This is the second in a series of research reports from the new economics foundation’s (nef) Measuring What Matters programme. It argues that, while good residential care services can still be found behind the dramatic headlines about ‘failing’ care homes, the best work in this area going unnoticed or has been undermined by a preoccupation with inappropriate performance targets and cost cutting.

The study used the concept of Social Return on Investment (SROI) to examine closely how young people are benefiting from the work of two of the UK’s well-regarded care homes – Bryn Melyn Care Ltd and Shaftesbury Young People. In applying this form of analysis to residential care, nef found that policy-makers are putting some of society’s most vulnerable young people at even greater risk of exclusion because they are failing to grasp the benefits that high-quality care homes bring to children and to wider society.

The report can be downloaded from the nef website.