Testimonials

The BERRI has a high level of satisfaction amongst service managers, care staff, social workers, commissioners and Ofsted.

• "BERRI helped us in achieving ‘Outstanding’ in our recent Ofsted inspection. Ofsted love it because you can download the reports and evidence children’s progress. Many Inspectors understand it and know it, and we have had really good feedback. We use BERRI both as an admissions tool and at discharge, as well as throughout. Woodford Children’s Services use BERRI extremely frequently for all the children in our service who are vulnerable young people. It is something that we plan to continue using moving forward across all our homes" - Marcia Rose-Hines, Training and Compliance Manager, Woodford Children’s Services
  
  
• "I have a research background in outcome measurement tools, and there isn't anything else out there like BERRI for this population of children and young people. It's a tool I recommend to other organisations that I come into contact or work with." - Kerry Audin, Independent Clinical Psychologist
  
  
• "I've been doing this for 15 years and not seen anything like this before. It's so exciting, I can see so many ways it can help us utilise our time better" - Commissioner, Haringey
  
  
• "BERRI is great for tracking how things are changing for a child, which we can then show as evidence behind our decision-making and use to advocate for what our children need."  - Katie Knight, Independent Social Worker, HR & Quality Assurance Manager - Urban Care
  
  
• “…I think that is a very protective thing about BERRI, [...] that it’s for children who are care experienced and that it does have that backing and is evidence based and developed by a clinical psychologist. And that’s what I was looking for when I was looking for an assessment – something [with] our children at the core.” - Taiya, Head of Clinical Care, WhiteTrees
  
  
• "I now include the BERRI as standard in all of my psychological assessments - it clearly and effectively taps into the complexity of my cases in a way which just isn't matched by any other mental health questionnaire out there - nothing else really comes close. " - Dr Liam Gilligan, Clinical Psychologist, Youth Crisis Team.
  
  
• “[BERRI] is really reflective of our young people’s needs, and that’s the feedback that I get most commonly - is that when we see the BERRI reports or we see the progress and change over time, the teams around that young person are like ‘yes, that really is them’. It is a real reflection of that child or young person and I do think that’s quite difficult to come by in assessments. Because it’s hard to capture the young person or child that you are supporting and do it in a way that is still full of strengths and positivity and that’s something that’s really important to us. It’s making sure that that child is captured in a way that shows that they’re incredible, they’re resilient they’re full of positives and it’s not just, a critique of them. I really feel that BERRI summarises our young people in a way that is reflective of their strengths and of their protective characteristics as well as their needs” - Taiya, Head of Clinical Care, WhiteTrees
  
  
• "BERRI has helped provide the evidence to understand whether a placement is actually helping a child or not as we use BERRI to continually monitor and track change and progress. From doing this, we had noticed that a particular child's score had not improved at all over a 12 month period, after we challenged the provider about this, we decided that the placement was not meeting the child's needs and we pursued finding them a better suited placement that would help them to progress and improve their outcomes."  - Nico, Plymouth
  
  
• "As a commissioning manager in children’s social care, I developed a pilot referral form using the BERRI assessment screening tool to identify children’s needs effectively and form a package of care delivery based on identified need. The BERRI tool was significant in enabling teenage children to access foster care from residential care. By using the BERRI to identify specific need in a small pilot of 15 high tariff children, three of our children were placed into fostering services and one returned home with a supportive care package to ensure this move was successful. These children have remained successfully within their current placements and the BERRI contributed to a saving of almost half a million pounds per annum." - Matthew Utley, Commissioning Manager, Bracknell Forrest (now at Haringey)
  
  
• “I find BERRI very easy to use, it's a very straightforward and useful tool. It's a great way for us to measure and evidence outcomes for the children in our care” - Jordan Stevens, Clinical Director, Amma Childcare
  
  
• “We use BERRI and we LOVE it. It was so helpful when we were fighting to keep a child on their own in our home as it so clearly evidenced their progression - when we showed the starting point to where we were at the time, it clearly highlighted how it was helping them!” - David Crowley, Sussex Children’s Care
  
  
• BERRI "sets a new gold standard for our members" - CEO of the Independent Children's Homes Association
  
  
• “As a manager, BERRI is a really informative, easy to use, user friendly tool to track progress and development of my young people, evidence starting points and where we are trying to take them” - Emma Pike, Registered Manager, Treasure Nest
  
