Improving Educational Outcomes for Children Looked After at Home: Use of 'Improvement Methodology'

Year: 2014
Topic: Education, Residential care
Author: Alison Hennessy, Graham Connelly

We have been working with a number of local authorities throughout Scotland using ‘Improvement Methodology’ to improve educational outcomes for looked after children.

Improvement Methodology works on the principle of applying and studying small changes which can be tweaked until improvements can be measured.

A ‘test of change’ is carried out by implementing Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycles. Here we introduce the use of the methodology in this context, and share the experiences of City of Edinburgh Council, which was the first local authority to take part in this work.