About us
The Research Centre for Better Outcomes from Fostering and Residential Care (Better Outcomes) is a New Zealand-based research centre and social enterprise; we exist to help organisations in Australia, New Zealand and internationally, to generate and use evidence and learning so that children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) or transitioning to adulthood, can thrive. We also now have a strengthened on youth detention, which we fundementally believe must be framed as a form of residential child care, rather than adult prison.
The Centre’s Consulting Director and Lead Researcher is Dr Iain Matheson. Iain has 40 years of child welfare experience, mainly in foster care, residential care, youth detention and transitioning to adulthood. He started his career as a qualified practitioner in residential child care in England and Scotland, He then took up a range of statutory child welfare management roles. Before moving into consultancy and research Iain was the New Zealand government’s senior leader for secure care (both youth justice and care and protection, residential child care, and foster care, and prior to that the children’s services strategic development manager with Aberdeenshire Housing and Social Work in Scotland.
His extensive OOHC and youth detention experience as first a public servant and then an independent consultant and researcher, is backed up by postgraduate qualifications in social work, child protection, social services management and evaluation research, as well as international accreditation as a certified management consultant. His 2015 doctorate from the University of Otago was on the experiences of care leavers who went to university.
Primarily working with organisations in Australia and New Zealand, he has also presented his research findings internationally in Canada, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Spain and the US. He is a member of the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care editorial board, as well as a steering group member of the International Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood from Care (INTRAC).
What we do
At Better Outcomes, we help leaders and organisations in out-of-home care, youth justice, and child and youth system reform tackle complex problems and improve results for children. All services are led by Dr Iain Matheson and shaped to fit your context.
We offer:
Webinars & Masterclasses – to build capability, challenge thinking, and introduce new ideas
Online Mentoring – confidential support for leaders, teams and reform projects
Advisory & Consulting – trusted, evidence-informed guidance for services and systems that need to work better
Evaluation & Research – practical, rigorous studies to inform reform, strategy, and practiceWe offer four core services, each tailored to the unique context and challenges of organisations:
We make sense of complexity and help organisations use evidence to achieve better outcomes
Who we work with
We work across Australia and New Zealand and internationally, with government agencies, community service organisations, peak bodies, universities and select consultancy firms, including the following:
Current & recent projects
tasmanian youth justice reform expert panel
In August 2024 Dr Iain Matheson was appointed as a member of their newly established Youth Justice Reform Expert Panel, by the State of Tasmania's Minister for Children and Youth, Roger Jaensch. Under the auspices of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, the Panel is tasked with providing independent expert advice on the Government’s transition to a therapeutic youth justice model. The multi-agency reforms encompass all aspects of youth justice, from diversion and early intervention strategies through to the development of a new therapeutic, small, and homelike youth detention centre.
youth detention centre reform
In 2022, Dr Iain Matheson was commissioned by the New Zealand government (Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children) to produce an evidence brief in order to inform the development of a new youth detention centre Model of Care. Published in 2023, this evidence brief covers youth detention centre purposes, models, frameworks, programmes and practices, and case studies from centres in Spain, Norway, Ireland, Scotland, and Australia (ACT). During 2024 he also delivered keynotes on youth detention centre reform in both Australia (Australian Association for Flexible and Inclusion Education annual conference) and the United States (Association of Children’s Residential and Community Services annual conference).
Reducing & Eliminating Physical Restraint
In 2021 Dr Iain Matheson authored an evidence brief on international de-escalation and restraint practices, and conducted primary research on violence toward staff in residential care. With the US-based Association of Children’s Residential and Community services, Iain was also a planning group member on, and presenter at, their pre-conference seminar on reducing or eliminating the use of restraint in residential care. More recently, Iain has also led a national Scottish Physical Restraint Action Group webinar for the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, for government and provider representatives.
Education of Children in Out-of-home Care
Dr Iain Matheson’s 2015 University of Otago doctorate was on the education experiences of care experienced tertiary students. Since then he has conducted research on the education of children in secure care for New Zealand’s Ministry of Education, authored a guide on care experienced young people and postsecondary for New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Commission, and developed an evidence brief on international best practice on the education of children in OOHC for Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children. He has also delivered related training workshops in New Zealand, webinars for Australian organisations, and several international online conference presentations.
Transitioning from care
Dr Iain Matheson served as an independent member of Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children’s Transition Support Service Evaluation Advisory Group (2021–2023), advising on the evaluation of New Zealand's legislative, policy, and practice reforms for care leavers. This role built on his 2015 doctorate on leaving care and education, a series of evidence reviews for the Ministry, related training workshops in Australia and New Zealand, and various international webinars and online conference presentations. He has also recently authored the New Zealand chapter of an upcoming Oxford University Press international book on leaving care.
Online Mentoring
All centred around child welfare, Dr Iain Matheson’s recent mentoring engagements showcase his ability to provide impactful support across different roles and organisational levels. Recent examples include helping a new CEO in New Zealand adjust to the complexities of their role effectively, providing strategic guidance to a senior manager in Canada leading a high-profile and challenging project with specialist areas outside of her expertise, and supporting the professional development of a newly formed team providing a new specialist function within a large Australian organisation. Iain has also been working with a new Australian social enterprise start-up to help them find their purpose, define their role and enter the OOHC sector.