  
• “I love that BERRI confirms and supports our narratives and concerns around a young person...providing additional ‘clinical clout’ which has enabled greater access for them to assessments in particular” - Clinical Lead, Capstone Fostercare 
  
  
• “The change over time tool gives a really quick snapshot of information enabling me as an RM to keep track of children’s presentations.” - Registered Manager, Capstone Fostercare 
  
  
• “What’s not to love about a measure that is supporting children to access
  additional support” - Registered Manager, Capstone Fostercare 
  
  
• “People see the value in the assessment and the multi-agency format. I do not think our success would have been anywhere near as positive without the use of BERRI”. - Project Lead, Sandwell Children’s Trust
  
  
• “The tool itself makes you think differently about the children, makes you think about their experiences and the impact, and why they present in a way that they do.” - Manager, St Helens
  
  
• “For local authorities, it has definitely brought us value in bringing more oversight of a young person’s independence skills. For providers, you can visibly see the gaps and create action plans to address them; you can see clearly whether they are ready or if the gaps are too much of a risk.” - Professional Recommendation
  
  
• “The value was in the detail...It gave us a far better sense of the specifics. Independence is complex and SKILS gave us real insight.” - Professional Recommendation
  
  
• “BERRI enables a formulation to be made quickly and progress is easy to measure. The questionnaire is easy to use and does not take long to complete... The consultation with the Psychologist is key to planning support and understanding how to work with a child” - Birmingham Children's Trust Social Worker
  
  
• “(I like that BERRI helps in) evidencing progress over time, particularly by visual comparison in the graphs of progress in the various domains. This enables care planning to be focused in the right areas, which is particularly useful from a social work perspective.” - Birmingham Children's Trust Social Worker
  
  
• “I like the profile and how easy it is to complete. The consultations offer a good insight and the recommendations support with planning and the actions needed to ensure the young person’s needs are me”  - Birmingham Children's Trust Social Worker
  
  
• “Years ago at a previous organisation we introduced BERRI to our therapeutic homes for the first time, and it was an amazing experience. Now if I look back after 5 years and see the development that BERRI has done, now I can understand better how important it is to really measure all of these important outcomes for children. It’s just amazing and there is no other programme which can do that and I think people need to know about BERRI” - Ramona Moldovan, Director of Operations and Responsible Individual, Linden Oak Homes
  
  
• “Where we had been concerned around a girl who had not been appropriately assessed alongside her brothers at a younger age. BERRI provided evidence of clear indicators of Autism which led the professionals around her to request and seek an assessment of her needs.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “BERRI has been very helpful in informing the home of our young person's needs prior to them being placed in our care; moreover, the change graph really shows where our interventions need to be focused” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “When trying to request additional support from the Local Authority, the BERRI really displays the areas of need really clearly to help with evidence and advocating for children”  - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “It's a useful document to take to MDT meetings and external agencies (such as local authorities) to break down the specific needs of the young person. This has been useful in obtaining further support outside of the internal therapies team.”  - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “We use BERRI more for Family Support / Edge of Care and the tool supports with ensuring we are providing the right interventions for the children based on their report, we have seen a reduction in scores for the majority of children we support.In using them for Children in our Care, we have utilised the tool to support the transition out of Residential to Foster Care.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “It's easy for our teams to use. The generated report summaries are really insightful and consider additional aspects such as neurodiversity and additional mental health needs. The comparison to other residential care populations allows for further context rather than viewing the young persons needs in isolation.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “It is simple to use. The support and assistance is great and always there to answer questions.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “We conduct BERRI measures quarterly and annually use them as part of our therapeutic needs assessment report that goes to carers and social workers. This has helped us identify need for further screening tools and neurodivergent assessments, and advocate for additional support recommendations” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “When a child has very limited support in place and LA are not recognising the worries, BERRI can evidence the need clearly.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey
  
  
• “I prepare children for foster care and it supports the care planning, highlighting their needs and help to focus on areas of support needed.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey
  
  
• “BERRI gives us the opportunity to see what progress a child is making with regards to some of the behaviours they are displaying. This is equally the case if a child is struggling or not making any progress in a certain area. BERRI is able to form good guidance in areas of focus for our children” - Customer Satisfaction Survey
  
  
• “BERRI is a clear way of providing evidence of the young persons progress in areas over time and is used in our reg 45. The reports provided are effective, detailed and are a useful tool in providing the carers with details of the areas in which the young people are struggling and the impact of changes in their lives have. BERRI is useful in recording crucial information for our young people and provides a great insight into areas of challenges they face and areas in which they are progressing in.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey
  
