Developing effective social care services
Children’s social care is about changing lives. We're here to help the workforce provide support and intervention at the right time, in the right way.
Our vision is a society where babies get the best start in life through high-quality universal services and targeted early help; where inclusive schools value children’s wellbeing alongside academic progress; and where young people are enabled to make a confident transition to adulthood, safe from violence on our streets and criminal exploitation. For our most vulnerable children, it is right that the state plays a more active role in this, including taking on parental responsibility where families cannot.
Building on and informing our work on social care policy, we bring the children's social care workforce together to generate evidence about how children and young people are experiencing social care services in practice, driving lasting change to protect our most vulnerable children and young people and deliver a better childhood for the UK.
We are strengthening the focus on early help, guiding direct and co-ordinated action to help families as soon as concern emerges. This can prevent children from becoming victims of abuse, long-term service users, and offenders. Delaying services leads to poorer outcomes for children including exclusion from school, becoming the subject of a child protection plan, or being taken into care.
We are also supporting and equipping significant practice reforms such as the multi-agency arrangements for safeguarding children which came into effect in 2019. Through our facilitation of the Safeguarding Early Adopter Programme, we supported 17 local areas to explore opportunities, overcome implementation challenges and disseminate key lessons to drive effective practice more widely.
Through our work on social care policy and practice, we are able to build understanding of what will really transform children’s lives for the better and then equip services to deliver the change.
