Co-design in children’s residential care

A young woman in residential care shows her drawing of her ideal children’s home

In 2021, Essex County Council and Barnardo’s formed a ‘strategic partnership’, together with delivery partner AdoptionPlus. The aim was to identify how residential care can deliver the best care and support for Essex’s most vulnerable children.

Residential care is part of thousands of young people’s care journeys in the UK every year. There are 4 types of residential care:

• children’s homes
• short-break-only children’s homes
• residential special schools registered as children’s homes
• secure children’s homes

This project focuses on children’s homes.

Residential care can be a very positive experience. Caring and skilled residential professionals support children and young people to:

• heal from trauma
• build positive relationships
• develop life skills

Across the UK, local authorities struggle to find the right residential care at the right time for young people. The quality and perception of residential care is affected by a lack of local provision and privatisation.

Our task was to deliver design options that could start in the coming year. We also looked at longer term changes to the children’s social care system. Our proposals use evidence about what works, and are shaped by care experienced young people in Essex.

Illustration of the various stages of the project

Focus on changing the system to make a lasting impact

To change the system you need to think about the root causes of structural, society, and systemic disadvantage.

We focussed on systems change areas surrounding residential care such as:

• housing
• finance
• policing
• health

We involved experts from these areas from the start through research and co-design.

The project team covered a range of disciplines including design, service delivery, and participation.

Reflections from the project team and young co-designers on the approach

Approach the challenge from different perspectives

The project team built a close and supportive working relationship. Central to this was a design mindset.

For us, this means:

• Practise curiosity — Start with questions, not solutions. We wanted to understand the problems we were trying to solve, our ambitions for the project, and the scope of the work.
• Learn by doing — Test ideas. We gathered feedback on our analysis at large stakeholder events. We worked visually with small, specialised groups to refine our proposals.
• Accept ambiguity — Work reflectively. Co-design processes are sometimes unpredictable and unclear which can be challenging.
• Value perspectives — by working with a wide range of people to develop strong proposals.
• Negotiate constraints to develop a workable solution that addresses the core challenge. We discussed what the focus of the project should be, and how our proposals would need to fit with the council’s existing services.

A workshop with professionals from across Essex

Use a framework to process complex topics in a simple way

During the research phase we noticed some common themes emerging.

They became the EARTH framework:

• Environment — The physical home and the people who are part of it
• Agency — How young people are listened to and supported to do the things that matter to them
• Relationships — Young people’s relationships with staff, other young people, and important people in their lives
• Transitions — Moving into, between, and out of residential group care
• Health and wellbeing — Keeping physically healthy as well as mentally and emotionally well

EARTH helped structure our thoughts and communicate the findings with other people.

Illustration of the EARTH framework

Create an evidence trail

It was important for us to ensure our proposed new model for residential care was evidence-based. This meant we had to keep track of and communicate what we learnt from:

• 26 documents
• 32 care experienced young people
• 40+ professionals

We used a qualitative analysis tool called Dovetail.

Using Dovetail meant:

• we had a searchable database to refer to throughout the project
• we had an evidence trail to show that our proposals were valid
• everyone on the project heard and respected the voice of young people

Screenshot of Dovetail showing insights mapped against the EARTH framework

Include care experienced people

Our co-design sessions included 5 young people in residential care and 14 council professionals. We also had conversations with 3 young people remotely. We worked together to design elements of the new residential care model.

We were fortunate to have Katie-Lou, a care experienced young woman and activist, as an advisor and a facilitator.

She…

• shaped the co-design sessions
• judged when we needed to change approach due to dipping energy, triggering content, or safeguarding concerns
• put the young people at ease
• encouraged everyone to imagine how things could be different

We also had two colleagues in the main project team with personal experience of the care system. They brought an intrinsic level of care and empathy to the team.

Build a welcoming space so people can be creative

We invested energy in building trust and a sense of community.

Our priority for the co-design sessions was that everyone had a good time regardless of age and role.

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou

Each session started with arts and crafts to encourage creative expression.

We played games and always ended with everyone sharing a meal. We used props to prompt discussions, such as statements written on Jenga blocks and tags on a ‘wish tree’. We even held two sessions at an outdoor activity centre!

Group contract written by the co-design team

Shake-up power dynamics to unlock imagination

In co-design it is important to be mindful of how power can influence conversations. In our case, residential workers hold authority over the young people they support.

To help with this we:

• asked the residential workers to sit away from the group for some activities
• encouraged professionals to get involved with games and show vulnerability
• created a group contract for how we will work together
• let the young people make decisions about how the session ran

The group focussed on working on the themes of:

• making sure that residential workers have the right attributes
• maintaining relationships with those they care about outside of the home

A role play activity flipped the typical power dynamic on its head. The young people became the residential workers and the workers became young people.

The task was to act out ideal situations, yet the young people sometimes played authority figures as behaving unfairly. We realised that unlocking imagination takes time.

Involve everyone

Designers, involvement specialists, and guests with expertise in various areas, all participated.

We made sure everyone knew what to expect during our sessions.

Each person took a different approach.

Some people played games and others probed into the issues most relevant to their role.

Working with everyone meant we could explore aspirational and realistic ideas.

We found that the professionals who took part became advocates for the co-design approach.

The results

As designers it can be tempting to make something completely new. Sometimes, a small change can make a big impact. Our final proposals ended up being a mix of existing policy and practice.

The co-design element with young people created prototype tools.

The residential worker activity picker

This tool would let potential residential workers do activities with young people. Managers would consider feedback from young people as part of the recruitment process.

Prototype of the Residential Worker Activity Picker

Online job advert

Recruitment webpages that show what young people look for in a residential worker, in their own words.

Prototype online job advert

Guidance cards

These cards have statements about how a residential worker can support a young person. This would help maintain relationships with those they care about outside of the home. These can also be used as training tools.

Prototype guidance cards for residential workers

Thank you

A massive thank you to the young people who generously gave their time and shared their experiences. Thank you also to the project team for their passion and commitment — Joanne Alper, Henrietta Barkham, Katie-Lou Barnard, David Easterbrook, Rachel Fittall, Craig Horner, Jenny Humphreys, Natasha Morgan, Hannah Nichol, Liz Perfect, Irit Pollak, and Aida Van Der Pant.

We’d love to hear from other designers and professionals working to re-think residential care. Do these principles ring true to your experience? Drop us a message in the comments.

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