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Q: Having been through various transformations:- 1. Will our hours and job grades stay the same? 2. Will we be ring-fenced for only certain roles? 3. Is there any opportunities to progress / change roles?

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Q: What plans do senior managers have to look after the wellbeing of staff who are feeling anxious about the consultation, and what resources are there for line managers to support their teams?

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Q: What plans do senior managers have to look after the wellbeing of staff who are feeling anxious about the consultation, and what resources are there for line managers to support their teams?

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Write your question about the Children's Transformation Programme in a comment on this post. We will answer your question in a new post below.

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How are we going to ensure that families can access and our MDTs have knowledge of help and support available to children and families living in areas where Family/Family Network Hubs are not being located (e.g. South West Shropshire: Bishop's Castle and East Shropshire: Shifnal, Albrighton, Bridgnorth and rural surrounding areas?

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Family Help Together; A Framework for Action

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Family Help Together; A Framework for Action

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Family Help Together - A Framework for Action — Shropshire Safeguarding Community Partnership

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This site stores certain information as “cookies” on your device in order to improve your website experience. We also share information about your use of the site with analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services.

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Families First Partnership - Our Journey

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Families First Partnership - Our Journey

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Children's Transformation Overview - FFP

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Shaping Reform Through Evidence: The Data Behind the Families First Partnership Journey

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Shaping Reform Through Evidence: The Data Behind the Families First Partnership Journey

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Lead Child Protection Practitioner Standards

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Lead Child Protection Practitioner Standards

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Practice standards for child and family social workers in lead child protection practitioner roles June 2026

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Guidance to help schools and local authorities deliver high-quality provision in inclusion bases.

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Guidance to help schools and local authorities deliver high-quality provision in inclusion bases.

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Managing the Inclusive Mainstream Fund (IMF)

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Managing the Inclusive Mainstream Fund (IMF)

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Non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) produced to help school leaders and those involved with managing the use of the inclusive mainstream fund (IMF) in schools and 16 to 19 academies.

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Introduction

This publication provides non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education ( DfE).

It has been produced to help school leaders and those involved with managing the use of the inclusive mainstream fund ( IMF) in schools and 16 to 19 academies, such as:

academy trust leaders

head teachers

trustees and governors.

It is to help you make the most effective use of the IMF and ensure you adhere to the conditions of grant, including:

investing your IMF allocation in line with the 7 principles of inclusion

publishing an inclusion strategy on your school website by 31 December 2026 - this must include detail of activity invested in to alleviate barriers to learning and participation and budgeted costs (we have provided a template you can use to help you develop your strategy)

If you opt to create a multi-year strategy, you must ensure that this is reviewed annually and note this on the cover page of the document.

This guidance may also be useful for parents and local authorities who want to:

know how schools can invest their IMF allocation alongside their core budget (including their notional special educational needs (SEN) budget) to support inclusive practice

understand the requirement to produce an inclusion strategy

Separate guidance has been published on the:

Purpose

Schools must be places where every child is included and supported to achieve and thrive in their learning, regardless of their needs or background.

The IMF forms part of the government's commitment to support the development of a more inclusive mainstream system. Over £500 million per financial year over the next 3 years will equip schools, colleges and early years settings with upfront funding to help them to become inclusive by design. Inclusive activity should be funded by the school's core funding allocations, including their notional special SEN budget calculated and communicated by their local authority, as well as the IMF.

Our recent consultation SEND reform: putting children and young people first set out our proposals for a reformed special educational needs and disabilities ( SEND) system. We set out a vision for a system in which schools have a strong universal offer and for mainstream funding reforms to support early intervention and more flexible support. Early help and support for children with SEND has too often not been present and our investment through the IMF is a step towards improving outcomes - by ensuring every child and young person receives high quality, adaptive teaching, early help when they need it, and support that is proven to work.

You can use the IMF to strengthen inclusion for all pupils through investment in whole-school approaches and to support the development or delivery of early, evidence-based support for children with SEND. As we move towards a reformed system, we will look to further rebalance funding, directing more into core budgets for schools, so that they are better equipped with consistent funding to support children and young people with SEND.

Under our proposals, this will align with changes to accountability to ensure that this investment leads to improvements. We have proposed placing a legal duty on schools to produce an inclusion strategy, which will be more comprehensive and set out in greater detail how resources are used to benefit children and young people with SEND so parents and local partners can understand how inclusion is being delivered.

As part of this longer-term ambition, through their inspection framework, Ofsted will assess how:

leaders ensure the inclusion strategy is embedded in practice

staff are equipped to deliver it

This guidance sets out how schools should develop an initial inclusion strategy which is a first step towards a reformed system. Schools should plan how they intend to use additional funding provided through their IMF allocation, alongside their core budget allocation (including their notional SEN budget), to start building a more inclusive core offer for all children and young people, including those with SEND.

