Evaluation of social pedagogy pilot programme in residential children's homes
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Summary
Social pedagogy is widely used in residential children’s services in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and elsewhere in Europe. It is a system of theory, practice and training that focuses on children’s ‘education’ in the broadest sense of the word. The government has committed to explore the effectiveness of social pedagogy in children’s residential care. This model is currently being piloted between 2009 and 2011 in children’s homes in England and the aim of this research is to evaluate the implementation and impact of the pilot programme. More specifically, the evaluation will:
- describe and compare the relative effectiveness of three different methods of implementing social pedagogy;
- compare the quality of care and outcomes for children and young people placed in homes served by social pedagogues with those for children in comparison homes which do not;
- investigate the factors that maximise the likelihood of successful adoption of a pedagogic approach and lessons learned during the course of the pilot programme;
- explore children’s, pedagogues’ and staff views on their experience of living and working in homes which employ social pedagogues.