NEW: The Kinship Care Practice Guide translates the strongest evidence into actionable recommendations. Find out more.
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NEW: The Kinship Care Practice Guide translates the strongest evidence into actionable recommendations. Find out more.
This protocol summarises plans for a systematic review to explore and understand the different types of befriending and mentoring models that exist for children and young people up to the age of 25, who are care experienced, considered at risk of being placed in care, or at risk of poor developmental outcomes.
Mentoring and befriending interventions are widely used across the UK, and international evidence has found these programmes to be effective across a range of outcomes and relatively diverse programme samples. However, there are wide variations in UK practice on how befriending and mentoring are conceptualised and delivered, and programmes vary significantly in delivery, intended outcomes and social benefits. Despite support for mentoring and befriending approaches in UK policy, there remains a need to systematically synthesise the evidence base.
Foundations has commissioned Liverpool John Moores University to carry out a systematic review focused on mentoring and befriending models which exist for children and young people up to 25 years old, who are care experienced, considered at risk of being placed in care, or at risk of poor developmental outcomes. The review will consider how effective mentoring and befriending interventions are for different groups, identify practice and intervention components that lead to successful mentoring/befriending relationships, and identify barriers and facilitators to implementation.
The review will inform the development of a Practice Guide that will present the best-known evidence on mentoring and befriending interventions for children and young people.