This should include taking meaningful steps to:

build a strong universal offer that embeds inclusion within the core school offer - in line with the 7 principles of inclusion - and has a positive impact on attainment, progress in learning, wellbeing, belonging and engagement

support the delivery of early, effective, targeted support for those who need it, without the need for formal assessment or diagnosis

In this first year, we recommend that most schools focus their investment on a small number of impactful activities to establish a strong foundation of inclusive practice within their universal offer. Schools with an established inclusive universal offer may wish to allocate investment towards targeted support.

Our proposed reforms also include every school eventually being part of a local group which will pool funding, share resources, and work together to expand help and support available to children and young people. Ahead of these proposed system changes we encourage schools to work collaboratively across any existing clusters and groups to consider how they can best address commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation. Each school must still publish their own inclusion strategy and IMF conditions of grant explain how pooling of funding is permitted, provided suitable financial governance is in place.

The using evidence section contains a range of resources which you can use to inform the selection of inclusive approaches appropriate to your school cohort.

As we move towards a reformed system, DfE will develop new national inclusion standards that set out evidence-informed tools, strategies and approaches that you can draw on to implement whole school approaches for inclusion and develop effective support for children and young people with additional needs.

The standards will be developed by an independent panel of experts and regularly reviewed to ensure they continue to reflect the best available evidence on SEND. These will support you in the development of future iterations of your inclusion strategy and effectively use of your core budget allocations to remove barriers to learning and participation.

Scope of your strategy

The 7 principles of inclusion are:

ambitious leadership and governance that embeds inclusion

evidence-based support prioritising early intervention

high quality adaptive teaching with curriculum designed for all learners

enriching provision beyond the classroom that all children can access

a safe and respectful culture fostering belonging, attendance, and participation in learning

strong partnerships with families and wider services

inclusive environments with continuous improvements to accessibility

When developing your inclusion strategy, you should select approaches that fall under the 7 principles of inclusion.

You should focus on implementing fewer approaches well, to ensure inclusive practice is embedded with impact, consistency and quality in mind. This should include prioritising high quality, adaptive teaching and reflecting on where you can build on existing inclusive practice to strengthen your inclusive offer for all pupils, particularly those with SEND.

As stated in the conditions of grant, any activity that you fund, in part or in full, using your IMF allocation must fall under one of the principles.

The approaches you choose must be evidence-informed and consider the barriers to learning and participation present in your cohort.

Our Inclusive mainstream fund: best practice for schools provides further details on the type of activities that might support each of these principles across both the universal offer and targeted support.

Universal offer

Central to a stronger inclusive mainstream system is a universal offer built on high quality, adaptive teaching and whole-school practices that enable all children, including those who face barriers to learning and participation, to achieve and thrive.

We expect you to use your IMF allocation and core budget allocation (including your notional SEN budget) to help you build a strong universal offer in line with the 7 principles of inclusion.

We encourage you to focus on strengthening your universal offer, building on existing practice, so more needs can be met earlier before the need for targeted support arises.

Targeted support

For children and young people whose needs cannot be met through the universal offer alone, targeted support should be provided to enable them to achieve and thrive.

Where you have a strong universal offer already, you can supplement your approach to inclusion with a more focused selection of targeted interventions.

This may include small group interventions to remove ongoing barriers to learning and participation, such as interventions to develop language skills, or pre-teaching vocabulary to help children access the curriculum, without formal assessment or statutory process.

Targeted support should be selected and implemented carefully, with particular attention paid to how it aligns with the curriculum to avoid a fragmented learning experience.

DfE has published new guidance to support the development and expansion of inclusion bases within mainstream schools, backed by our high needs capital investment. Schools should consider this guidance and how they can utilise both their IMF allocation and core funding to develop high quality inclusion bases that provide targeted support as part of developing an inclusion strategy.

Developing and delivering an effective inclusion strategy

As part of the IMF conditions of grant, you are required to produce an inclusion strategy to explain your plan to use your overall funding allocation to help you build a strong inclusive offer.

This section explains how you can use a 5-step approach, which is an ongoing process, to support you to develop and refine your strategy and is similar to the one you undertake for your pupil premium strategy:

1. Identifying and understanding the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation pupils face

2. Using evidence to consider inclusive practice

3. Developing an effective strategy

4. Delivering and monitoring your strategy

5. Evaluating and sustaining your strategy

Effective implementation is important for making best use of the IMF and your core budget allocations. You should treat implementation as a process to be executed over a series of stages, not as an event. The Education Endowment Foundation's ( EEF's) guide to implementation supports schools to embed an evidence-informed approach to implementation.

Step 1: Identifying barriers to learning and participation commonly occurring in your cohort

Identification of additional needs and commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation is an important part of the process for building a strong universal offer and considering the targeted support needed to improve inclusion for your cohort, without the need for statutory process.

This step should not solely be led by specific diagnoses or limited by the current identified need profile of children on SEN support or with education, health and care ( EHC) plans, but rather the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation identified across your cohort.

This will help you move towards an environment where all children can access learning, feel valued and safe, build capability and independence, and succeed.

To identify the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation facing your cohort, you should draw on a range of sources, including:

classroom observation and engagement with teachers

internal assessments

engagement with families and pupils

discussions with external professionals

data on SEND, including attendance, behaviour, and attainment

evidence on local or national trends in changing need

Step 2: Using evidence

The conditions of grant require schools to spend their IMF funding on activity in line with the 7 principles of inclusion and available evidence.

To support you to make the best use of your available funding, we encourage you to:

High quality teaching is the most important lever for improving outcomes for all pupils in mainstream schools, particularly those with SEND. We encourage you to think about how you can strengthen and sustain these practices at a cohort-level to remove barriers to learning and participation for children with additional needs. The EEF 's guidance on inclusive teaching, intended for publication in the summer of 2026, will provide further details on how schools can ensure strong practice in this area.

Examples of other evidence you should draw on include:

We encourage you to consider a range of external research evidence and use your own judgement and knowledge of your cohort's needs and the barriers to learning and participation your pupils face. The EEF has produced guidance on Using research evidence to help you understand, identify and examine evidence to successfully develop and implement practice.

Step 3: Developing an effective strategy

Develop a strategy for effective use of your inclusive mainstream funding, that:

reflects on existing inclusive practice within your school and how effectively it removes barriers to learning and participation to support all pupils, particularly those with SEND, and where you can go further to deliver a high quality universal offer

identifies the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation across your cohort

prioritises activities that will have the greatest impact on your cohort considering the evidence that supports these approaches

sets clear, realistic and measurable outcomes for reflecting on the extent to which you have strengthened inclusion

DfE requires that schools publish their strategy on their website. We have provided a template to help you develop your strategy. If you do not choose to use the template, you must still cover the following areas:

the barriers to learning and participation identified across your cohort

activities invested in to alleviate these barriers

intended outcomes

review of the previous academic year

Further information on what should be included in these sections is provided in the Inclusion strategy template.

This approach is similar to the one you are expected to undertake when writing your pupil premium strategy statement. You may find the EEF's guide to the pupil premium, with its tiered approach to strategy planning, a helpful tool in informing the development of your inclusion strategy.

Schools should use their IMF, alongside their core school budget (including the notional SEN budget), to embed inclusion through their universal offer and targeted support.

How you choose to allocate spending across different elements of inclusion principles will depend on the commonly occurring barriers to learning and participation your pupils face and the extent to which inclusive practice, including a high quality universal offer, is already embedded in your school.

We encourage you to use evidence to build on what works for your pupils and use your IMF allocation to strengthen select areas of inclusion from which your pupils would most benefit.

The development of your strategy should be a shared responsibility across your whole leadership team. This could include:

senior leaders such as the head teacher, deputy head teachers, assistant head teachers, school business manager, and special education needs coordinator (SENCO)

governors, trustees, and academy trust leaders (as appropriate to your settings)

middle leaders such as heads of departments and curriculum leads

other school staff involved in pastoral support, curriculum development, and other relevant areas of school practice

You should consult with families, pupils and other stakeholders in your school community to ensure that the strategy reflects your unique local context. This might include:

special or alternative provision (AP) schools you may have links with

local area partners such as health and specialist education professionals

You may also find it helpful to work closely with other schools developing their own inclusion strategies and consider whether peer review and challenge could help to improve your own strategy.

Step 4: Delivering and monitoring your strategy

The EEF's Schools Guide to Implementation has:

information on how to develop and embed evidence-informed approaches

practical advice about how to unite values, understanding and skills around your strategy

To deliver your strategy, you should ensure:

all staff understand inclusion, and display commitment to removing barriers to learning and participation for all children, including those with SEND

the IMF is not considered the only source of funding for approaches you deploy and should be seen as a supplement to equip you to plan, prepare and implement inclusive practice and prepare for reforms

your plan is realistic and you have planned how it will be effectively delivered, including any local partners that will help you deliver the strategy

Once your strategy is in place, you should ensure it is being delivered effectively through:

monitoring pupil outcomes for inclusion by using, sharing and understanding data and insights on progress - this includes creating time and opportunities for staff to reflect on:

data and feedback

how well the strategy is being delivered

further opportunities for strengthening inclusion

supporting staff wellbeing and workload, expectations and understanding of how you plan to embed inclusion through your strategy - this can be done through engagement, collaboration, setting realistic goals and providing extra time and support for staff

reinforcing the strategy through:

ongoing professional development for inclusion and supporting pupils with SEND

communicating and reminding staff that inclusion is everyone's responsibility and how they can support the aims of the strategy

