This is where you will find the evaluation of Bloom at HeadStart Kernow. For other HeadStart Kernow evaluations see the Local Learning and National Evaluation pages.

Bloom

An innovative partnership approach between Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Cornwall Council, HeadStart Kernow and other services and organisations, Bloom is an early intervention consultation model for professionals offering an holistic approach, across services, to support children's emotional, social and mental wellbeing.  Bloom is designed as a rapid and responsive model for children and young people from 0 -18, working within the Tavistock i-THRIVE model.  Its core purpose is to support young people to thrive. 

Evaluating a multi-disciplinary children’s referral service:  HeadStart Kernow’s Bloom model
How do you go about evaluating the impact of a multi-disciplinary approach to getting the right support children and young people, which itself does not intervene in children and young people’s lives? This report by the Evidence Based Practice Unit (a partnership of UCL and Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families) outlines the challenges associated with an evaluation of Bloom, the process that HeadStart Kernow developed and implemented, and the key learning gained from undertaking this work.

Local Evaluation

The Bloom Cornwall-wide Steering Group (CWSG) agreed in September 2020 that a comprehensive evaluation of the Bloom model and process should be undertaken.  A sub-group of the CWSG, the Evaluation Working Group (EWG), was established and met regularly to provide advice, support, sense-check, and ensure that evaluation timescales remained on track.

Strands within the overarching Bloom evaluation included consideration of:

•    An analysis of the original Bloom Penwith pilot business cases
•    Cost Benefit Analysis of Bloom
•    Senior Stakeholders
•    Core Bloom Professionals Consultation meeting attendees
•    Bloom Professionals Consultation meeting - other attendees
•    Bloom ‘service providers’ (organisations suggested at a Bloom Professionals Consultation meeting which might provide appropriate support for the young person being discussed)
•    Parents / Carers
•    Children and Young People
•    Bloom Leadership Group
•    Bloom Steering Group members
•    Bloom Data and Analysis Comparison Report 2019 and 2020

Each evaluation report notes the findings from one strand of the evaluation of the Bloom model and process, excepting that which reports on both the Children and Young People and the Parents / Carers strands.  The reports are uniformly constructed and each details the methodology employed and the analysis undertaken.  

The focus of each report is noted below.

Bloom Evaluation: Executive Report
The Executive Report collates and synthesises the findings, conclusions and recommendations from each of the strand evaluations that together form the comprehensive evaluation of the Bloom model and process undertaken during 2020/21.  

Bloom Evaluation Report: Cost Benefit Analysis Strand
The focus of this strand of the Bloom evaluation was to determine the costs of the Bloom model as delivered through face-to-face or online ‘virtual’ Bloom Profs meetings; and to understand the societal costs and those to an individual were Bloom not to be available within the wider ecology of children’s and young people’s services within Cornwall.  

Bloom Evaluation Report: Review and Analysis of the Bloom Project Pilot Business Cases and Documentation 2014 – 2016, and the Development of Bloom to date
This report considers the findings of an analysis of the original Bloom Penwith pilot business cases, and as a corollary to this activity, also provides information about the development of Bloom from its inception to its current delivery as a virtual model due to the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bloom Evaluation Report: Bloom Senior Stakeholders Strand
This report considers the findings of an analysis of views of Senior Stakeholders from CAMHS, Cornwall Council, and other organisations and services as reported by the NCB who carried out individual structured interviews with 15 Senior Stakeholders identified by the Bloom Evaluation Working Group.  

Bloom Evaluation Report: Bloom Steering Group Members Strand
This report considers the findings of a survey conducted of members of the Bloom CWSG and of the six Bloom Locality Steering Groups.  This survey sought to understand the views of Steering Group members about the existing governance arrangements for Bloom; whether the Steering Groups were thought useful; how the information within the papers, data and reports provided for the Steering Groups were received; and whether the Steering Groups should continue in their existing or a different form.

Bloom Evaluation Report: Bloom Leadership Team Strand
This report considers the findings of an analysis of the views as reported by the NCB of the Bloom Leadership Team whose six members are drawn from CAMHS, HeadStart Kernow, and the CAMHS Access Team co-located with the Early Help Hub.  The Bloom Leadership Team comprises the Clinical Lead, the Operational Lead, the Senior Administrator, the Project Officer and Data Analyst, the Key Primary Mental Health Worker, and the CAMHS Access Team Manager.   

Bloom Evaluation Report: Bloom Core Attendees Strand
This report considers the findings of an analysis of the views of core attendees at Bloom Profs meetings, from CAMHS, Cornwall Council, and other organisations and services, as reported by the NCB.  

Present at every Bloom Profs meeting, and without whom it cannot proceed, are a HeadStart Kernow Locality Coordinator who chairs the meeting, a CAMHS Clinical Psychologist, and a Primary Mental Health Worker.  At most meetings a member of the locality Early Help Team and a HeadStart Community Facilitator will also attend.  Together these roles form the ‘core attendees’ at Bloom Profs meetings, and all those who were identified as such (in total 35 professionals) were invited to attend one of a number of area-specific focus groups, conducted by the NCB.  

Bloom Evaluation Report: Bloom Professionals Strand
This report considers the findings of a survey conducted of all professionals noted as attending Bloom Profs meetings, excepting only those surveyed as part of other strands of the comprehensive Bloom evaluation (the Bloom Leadership Team, and the Bloom Core Professionals).  This report also analyses the feedback gathered routinely from professionals following a Bloom Profs meeting.  

Bloom Evaluation Report: Bloom Service Providers Strand
This report considers the findings of a survey conducted of Bloom ‘service providers’.  These are those organisations and services which are often signposted within Bloom Profs meetings as being the most appropriate to support the young person whose referral is being discussed.

Bloom Evaluation Report: Young People & Parents / Carers Strands
This report considers the evaluation strands which focussed on the experience of young people and of parents / carers within Bloom, and provides a narrative of the approaches to evaluating these which were considered and implemented.  This Bloom report reflects upon the approach used, the insights gained, and extrapolates the benefits of Bloom based upon this information.

Bloom Evaluation Report: Bloom Data and Analysis Comparison Report 2019 and 2020
The CWSG receives annually a comprehensive data report, and this report builds and expands upon that foundation to give a comparison of data between Bloom referrals closed in 2019 and 2020 on both a Cornwall-wide and locality basis, together with analysis and recommendations.