CAMHS Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC)

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services Outcomes Research Consortium  

www.corc.uk.net
The CAMHS  Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC) is a collaboration between child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) across the UK with the aim of instituting a common model of routine outcome evaluation and analysing the data derived. Over half of all services in England are now members, with members also in Scotland, Wales, Norway and Sweden. There are now over 70 collaborating services within the consortium.

CORC central team:

CORC Lead and Data Analyst: Dr Andrew Fugard
CORC Senior Research Officer: Jenna Bradly
CORC Research Officer: Dion Terrelonge
CORC Research Officer: Young People’s Participation: Samantha Murphy
CORC Research Assistant: Emily Stepley
CORC Data Assistant: Harriet Hockaday
CORC Data Assistant: Charlotte Wray

CORC board and committee:

Julie Elliott
Tamsin Ford
Evette Girgis
Duncan Law
Alison Towndrow
Miranda Wolpert
Ashley Wyatt
Ann York

History of CORC

CORC started in 2002 as a joint initiative between five founding services (Bedfordshire & Luton; Leeds; Enfield, Barnet & Haringey; Tavistock & Portman; and Hertfordshire), and was from the outset a collaboration between front-line clinicians, managers and administrative leads in member services. With support from the National CAMHS Support Service (NCSS) and facilitation from the National Institute of Mental Health England (NIMHE), CORC opened to wider membership in April 2004.

Aims of CORC

To develop and support the dissemination of a model of routine evaluation of outcome that can be used across a range of services
To help put in place systems to allow the data obtained to inform service providers, commissioners, users and other relevant stakeholders within all collaborating service sites
To collate the data from all CORC members (appropriately anonymised), in order that this can be analysed centrally and the results shared within service area
To collaborate in using outcome information to inform and develop good practice.

CORC Mission Statement

CORC aims to foster the effective and routine use of outcome measures in work with children and young people (and their families and carers) who experience mental health and emotional wellbeing difficulties.
It aims to do this through collaboration with its members, academic consultants, and learning partners; sharing ideas and good practice in order to:
Develop usable and effective models of routine outcome measurement
Promote and encourage the use of routine outcome measurement as an integrated part of any organisation working with child mental health and emotional wellbeing
Develop ways to meaningfully interpret the outcomes data
Use outcomes data to encourage learning and improve practice in work with the individual child, young person, their family and carers.  As well as to encourage learning and improve practice at the level of: practitioner, team, organisation, and policy.

What are the benefits of being part of CORC?

Membership of a network of other CAMHS services who will be working on similar implementation issues, with whom problems and solutions can be shared
There is an Implementers’ Group, which meets several times a year to discuss issues and share best practice arising from their experiences of maintaining and developing the CORC protocol within their service
A twice yearly Members’ Forum provides an opportunity for sharing experiences and learning. Members have said they find that these meetings very helpful in providing opportunities to further their understanding of outcome evaluation in CAMHS and to link and learn from others across the country
Access to materials and support from the CORC Central Research Team, who seek to help facilitate networking and collaboration across the consortium to the mutual benefit of members
Yearly outcome reports for member services based on their service’s data and those of all CORC members, drawing where possible on community and other relevant samples
Access to protocols and tools for routine evaluation in line with DH guidance and in preparation for what might be required for future mapping exercises
Access to the latest academic advances and policy thinking in this area
The opportunity to influence and inform national developments in this area
All CORC dataset comprising of data from 61,000 episodes of care, from 41 collaborating members, which is growing all the time.

CORC Current Members

2gether NHS Foundation Trust
5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust
Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
The Anna Freud Centre
Association of Child Psychotherapists
Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust
Bedfordshire & Luton Community NHS Trust
Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust
Birmingham Children’s NHS Trust
Bolton Hospital NHS Trust
Bradford District Care Trust
Bromley PCT
BUP Stockholm (Stockholm Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)
Calm Spaces
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Camden PCT
CAMHS, South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
CCATS Coastal Child & Adolescent Therapeutic Service
Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s Hospital NHS Trust
Chesterfield & North Derbyshire Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
City & Hackney PCT
Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Partnership Trust
Children’s Primary Mental Health (Cornwall)
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust
Croydon Social Services & Croydon PCT
Cumbria Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust
Cwm Taf NHS Trust
Derbyshire Mental Health Services NHS Trust
Doncaster
Dorset Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
East Lancashire CAMHS
East London NHS Foundation Trust
Greater Glasgow & Clyde NHS Boards Yorkhill Division
Hackney Children’s Social Care
Hampshire County Council Social Services
Herefordshire Primary Care Trust
Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust
Hull Children and Young People’s Services
Kent
Leeds PCT
Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust
Lincolnshire Partnership Trust
Milton Keynes Specialist CAMHS
North Bristol Trust CAMHS and Community Child Health Partnership
North Essex Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (CAMHS)
North Somerset
North West Cluster
Norfolk CAMHS
Norfolk and Waverney Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Northamptonshire Teaching Primary Care Trust
Norway Health Authority
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (CAMHS)
Nottinghamshire County Teaching PCT
Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
The Place2Be
Plymouth NHS
Sheffield Children’s NHS Trust
Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust
Staffordshire & Shropshire
Suffolk Mental Health Partnership Trust
Surrey County Council
Swindon & Marlborough NHS Trust
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust
Wakefield PCT CAMHS
Walsall Teaching Primary Care Trust
West London Mental Health NHS Trust
Wolverhampton CAMHS