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The CAMHS Referrals and Outcomes for Adolescents and Children with Social Workers Study (COACHES)

The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Referrals and Outcomes for Adolescents and Children with Social Workers (COACHES) study (NIHR134922) was a four-year, mixed-methods research collaboration between the University of Cambridge, Kingston University, King’s College London, the Care Leavers Association, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and the British Association of Social Workers. 

Led by Prof Robbie Duschinsky from the Child Health and Development Group, University of Cambridge, this co-produced study examined Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) access and effectiveness of provision for children and young people with social work involvement.

This study has drawn on administrative data from the CRIS and CRATE databases from South London and Maudsley and Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust respectively. The qualitative components of the study have drawn on clinical case notes and interviews with young people with both CAMHS and social work involvement. 

This project has received substantial media coverage including from Sky News, the BBC, LBC radio and the Big Issue. The research findings have also had an impact on policy. The Call for Change Report, based off COACHES findings around children and young people with a social worker’s unequal access to CAMHS was launched in the Children’s Charities Coalition campaign including NCB, Barnardo’s, Action for Children, NSPCC, The Children’s Society. COACHES research informed the passage of the bill through Parliament resulting in a commitment from Government to update the statutory guidance relating to looked after children and their mental health in the forth-coming Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act.

Our findings have fed into the UK Trauma Council’s recent recommendations to improve mental health provision for children and care. One of the key recommendations was for all local areas to establish a co-located mental health service between children’s social care and CAMHS, commissioned to provide both direct and indirect evidence-based support. The Education Select Committee published its report following their inquiry into children’s social care, citing this recommendation and reflecting it in their own conclusions which have led to a £6M regional pilot for co-located mental health and social care services. We are in continued conversation with the Children’s Minister, Josh MacAlister, to feed in evidence from COACHES that may inform the pilot.

The COACHES study has been a building block for subsequent research in this area. This study informed early carer fellowships including a British Academy fellowship and two Early Carer Welcome Awards relating to CAMHS impact on self-harm and suicide, those on the edge of care and those who have experienced sexual violence. This project has informed two NIHR-funded doctoral projects on access and ADHD and a Cambridge Gates Scholarship on waiting times. This project has laid the foundation for a Wellcome Discovery Award related to Attachment. 

Publications 

  • Morgan, T., Crozier-Roche, F., Graham, D., Smith, J., Drayak, T., Mary, S., Cossar, J., Mannes, J., Pilimatalawwe, D., Parker, P., Coughlan, B., Hood, R., Hutchinson, D., Woolgar, M., & Duschinsky, R. (2025). The social must be stabilised: How are the social needs of young people with social work involvement characterized in their mental health case notes? Social Science & Medicine, 118052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118052
  • Yoon, Y., Duschinsky, R., Hughes, A., Cardinal, R. N., Mannes, J., Ford, T., Pan, Z. S., Morse, I., Marshall, N., Woolgar, M., Morgan, T., Hood, R., Pinto, C., Humphrey, A., Hutchinson, D., Skinner, G., Mary, S., Crozier-Roche, F., Graham, D., … Coughlan, B. (2026). Psychosocial Intervention and Mental Health Outcomes in Children and Young People Attending Mental Health Services: A Retrospective Analysis of (N=9,793) Young People. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7018510
  • Coughlan, B., Marshall, N., Woolgar, M., Mannes, J., Erkiert, P., Humphrey, A., Smith, J., Drayak, T., Crozier-Roche, F., Morgan, T., Hutchinson, D., Graham, D., Hood, R., & Duschinsky, R. (2024). Typological and cumulative approaches to risk and adversity in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS): Retrospective cohort analysis in South London. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 137, 152568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2024.152568
  • Mannes, J., Duschinsky, R., Woolgar, M., Hood, R., Morgan, T., Yoon, Y., Ford, T., Cardinal, R., Broadbent, M., Chakravarti, P., Drayak, T., Crozier-Roche, F., Smith, J., Graham, D., Hutchinson, D., Pinto, C., Geoghegan, L., Humphrey, A., Morris, S., … Coughlan, B. (2025). Disparities in accessing mental health services for young people in contact with children’s social work: a retrospective analysis of over 71,700 clinical records. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/9utzk_v1
  • Parker, P., Woolgar, M., Mucha, L., Morgan, T., Talia, A., Coughlan, B., & Duschinsky, R. (2026). Use of Attachment Language by Professionals in Children’s Mental Health Notes. Developmental Child Welfare. https://doi.org/10.1177/25161032261469698
  • Yang, F., Duschinsky, R., Mucha, L., Sousa, F. Dos S., Woolgar, M., Morgan, T., Marshall, N., Mannes, J., Pilimatalawwe, D., Moore, A., & Coughlan, B. (2026). Gendered risks to children and adolescents assessed by Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS): Perspectives from network analysis. Child Abuse & Neglect, 173, 107941. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2026.107941
  • Coughlan, B., Woolgar, M., Hood, R., Hutchinson, D., Denford, E., Hillier, A., Clements, K., Geraghty, T., Berry, A., Bywaters, P., Bilson, A., Smith, J., Taliah Drayak, Graham, D., Crozier‐Roche, F., & Duschinsky, R. (2024). Risk rates and profiles at intake in child and adolescent mental health services: A cohort and latent class analyses of 21,688 young people in South London. JCPP Advances, 4(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12246
  • Morgan, T., Crozier-Roche, F., Taliah Drayak, Smith, J., Graham, D., Marshall, N., Mannes, J., & Duschinsky, R. (2024). Addressing the mental health needs of children with a social worker. Paediatrics and Child Health, 34(11). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paed.2024.08.003
  • Pan, Z. S., Schuengel, C., Coughlan, B., Bakkum, L., Woolgar, M., Carman, S., & Duschinsky, R. (2025). Young People With and Without Intellectual Disability Accessing Mental Health Services: Evaluating Psychosocial Functioning Outcomes Using Electronic Health Records. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 70(2), 194–205. https://doi.org/10.1111/jir.70066
  • Phippard, S. (2026). Ethics of witnessing in clinical case notes of children in state care: From data extraction to narrative care. Qualitative Social Work, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250261457255

Blog posts/ media coverage 

https://www.ncb.org.uk/COACHES

https://www.ncb.org.uk/COACHES/tackling-inequalities-access-mental-health-support-children-social-work-involvement-and

https://www.ncb.org.uk/COACHES/SocialMustBeStabilised

https://www.ncb.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/news-opinion/world-leading-uk-academics-set-new-vision-transforming-mental

https://www.cost-ofliving.net/why-are-children-who-have-experienced-sexual-violence-being-denied-access-to-mental-health-support/

Media Coverage

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge