential care to looked after children who have frequently presented as challenging. Our fresh approach has been to research and develop a programme of enhanced support to work alongside the high quality residential care already provided.

The Specialist Homes Action Research Programme (SHARP) is underpinned by a behaviourist approach, based on pro-social learning but with an openness to other research-based approaches to childcare that would assist in the care of individual young people. It aims to help young people with a history of breakdown in placements, those who haven’t settled in foster placements, for example, or those at risk of custody, or who have already been in custody.

This new approach to childcare in small research-based homes is at the forefront of residential childcare in the British Isles. It provides tailored treatment plans to address the specific needs of individual young people, rather than the traditional one-size-fits-all approach.

With funding from Futurebuilders, which provided significant start up funding including the purchase of a new home in London, and in-depth initial assessments of young people carried out by Royal Holloway University of London, SHARP homes are already operational in Bedford and the Isle of Man. The London home is due to be operational in the summer of 2007.

This innovative initiative is being evaluated by the University of Bristol. It is also constantly tracked and closely monitored by St Christopher’s, with a view to adapting and expanding this approach to other centres.