Practice guides

Restore launched in April 2020 for expectant parents who were less than 20 weeks gestation who had children removed from their care previously and there is a likelihood the current pregnancy would result in removal. In February 2022 we expanded the offer to include fathers who had children previously removed from their care and are expecting a baby with a new partner (who may or may not have had children removed from their care). We also extended the offer to support first time parents where there were ‘high risk indicators’ such as significant substance misuse, domestic abuse, parental mental health, chronic homelessness, and others, where there is a likelihood that the current pregnancy would result in removal. Restore was initially designed on the licensed PAUSE model, we creatively tailored it to the needs of families, data analysis and demand in Warrington and removed restrictive criteria for parents to be actively using contraception to be enrolled on the 18-month programme. Restore offers support at the very earliest opportunity in pregnancy until the child turns five years’ old.

Children in care often face greater health challenges than their peers, stemming from early experiences of trauma, neglect, or instability. In Sefton, recognising the critical importance of timely and effective health and dental care, a multi-agency approach has been adopted to improve outcomes for this vulnerable group. This practice guide outlines the collaborative efforts between Sefton Children’s Services, the Integrated Care Board, and health providers to enhance access to Initial and Review Health Assessments, dental services, and emotional well-being support.

In Bolton we started our Staying Close service in January 2024 and became fully staff and launched by March 2024. To be eligible to receive Staying Close young people need to have been living in residential care for a period of 13 weeks or more after their 14th birthday. Residential care can include children’s homes, secure homes and custody. Bolton’s Staying Close Service offers a relational wraparound intensive service to a small cohort of young people eligible for staying close services. The Team is made up of 1 Staying Close Team Manager, 4 Personal Advisers, 1 Education, Employment and Training Worker, 1 Emotional Health Practitioner, and 1 Housing Officer.

The Trafford Children with Disabilities (CwD) – Complex Needs Service has undergone significant transformation in response to longstanding concerns from families, schools, and professionals about accessibility, clarity, and effectiveness. Historically, the service faced challenges including unclear pathways, limited short break options, and a lack of trust among stakeholders. This practice guide outlines Trafford’s journey to redesign and co-produce a more responsive, inclusive, and needs-led service. Through streamlined access, strengthened assessment processes, and a renewed focus on partnership and co-production, the service now delivers more timely, tailored support to children with complex needs and their families—ensuring better outcomes and building confidence across the system.

The Bright Spots Programme is a research and service improvement project run by Coram Voice. The Programme was set up to understand what is important to children in care and care leavers and share learning about what makes life good for them. Official statistics on care-experienced children and young people give only a partial picture of their lives. Data focuses on adult perspectives using objective outcomes measures including placement types and educational attainment. This information does not tell us about how children and young people feel: are they happy, safe and feel they are doing well? The Bright Spots Programme takes a different approach by measuring subjective well-being. Subjective well-being is defined as feeling good and doing well at an individual and interpersonal level. Measuring subjective well-being enables us to understand young people’s experiences by putting their voice at the centre. Bright Spots helps local authorities (LAs) systematically listen to their children in care and care leavers about the things that are important to them. We work to ensure that the views and experiences of children are at the heart of decisions that are made about their lives.

Lancashire County Council's Pause and Reflect (PAR) Fostering arrangements ensure the fostering service can meet its sufficiency duty to provide the right homes for children, regardless of the complexity of their needs, amidst a national foster carer shortage. The journey to creating PAR began in 2022 with recognition of the need for a responsive and supportive system to offer immediate stability and emotional support to children, regardless of complexity of need, reducing the need for out-of-area and high-cost homes. The development process involved extensive research and consultations with experienced foster carers. A gradual increase in carers offering PAR, combined with feedback from these initial experiences, was instrumental in shaping the final, effective, and practical PAR model. Launched in February 2024, it provides enhanced fostering arrangements for children with complex needs. It offers a stable home for up to 28 days to allow children to reduce dysregulation and express their needs, promoting empowerment in their care journey.

