Gilbert, Abigail;
(2023)
A Complex Systems Perspective Regarding the Support for Children Looked After in Schools in England.
Doctoral thesis (D.Ed.Psy), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Despite targeted investment and policy development over the past 20 years, outcomes for ‘children looked after’ (CLA) by local authorities remain disproportionately poor when compared to peers outside of the care system. Designated teachers (DTs) and virtual schools (VS’) have statutory positions within systems of support for CLA and are responsible for promoting the educational outcomes of CLA, a core function of their roles being the facilitation of effective joined-up working between education and social care. The purpose of this study was to apply a complex systems theory framework to illustrate multi-agency practice within the systems of support for CLA, investigating how these systems function and highlighting challenges and facilitating factors for effective joined-up working. A mixed methods exploratory design with a case study element was used to yield data from national online surveys with DTs (n=307) and VS staff (n=56), and six semi-structured interviews with DTs (n=3) and VS staff (n=3) from a single local authority context. At the start of interviews, a network mapping activity took place to produce sociograms. These are graph databases that depict relationships among individuals in a network. Thematic and social network analysis were used to analyse case study data and descriptive statistics were used to analysis survey data. Findings illustrate how the systems of support for CLA are complex. Emergence of macro-level behaviour such as collaboration and a child-centred approach can be attributed to the dynamic interactions of micro-level components including the availability of individuals, the consistency of individuals, and core functions of the DT and VS roles. It is also concluded that Educational Psychologists can have a place in these systems but this should be on a case-by-case basis.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | D.Ed.Psy |
| Title: | A Complex Systems Perspective Regarding the Support for Children Looked After in Schools in England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10180819 |
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