  
• “I like the different report versions and the graph as this depicts detailed data in a snapshot, and this is helpful for my clients.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “The generated report is easy to access and understand. The graphs available to understand changes and trends are useful. The system on the whole is easy to use and the team that work at BERRI are always very happy to help with quick replies and enthusiasm.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “I like how inputting data provides a report/inputs that I can then use to personalise for the young people in our care. In a world that can change day to day, particularly in terms of matching young people, it is easy to see at a glance how different young people are managing at any particular time and how outside influences or major events effect young people in different ways to make forward planning easier.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “The clinical psychologist meeting was really helpful, we had conversations around the boys life journey and how I could have those life story discussions with them which I did. Also the advice around transition [the YP] meeting them first and building the relationship (something I had not considered) was fantastic. The project lead supported with the placement request with advice I now use when completing other placement request forms” - Birmingham Children's Trust Social Worker
  
  
• “The BERRI system allows a good understanding and analysis of the young person's background history, emotional needs, level of needs, the format of the questionnaire is user friendly and the report generated gives a good analysis of the young person's ratings and needs.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “BERRI is fascinating because it’s a multidimensional approach that lets caregivers and professionals truly understand and support children, especially those with complex needs.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey 
  
  
• “The outcome report is really useful and I find value in breaking down behaviours into frequency and difficulty as it gives a more detailed overview and how best to assess support needed.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey
  
  
• “It is useful to be able to compare an individual child's needs against other children of the same age.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey
  
  
• “[I like the] opportunity to stop and think collectively about the children in our care and hear varying view points before completing the form.” - Customer Satisfaction Survey
  
  
• "The missing link in the residential care sector" - Sir Martin Narey, government advisor who reviewed residential care in the UK.
  
  
• "We have been using BERRI since 2015 and it has proven to be a highly valuable tool for overall care planning for our children and young people. The psychologically informed care planning allows us to individually tailor care plans focusing on specific areas of development for each young person. Regular formulation meetings with a highly accredited psychologist and assistant psychologist allows key people in the children’s lives to be involved in care planning and target setting. This includes the whole care team working with the child. We have found that this empowers the staff team to really feel invested and able to give input into the child’s day to day care." - After Care (NW) Ltd
  
  
• "We love it! The social workers are reporting that the act of asking the questions is opening up all sorts of discussions." - Casey Griffiths, Fostering Administrator Cornerways Fostering Services
  
  
• "It is unusual to see an organisation be so clear and able to identify the issues for a child and to be able to be proactive about them. Its the swiftness at which you've identified the issues. CAMHS haven't been so quick or responsive and have never been so clear about the needs and how to work. Your pathway and use of the BERRI gives me confidence that you are meeting the needs and helping improve her outcomes and life chances. This level of insight is extraordinary, we don't even get it from the court process now. It feels like you are years ahead with your process. You set the standard for the network. You start at the beginning and not the end, identifying the needs and strategies to work on them not just vaguely trying to meet the Every Child Matters five outcomes. In short, I'm impressed." - Social Worker from Sunderland in relation to a home that had our full psychology pathway.
  
  
• "It is easy to use and gives us evidence of how what we do impacts on the child that we can show to their social worker and ofsted" - therapist
  
  
• "I only hear positives about the added value they offer and the accessibility. They reduce disruption, and carers want more. The way psychology is delivered feels empowering to social workers and carers. It doesn't take a problem away to fix, the input is collaborative and the advice concrete and practical." - Social care manager, in relation to a full package including regular psychological consultations
  
  
• "I've been fostering for 10 years and have looked after 16 children and haven't seen the like of BERRI before. I got more from your report than I've had from CAMHS in all this time. The detail and tools are fantastic. No information like that is collected anywhere else" - Foster carer
  
  
• "BERRI has been a significant tool for improvement for the Access to Resources Team, injecting realism and generating enormously positive feedback from providers and social workers" -  "Commissioner, Haringey"
  
  
• "Without BERRI our children would be experiencing even more disruptions, more placements breaking down, because when we can’t understand what’s happening for them, we can’t really drill down to it, which has an impact on foster carers, who then burn out, feel deskilled, and ultimately leave fostering as a career because it’s just too hard." -  IFA
  
  
• BERRI "sets a new gold standard for our members" - CEO of the Independent Children's Homes Association
  
  
• "The missing link in the residential care sector" - Sir Martin Narey, government advisor who reviewed residential care in the UK.