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CORC is attempting to progress outcome evaluation in CAMHS in the following ways:
- by encouraging member services (and others) to use an agreed common set of measures to routinely evaluate outcome from at least three key perspectives (the child, the parent/carer and the practitioner) and to collaborate together to refine the protocol and approach in the light of experience.
- by supporting the collation of information on outcomes from member services so that it can be analysed centrally, in such a way as to help services reflect on their practice in comparison with baseline and other norms.
- by helping services share information about outcomes in their service in an appropriate form, and by providing guidance as to interpretation, so that it can be shared and explored meaningfully with all stakeholders as relevant.
- by working with services to help ensure they make use of the information derived in this way to inform and develop good practice.
- by providing advice to policy makers and implementers as to the best ways outcome evaluation can be used to inform service development, given current limitations and opportunities.
- by supporting the dissemination and future refinement of the National CAMHS Dataset, to ensure all services are collecting comparable information.
The current protocol is briefly as follows. More detail about the protocol itself can be found here
The current core measures are the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for the parent and child perspective, Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) Experience of Service Questionnaire (ESQ) for the parent and child feedback on the service, the Children’s Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) and the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents (HoNOSCA) for the practitioner’s perspective, and The Goals Based Outcomes Measure (GBO). In addition, more specific measures are currently being piloted which can be used to supplement these.
These measures are taken at two points:
| SDQ | completed by parents and child before they are first seen or during the first meeting |
| CGAS or HoNOSCA | completed by practitioner after the first meeting |
| Goals | completed by practitioner following discussions with the child and family (ususally within first 3 meetings) |
| Teacher SDQ | completed as soon as possible after first contact with the child |
| SDQ | completed by parents and child at 6 months after first meeting (no less than 4 months or more than 8 months) |
| CGAS or HoNOSCA | completed by practitioner at 6 months after first meeting or at end of contact if this is sooner |
| Goals | completed by practitioner at 6 months after first meeting or at end of contact if this is sooner |
| CHI-ESQ | completed by parents and child at 6 months after first meeting or at end of contact if this is sooner |
| Teacher SDQ | completed as close as possible to 6 months after the first Teacher SDQ |