eLearning: An introduction to residential child care
These elearning resources are freely available to all users and, through audio, video and interactive uses of technology, will provide the user with an engaging introduction to different residential care settings, the needs that children may have in care, young people's own concerns, interpreting and acting on children's behaviour, helping children meet the outcomes of 'Every child matters', key legislation and managing challenging behaviour.
All material in these resources, including text, graphics, photographs, video and audio is copyright of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), unless otherwise stated. Use of these resources, and import of the resources into learning management systems for educational purposes, is freely permitted, but commercial use of this learning resource is not authorised unless permission is first obtained from SCIE.
An introduction to residential child care
An interactive exploration of the fundamentals of residential child care.
Meeting the needs of children in residential child care
A series of practical activities and downloadable worksheets.
Managing challenging behaviour
An interactive exploration of the key aspects of challenging behaviour.
Who they are suitable forOpen
These resources are particularly suitable for staff new to this area, who may be residential child care frontline staff, direct carers, managers, providers, field social workers, advocates, independent visitors, inspectors, regulators and policy makers.
These resources may also be relevant to foster carers, commissioners, trainers and children, young people, parents and family members.
About the authorsOpen
Jonathan Stanley, Manager, National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC)
Jonathan has worked in maintained, non-maintained and independent sectors managing residential and associated integrated provision (education, care, health) for national resources addressing the learning, emotional, and social needs of young people. He has provided training and consultancy on a wide range of subject areas to audiences, both specialised and mainstream seeking to bring the learning from one area for use in another. Jonathan is the Manager of NCERCC, a major collaborative initiative to improve standards of practice and outcomes for children and young people in residential child care in England. NCERCC is a principal point of reference and facilitates dialogue across the whole residential sector of England. NCERCC works collaboratively with key stakeholders: providers, practitioners, commissioners, researchers, regulators, children and young people are involved it its work. NCERCC provides up-to-date information on significant policy, research and practice developments, opportunities to exchange and promote good practice, the means to highlight issues critical to the well-being and life chances of children in residential child care and access to practical tools and materials for service and practice improvement.
Mary Sainsbury, Practice Development Manager, Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
Mary Sainsbury is a registered social worker who is a practice development manager at the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). At SCIE, Mary has commissioned work on foster care, a SCIE guide on assessing the mental health needs of older people, and working with challenging situations in residential childcare. Mary has many years experience in social care, with people who have mental health problems and children and families.
SCIE would like to thank the following people and organisations:
1. Our peer reviewers: Dr Ruth Sinclair, David Berridge and Diane Marshall.
2. The professionals who took part in our user trials: Carl Simpson, Scott Olivey, Wendy Whitehead, Peter Little, Fred McKeating Colette Donnolly
Programming and graphic design by Cogapp Ltd.
SCORM Compliant versionOpen
If you are a member of staff from a Higher Education institution who would like to download the activity for use in a virtual learning environment (VLE),such as WebCT, Blackboard or Moodle you should use the SCORM compliant version above.
Please note that this resource was not designed to export any scores or track progress throughout the resource. Therefore, this resource can be imported into a virtual learning environment and freely accessed by users, but there will be no tracking or grading functionality.
This elearning resource has been designed to be accessible to the widest audience possible and reviewed for compliance to accessibility standards by the Digital Media Access Group at the University of Dundee. This page lists some of the features used to make the resources easier to use. If you are experiencing problems using the resources, or have any questions and comments about their accessibility, please let us know.
Using the resources without a mouse
All materials have been designed to be accessible using the keyboard. Use the Tab key to access navigational elements such as buttons and interactive diagrams. Pop-up windows with scroll bars can be accessed with the tab key, with the scroll-bar being operable via the up and down arrow keys.
Changing the appearance of the resources
If you need to adjust the way the resources appear, a Text Only version has been provided for each resource, allowing you to make changes to the resource's appearance through your browser. For example, you can use your browser to make the text larger, or change the font or colour of the text to suit your personal preferences. For more help on how to do this, visit the BBC's My Web My Way website
Accessing the resources with a screen reader
All resources have a narration of the main text. However if you use a screen reader, we recommend using the Text Only version for each resource. These provide broadly the same information and experience as the Flash version, but currently the nature of some features of the Flash resources mean that these features do not work as required in a screen reader