Models  and Patterns of Integrated community services  for children and young people in coastal settings – a scoping review

Background: Many coastal towns in England have the highest measures of deprivation in the country, high levels of poverty and poor health. Children and young people (CYP) growing up in these communities face real challenges to their futures. Integration of health, social care and voluntary community services for CYP is one model to delivering more equitable and accessible services and improved long-term outcomes for those in most need.

 

Approach: This scoping review aims to identify current evidence on the development, implementation and impact of integrated models of health and social care community services for CYP internationally.

Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework was used to scope the literature, conducted following Cochrane Rapid Review Methods Group guidance and reported using the Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) checklist.

 

We searched the Web of Science, and (combined search through EBSCOhost) Academic Search Complete, APA PsychArticles, APA PsychInfo, Child Development and Adolescent Studies, CINAHL Plus, MEDLINE, SocINDEX from 2014 to 2025, limiting searches to broadly comparable health and care systems, and only articles in English included. Challenges were faced in designing this search to take in such a broad range of variables and areas of interest, with multiple service terms. At the time of submission, searches are completed, and the process of selection is ongoing. All records are screened by two authors, resolved by a third. Review completion is expected in January 2026.

 

Results: This review feeds into the development of a programme theory for our wider realist study which aims to examine in depth a range of integrated community service models and their impact on the experiences and health and social care consequences for CYP and their families around the coast of England.

 

Findings: from included studies are tabulated to identify and map the evidence surrounding integrated care for children and young people. Taking lessons from multiple global contexts, results extracted using a C-M-O (context-mechanism-outcome) framework, in line with the realist approach of our wider study. Contexts will include a core focus on UK coastal areas, as well as providing comparable evidence. Drawing out these C-M-O relationships, we will use a narrative style to describe and offer some explanatory discussion of included evidence providing a thematic analysis of the key elements of these studies and reports.

 

Implications: We anticipate that evidence on implementation will be less well evaluated than design and effectiveness of innovative new models of integrated services. From this we will gain insights into how some community services are designed and what health and social outcomes are expected for CYP in different contexts, and the patterns of service provision put in place to achieve these. This will enable us to build an initial programme theory of what kind of ICSMs work for CYP. This will form the basic building block of our wider study in terms of how new primary data can be mapped against the programme theory to build new knowledge and understanding in this field.