We expect that all pupils will benefit from high quality teaching and whole-school approaches that seek to embed inclusive practice. You should identify and monitor pupils with additional needs to ensure that:

these approaches are having a positive impact on attainment, progress in learning, wellbeing, belonging and engagement

barriers to learning and participation are being alleviated through any targeted interventions for those specific pupils

Step 5: Evaluating and sustaining your strategy

To evaluate the impact of your approaches, you should:

set realistic goals of what you can achieve in this first year and build on this going forward, considering the short, medium and long-term outcomes needed to achieve your strategy objectives

measure success based on outcomes for pupils with SEND such as attendance, attainment, progress in learning, belonging, wellbeing at school, participation, engagement, and behaviour - supported by a robust and transparent evaluation framework

ensure that evaluation is an ongoing process - strategies that have been effective in one year may not continue to be effective the next

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Developing an inclusion strategy using the inclusive mainstream fund

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This publication provides non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education ( DfE). It has been produced to help school leaders and those involved with managing the use of the inclusive mainstream fund ( IMF) in schools and 16 to 19 academies, such as: academy trust leaders head teachers trustees and governors.

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Guidance: for planning, managing, maintaining and delivering mainstream education estates

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Guidance: for planning, managing, maintaining and delivering mainstream education estates

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Design adaptations to support an inclusive and accessible environment in mainstream education settings.

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Guidance: Dedicated teaching & support spaces for children with SEND.

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Guidance: Dedicated teaching & support spaces for children with SEND.

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Government launches first of its kind guidance on creating dedicated teaching and support spaces for children with SEND.

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Young people with SEND to benefit from new guidance on inclusion

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Government launches first of its kind guidance on creating dedicated teaching and support spaces for children with SEND.

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Delivering the children's social care reset 

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Delivering the children's social care reset 

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Funding Guidance Information

1. Inclusive Mainstream Fund

Supports mainstream schools to embed inclusive practice and provide early support without reliance on diagnosis or statutory processes.

Guidance & methodology (2026–27):
Inclusive Mainstream Fund for schools: methodology 2026 to 2027

Overview page:
Inclusive Mainstream Fund – GOV.UK collection

2. Early Years Fund (Inclusive Early Years Fund)

Upfront funding for early years providers to build inclusive practice and enable early intervention for children with SEND.

Conditions of grant & operational guidance (for LAs):
Inclusive early years fund for 2026 to 2027 – GOV.UK

Sector summary of key requirements:
DfE confirms further details on the Inclusive Early Years Fund

3. High Needs Capital Allocations

Capital funding for LAs to create new SEND and AP places and improve existing provision across the 0–25 age range.

Main guidance page:
High needs provision capital allocations – GOV.UK

Detailed guidance (what funding can be used for):
High needs provision capital allocations: guidance

2026–27 memorandum of understanding:
High needs provision capital allocation 2026 to 2027 – MoU

4. Expert at Hand Grant (Experts at Hand)

Funding for LAs (with ICB partners) to provide specialist education and health expertise into mainstream settings without requiring EHCPs.

Official funding guidance (2026–27):
Experts at Hand & Local Authority SEND Transformation Fund – GOV.UK

Sector briefing and interpretation:
Government unveils £429m ‘Experts at Hand’ offer

5. Transformation Grant (SEND Transformation Funding)

Part of the combined Experts at Hand & SEND Transformation Fund, supporting system-wide reform, workforce, and delivery infrastructure.

Included within the same guidance:
Experts at Hand & Local Authority SEND Transformation Fund – GOV.UK

Context within wider SEND reform investment:
DfE announces SEND reform spending plan

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Major employment drive to help unlock 200,000 new jobs and apprenticeships for next generation

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A major youth employment drive backed by £1 billion will help create 200,000 jobs for young people, alongside the biggest transformation of apprenticeships in a decade.

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Guidance developed by DCMS to help policy officials involve young people in policymaking.

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Information about the Young Futures Hubs (YF Hubs) and the eight Early Adopters including their aims, delivery model and participating local authorities.

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Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy

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For two decades, this country has had no national strategy for its young people. And yet, during that time, the experience of growing up in England has been transformed. This is the first generation to be entirely born into a digital world. Born in the aftermath of a global economic crash, they have experienced over a decade of austerity, political and economic turmoil, and a global pandemic.

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Change & Transformation Programme Update April 2026 - Open Questions, Shared Answers

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Change & Transformation Programme Update April 2026 - Open Questions, Shared Answers

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Asked Questions, Shared Answers : April 26

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Purpose

This guidance outlines the principles and core components that underpin all neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams for children and young people.

It should be read alongside the 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance and the Neighbourhood health guidelines 2025/26, which sets out the six core components of neighbourhood health models. One of these components is the neighbourhood multidisciplinary team (MDT). This guidance provides further details for this core component, specifically for children and young people.