Fathers play a crucial yet often under-recognised role in the lives of their children, contributing significantly to emotional well-being, social development, and educational outcomes. Despite this, many support services across the UK have historically struggled to engage fathers effectively, often due to systemic barriers and entrenched stereotypes. This practice guide outlines Halton’s commitment to embedding father-inclusive approaches within Family Help and Children’s Social Care. It highlights the rationale for change, the steps taken to improve service design and delivery, and the positive impact of these efforts on families and practitioners. By promoting fathers as essential caregivers and creating welcoming, inclusive environments, Halton aims to ensure that all parents—regardless of gender—are supported to play an active role in their children’s lives.

There is a general lack of sufficiency for care provision locally, including foster care, which is driving up costs from private providers, and meaning children are accessing residential provision that does not always best meet their needs. We have observed an increasing trend of young with complex, multifaceted needs who require simultaneous support from a wide range of different professionals and agencies. These increases are causing cost pressures, due to young people having to be externally placed. These are all young people that the local authority believe could have been supported by the Complex
Needs Hub to secure more timely and proportionate support, potentially at a lower cost. In terms of its financial ambitions, the Complex Needs Hub aims reduce spend on external agency placements and internal placements via its Outreach programme that aims to support young people to remain at home in the care of their family.

Liverpool has the second highest rate of Looked After Children in the North West with 155 per 10, 000 0–17-year-olds. Parental mental health issues were identified as one of the most significant factors contributing to higher levels of children entering care. We wanted to work with parents to improve their
mental health and parenting skills to support more children to remain within the care of their families. We had previously trained social workers in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) driving some improvement, yet without securing sustainable change. For families who were receiving the high levels of
intervention, including those involved in Public Law Outline, and not evidencing change were offered the Fiona Programme.

Domestic abuse services have grown rapidly within Cheshire East over the last 5 years, due to enhanced funding from local partners as well as through national funding streams. Over 2024/25, the Cheshire East DA Strategy was reviewed and a full Needs Assessment commissioned, which highlighted gaps in provision as well as the need to focus on early intervention. This development ran alongside the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Act 2024 and the increased responsibility of Local Authorities to support victims of DA, as well as treating children as victims in their own right. The Domestic Abuse Family Safety Unit (DAFSU) team began as an Independent Domestic Abuse Advocate (IDVA) at the ‘Hub’ (an identified referral route via phone and/or an online portal); as well as a small number of high risk IDVAs taking referrals directly from MARAC meetings. The Hub developed into a wider team, offering advice, information and education around DA, as well as risk assessment (using the DASH Risk Assessment Checklist) and onward referral where appropriate. The high-risk team also developed and became a dedicated resource for victims at the highest risk.

Salford has a Flexible Procurement Solution (FPS) for Alternative Provision (AP). We operate a system of commissioning unregistered and registered AP, inviting providers to tender for inclusion on our framework. This is an effective flexible procurement process, which offers wide and varied alternative
education programmes. This was reviewed and updated for September 2024 so that there is a wider offer available. The FPS is used to identify AP providers who can deliver excellent alternative provision for the education of pupils from Key Stage 1 and beyond by offering a flexible response to those not
placed in a mainstream or special school. The FPS is used to commission AP placements for the local authority, including SEND and s19 Education Act provision, and by schools. Most of the pupils will be accessing the alternative education provision, which is delivered alongside the school’s core curriculum offer, on a part-time basis.

At the heart of our development was a desire to enable young people to have a voice and focus on giving young people the opportunity to inspect services they use and give critical and constructive feedback to services, projects, funders, organisations, or bodies that provide services to young
people in the borough. The Young Inspectors programme in Blackburn with Darwen has been developed from national guidance, to better serve our local needs. Young Inspectors contribute positively to improving key local services- thereby directly improving outcomes and experiences. The Blackburn with Darwen Young Inspectors Framework was co-produced with young people – with senior management support and guidance including to develop scoring matrices.