Welcome to February’s edition of the CordisPulse – a monthly digest of key research and policy developments across the sectors in which Cordis Bright provides research and consultancy services, i.e. adult social care and health, children and young people's services, and criminal justice.

This month’s Pulse highlights that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has reached Report Stage. The Bill contains a number of strands of work, with the proposal to cap the profits of some children’s care placements gaining a lot of attention. The cap is unlikely to address one of the key problems in the sector which is a lack of places. As a result, our focus has been on helping local authorities and their partners identify how to best expand children’s homes places.

Examples of this include:

• Needs assessment to help understand levels and demand for a new children’s home.
• Needs assessments on specific cohorts of children, especially those with multiple and complex needs, which help to understand where new provision might be needed but also how to reduce demand for residential care in the long-term.
• Research for independent sector providers of children’s services on where and how to best expand provision.
• Research on models of children’s residential care, especially focused on generating accessible summaries on the level and nature of impact.

To find out more about this aspect of our work, see our children's services page.

To download a copy of the Pulse, click below.