In 2025/26, integrated care boards (ICBs) have been asked to initially prioritise adults, children and young people with complex health and social care needs who require support from multiple services and organisations. This guidance supports ICBs focusing on children and young people in 2025/26, as well as when scaling and expanding the neighbourhood approach over the coming years.

The specific design of each neighbourhood multidisciplinary team for children and young people will need to be locally determined to reflect the local population and their needs.

The case studies in appendix 1 provide examples of how these principles and core components have been implemented across different localities.

Background

Children and young people represent a third of England's population. Identifying and meeting their needs at the earliest opportunity is vital to giving them the best possible start in life.

Lord Darzi's investigation of the NHS in England highlighted concerns about the growing gap between demand and capacity of services for children and young people. An unprecedented increase in the demand for services coincides with increasing complexity in the health and care needs of children and young people.

The government has committed to moving to a neighbourhood health service with more care delivered in local communities. Neighbourhoods (populations circa 30,000 to 50,000 people) are served by groups of GP practices working with NHS community services, social care and other providers to deliver more co-ordinated and proactive services, including through primary care networks. The NHS 10 Year Health Plan will seek to set out how the NHS can deliver change to achieve these ambitions.

Neighbourhood MDTs for children and young people will provide integrated care that provides timely access to specialist advice, including paediatric and mental health expertise, through primary care-led team working. This will deliver care closer to home and improve the outcomes and experience for children and young people, as well as their families and carers.

Greater benefits are realised when neighbourhood MDTs are integrated with wider local services, especially education, social care, voluntary sector, and community and social enterprise (VCSE) partners to provide holistic, targeted needs-led planning and support.

This approach will enhance the current primary care offer for children and young people who might otherwise require referrals to secondary care, community services or other health and social care support. It also increases the opportunities for early intervention and prevention support, especially for children in their early years.

Implementing these models of care will reduce pressures on secondary care services by reducing both outpatient referrals and A&E attendances. These models also contribute to improved quality of care alongside improving clinical knowledge among professionals.

Neighbourhood MDTs for children and young people aim to achieve parity of esteem between mental and physical health by embedding mental health expertise within MDTs, bridging the gap between primary care and children and young people mental health services (CYPMHS).

The neighbourhood MDTs alone will not overcome the sustained pressures on health services, particularly those where current demand far exceeds capacity. However, the MDTs can help streamline appropriate referrals and access and provide support to children and young people, as well as their families and carers, while waiting for diagnostic assessments and treatment.

This guidance is not a service specification. Service design and implementation will depend on local factors including demographics, population needs, the local healthcare infrastructure, the resources available, geography and capital considerations.

Special consideration should be given to ensuring reasonable adjustments are made for children and young people with a physical disability, a learning disability, special educational needs, sensory impairment or neurodivergent condition.

Core components

GPs and other health and care professionals proactively identify children and young people who would benefit from additional support and refer them on to the MDT case discussion.

A population health management approach should be used for case identification. As detailed in the Neighbourhood health guidelines 2025/26, ICBs have been asked to apply a consistent system-wide population health management method to their analytics platforms to segment and risk stratify populations, based on complexity and forecasted resource use.

Risk stratification allows targeted intervention and can reduce disparities in access, experience and outcomes, supporting the reduction in health inequalities.

Referral routes should be determined locally with consideration given to who can refer into the service, for example, GP or other health and MDT members, education settings, families and carers or self-referral.

MDT case discussion and triage

The MDT case discussion and triage meeting brings together GPs, the designated paediatrician, the mental health professional(s) and other MDT members.

The referred cases are discussed and the most appropriate next steps for the child or young person and their family or carer are agreed. This may include onward referrals to the neighbourhood MDT clinic, secondary care, community services such as CYPMHS, school nursing services, follow-up by the GP or other appropriate pathways. Feedback from the discussion is provided to the child or young person and their family or carer, as well as to the referrer.

The neighbourhood MDT may also help directly facilitate referrals into secondary or community services, with evaluation suggesting this improves acceptance rates.

The expectations for MDT case discussion and triage meetings are:

The composition of the MDT will be determined locally and depend on workforce and patient need. Membership of the MDT can be fixed (with the same members joining every meeting) or flexible (with relevant members joining based on the referred cases).

It is essential that the MDT maintains links with wider hubs such as family hubs and youth hubs. Consideration should also be given to maintaining links with VCSE organisations for wider support.

Neighbourhood MDT clinics, located in the GP practice or other community settings, allow direct care to be delivered to children and young people who need it.

For those who require specialist input from a general paediatrician, MDT clinics may replace the need to travel to the local hospital for a paediatric outpatient appointment.

The expectation is that MDT clinics will:

take place at least once a month

ideally be delivered jointly by the designated paediatrician and the GP

For those requiring support with mental health needs, direct care enables earlier access to support. The specific mental health offer of each neighbourhood MDT for children and young people should be determined locally but could include:

MDT clinics can also be used to integrate wider health and social support services, such as early years support or asthma specialists.

Professional knowledge sharing

GPs are provided with increased access to the designated paediatrician and mental health professional(s) outside of the scheduled triage and case discussion meetings and clinics, for example, by email or phone.

Bringing together MDT professionals facilitates a shared understanding of different specialties. For example, partnership working across professions and sectors enables development and streamlining of care pathways.

MDT members support integration by offering knowledge on service navigation, including referral pathways, eligibility criteria and processes for accessing specialised services. This co-ordinated approach minimises duplication, reduces delays and ensures timely access to the most appropriate support.

Neighbourhood MDTs also provide the opportunity for dedicated learning sessions. For example, interdisciplinary learning could be delivered at the MDT case discussion meeting about a specific area of children and young people's healthcare. MDT members should also share their learning with colleagues outside the team, encouraging wider dissemination.

Children and young people, family and carer engagement and health promotion

Neighbourhood MDTs should provide focused support for local needs. Examples include health promotion, training tailored for different health needs, supported self-management for families and carers and signposting to local support services and networks.

Co-development of neighbourhood MDTs for children and young people is vital to their success. Building meaningful and ongoing engagement with children and young people from the start, as well as with family and carer champions, will help to deliver a patient-centred service.

Neighbourhood MDTs for children and young people will be delivered at a neighbourhood and primary care network level.

Direct care will be delivered in primary care or community settings. MDTs will need to consider the available estates for delivering direct care and ensure they are fully accessible with reasonable adjustments in place. Virtual working is recommended for the MDT case discussion and triage meetings.

Target population

Neighbourhood MDTs for children and young people will provide a universal service available to all babies, children and young people.

It is recommended that the service is available up to the age of 18 with consideration for extending the provision through to 25 years old to support better transition into adult services.

Consideration should be given to a more flexible age limit for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, as well as those in complex situations with multiple needs.

Each neighbourhood MDT for children and young people will be made up of a core workforce with links to an extended team that enables access to additional specialist resource as needed. The extended MDT members will be locally determined and will be dependent on the workforce resources available and the needs of the local population.

Membership of the MDT can be fixed (with the same members joining every meeting) or flexible (with relevant members joining based on the referred cases).

Core clinical workforce for every neighbourhood MDT for children and young people includes:

The extended MDT includes a wider workforce. Greater benefits are realised when neighbourhood MDTs are also integrated with wider local services, especially with education, social care and VCSE partners, to provide holistic, targeted support.

The membership of the extended MDT will be locally determined and may include:

allied health professionals, for example, dietitian, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, speech and language therapist

autism and learning disability keyworkers

children's community nurse

Early Help keyworker

family hub keyworker

health visitor

health and justice link worker

mental health support teams in schools

nurse specialist, for example, asthma, learning disability

practice nurse

pharmacist

public health, prevention and support

school nurse

social prescribing link worker

social worker

specialist professionals providing support for needs related to special education needs, neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism and ADHD, and learning disabilities and physical disabilities

voluntary, community and social enterprise partners

wellbeing practitioner

youth worker

The MDTs will require project management. Dedicated resources to undertake this role are recommended to support mobilisation, data sharing, data collection, reporting and administration.

It is best practice to assign a care co-ordinator to act as the point of contact between the MDT and the patients, family and carers, to improve both their experience and continuity of care. The role could be undertaken by any member of the MDT team and will support referrals into the MDT triage and any onward referrals required.

All health and social care providers registered with CQC must ensure their staff receive training on learning disability and autism appropriate to their role. This legal requirement was introduced by the Health and Care Act 2022.

Integrated care board and system level support

Integrated care boards (ICBs) as commissioners should ensure system-level support is available for the MDTs in their area. This support will include:

We would expect to see:

increased patient satisfaction (via Friends and Family test or other qualitative measures)

reduction in outpatient referrals for certain specialties, such as general paediatrics

reduction in waiting time for certain outpatient appointments, such as general paediatrics

reduction in number of A&E attendances and re-attendances

reduction in number of acute mental health presentations in crisis

reduction in non-elective admissions

reduction in subsequent GP appointments for children and young people who have been discussed in the MDT

increased rates of school readiness

increased rates of school attendance

There may also be condition-specific outcomes that can be improved, for example, reduction in the number of asthma exacerbations.

NHS England will work with regional children and young people's leads and ICBs to support implementation and the sharing of learning.
Legal framework
The law allows personal data to be shared between those offering care directly to patients.

It also protects children's confidentiality when data about them is used for other purposes. In these cases, data cannot identify individual patients unless they have the consent of the patient themselves. These secondary uses of data are essential to run a safe, efficient and equitable health service.

It is not necessary to seek consent to share information for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of a child provided there is a lawful basis to process any personal information required.

Data and clinical record sharing should adhere to national guidance.
Specific considerations about data sharing and collection
Neighbourhood MDTs for CYP will need to consider the different purposes they wish to collect and share data for and how data can be used to achieve the aims of the MDT and monitor outcomes/ measure impact.

MDTs will need to ensure the correct data sharing agreements and data protection impact assessments are completed for sharing data. Support and information can be accessed via their ICB.

See appendix 1 for a case study about how the Child Health Integrated Learning and Delivery System (CHILDS) team has established data sharing and collection.

A lead organisation typically needs to be assigned as part of the ICB's provider selection process. They will be the contractual lead for the neighbourhood MDTs for children and young people and will negotiate the services of other MDT members.

Options for this could include:

Both the ICB and lead contract organisation should be involved in discussions as any agreed arrangements for providing new or different services need to be referenced in the NHS Standard Contracts between them. It is recommended that desired outcomes are also written into the contract with the selected provider, probably as part of the service specification.

A short-term basic risk share agreement may be beneficial between the commissioner and different providers to ensure any adverse financial consequences are managed fairly across participating organisations.

See appendix 1 for a case study about how Connecting Care for Children has done this in practice in North West London ICB.

Co-development and working in partnership

Co-development through partnership working with children, young people, families, carers and the wider community helps ensure services meet people's needs, improving their experience and outcomes.

ICBs and trusts have a legal duty to make arrangements to involve the public in their decision-making about NHS services. NHS England has published statutory guidance for commissioners and providers for working in partnership with people and communities.

See appendix 1 for a case study about how this worked in practice at The Well Centre in London.

Appendix 1 - Case studies

Connecting Care for Children, London - a mature model

The Well Centre, London - an open access model

Sparkbrook Children's Zone, Birmingham - an integrated Early Help model

East Lancashire Child and Adolescent Services Primary Care Team, Lancashire - an integrated mental health model

Connected Care Network, Birmingham - a digitally enabled and VCSE integrated model

Child Health Integrated Learning and Delivery System, London - a population health management focused model

Bromley Child Health Integrated Partnership, London - a rapidly adopted model

Connecting Care for Children, London - a mature model

Connecting Care for Children (CC4C) is an established model in North West London ICB that places general practice at its heart and reinforces the GP's role in delivering high-quality care for children and young people and their families. CC4C has served as a pioneering model that has been replicated across the country.

The model aims for integration between GP practices and paediatric services, as well as integration across various child and family agencies and organisations. The model has 3 central components: public and patient engagement, specialist outreach and open access to specialist expertise.

A whole population approach aims to drive prevention and improve equity. It divides the childhood population into 6 segments:

For each of these segments, CC4C envisages a team around the child, delivering the right care, at the right place, first time.
Service evolution
The CC4C model was driven by paediatricians at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, with local GPs and commissioning leads. Developed through extensive stakeholder consultation and co-design, the CC4C model launched in 2014 with 3 child health hubs with paediatricians from St Mary's Hospital. Over time, it expanded to 8 hubs across 4 London boroughs, each located in local GP surgeries and serving around 50,000 residents. Inspired by its success, 15 additional hubs were established in North West London, supported by paediatricians from other local hospitals. This created a network of 23 hubs across 6 boroughs.

The funding arrangements for the current model uses repurposed consultant time to reduce the number of hospital outpatient slots and instead support general practice. Seed funding was from a mix of sources, including charity, innovation funding and the former Health Education England.

North West London ICB has a partnership working agreement between each primary care network and the ICB. For the primary care network, this outlines:

Participating acute trusts are advised that all face-to-face joint clinics are coded and counted as first outpatient appointments. Currently, virtual MDTs are counted and coded as Advice and Guidance and payment flows under the elective recovery fund arrangements.

The Whole Systems Integrated Care (WSIC) data-sharing system has been a key enabler. The system enables professionals to see selected information about the person they are caring for. This is done via an integrated care record created using information from the range of care providers involved in a person's treatment. It is stored in a data warehouse, and its use is governed by a legal document, the Whole Systems Integrated Care NWL Digital Information Agreement.

Additionally, the WSIC dashboards provide clinicians and care professionals providing direct care to patients with a suite of tools. Alongside cases identified by members of the MDT, dashboards can be used to find and manage patients who require more targeted and proactive care.

The core clinical workforce for each hub consists of:

1 paediatrician

1 lead GP

Service delivery

Proactive case identification is established by encouraging all partners connected to the child health hub to identify those that may benefit from a co-ordinated management plan. Locally determined criteria for case identification can include re-admissions data, frequency of attendance at A&E or children and young people with long-term conditions.

Referrals are made via EMIS or SystmOne (primary care computer systems) or email, and the referring GP is encouraged to attend the allocated MDT for their case. For clinic referrals, the referring GP is asked to clearly articulate the clinical question they would like to be addressed.

MDT case discussion and triage

Monthly 1-hour meetings discuss approximately 10 cases.

All MDT case discussion meetings involve the lead GP and general paediatrician, but all community professionals involved in any aspect of the healthcare provision for children and young people are invited to attend. The exact professionals contributing to each MDT therefore varies in each hub depending on local need. On average, there are 15 to 25 participants from approximately 7 different professional backgrounds at each meeting. A hub co-ordinator maintains an active list of MDT participants.

Outcomes of 154 referrals to MDT case discussion over 1 year:

59% given advice to enable management in primary care

20% given advice to refer to specific named health professionals, such as dietitian, physiotherapist or specialist mental health services

21% booked into the joint clinic in the child health hub

A joint monthly clinic is held by the general paediatrician in the primary care setting. A hub co-ordinator sends appointment details and reminders. A different GP is in attendance each month which enables GPs from all associated practices to experience joint working. Approximately 6 to 7 children and young people are seen in each clinic.

Specialist clinics are held as needed, for example, joint transition clinics or clinics for patients with long term conditions.

Outcomes of 126 patients seen in the joint clinic over 1 year:

75% assessed and discharged

17% referred to tertiary paediatrics or specialist community services

6% referred for specialist investigation

2% booked for further follow up in child health hub

Professional knowledge sharing

GPs have open access to their "neighbourhood" paediatrician from the local hospital with a phone and email contact available for advice.

GP trainees attend the clinic on a rotational basis. Learning points from each MDT case discussion meeting are distributed to all health professionals associated with the hub by the paediatrician.

Children, young people, family and carer engagement and health promotion

"Practice champions" are volunteers from the GP practice population who provide peer support, encourage self-management and support the co-design of child health hub services. Champions provide insights into the priorities that matter to families and the lived experience of services they use. CC4C has worked with local champions to address these priorities. For example, to increase knowledge of childhood vaccination; to support young people who are moving into adult services; to encourage healthy eating and exercise; and to help refugee families understand how to navigate health services.

CC4C has worked alongside families of the 8 North West London boroughs and the local ICS to help set the ICS objectives for children and young people. 6 priority themes emerged: access to mental health support, mental health support in schools, navigating the system, young people's ownership of their healthcare, pressures on families and maintaining a healthy weight. This has informed ongoing co-production work within CC4C.

Impact Children, young people, family and carer experience System efficiency
The CC4C model releases net additional 7% capacity from general paediatric outpatients. Evaluation showed:
Professional experience

100% of professionals (50 responses) "agreed" or "strongly agreed" the hubs helped them to gain knowledge of local services, improved collaboration and professional relationships.

89% "agreed" or "strongly agreed" the hubs increased professional capability. The development of social capital, which was defined as "trust, reciprocity and collaboration", was the benefit most strongly identified (82% strongly agreed).

The Well Centre, London - an open access model

The Well Centre is an open-access hub for young people aged 11 to 20 who live or have a registered GP in the Lambeth or Wandsworth London boroughs. Approximately 1,000 young people access the service annually.

The core elements of the Well Centre are that it is GP-led, youth-friendly and responsive to young people's needs. More recently, the service has shifted its focus to addressing mental health concerns, adapting to the needs of the young people it supports.
Local context
Both London boroughs have high rates of deprivation and considerable income inequality. In Lambeth, over 60% of young people accessing the Well Centre are from the 2 most deprived quintiles.

In addition, a considerable number of young people accessing the Well Centre fall into the categories of interest for the Violence Reduction Unit - a disproportionate number in comparison to the incidence of these issues in the general population. Staff at the centre report the general incidence of trauma is high, including a high proportion of young people who had suffered from domestic violence or lived in an environment where others were victims. There is high demand for mental health and wellbeing support. In 2022/23, the main presenting concerns to the Wandsworth part of the service related to anxiety and panic (31%) or depression/low mood (28%). The remainder included anxiety and depression (15%), behaviour issues (anger and aggression, 11%), issues relating to autism spectrum disorder or ADHD (12%) or issues relating to gender identity (2%).
Service evolution
The service was launched in Lambeth in 2011, jointly designed and developed by general practitioners and a youth work charity. In 2019, a new part of the service for Wandsworth was commissioned through a model of GPs in the Wandsworth borough working in their own practices.

The core clinical workforce across both boroughs consists of:
Service delivery
Open access referrals come from other health services, social services, voluntary sector organisations or through self-referral or family contact.

MDT case discussion and triage

Professional knowledge sharing

Education on young people's health is offered to local GPs and allied health professionals. It has also offered a range of additional activities, including specialist workshops, school visits, youth centre outreach work. The team also deliver primary care support to youth offending teams or other organisations working with this age group.

The Well Centre also works with secondary care in 2 large local hospital trusts, providing 4 health and wellbeing practitioners who support young people with diabetes to actively manage their own care.

Children, young people, family and carer engagement and health promotion

The Well Centre was founded with a strong commitment to youth engagement in the planning and delivery of the service. In the beginning, young people participated in:

service design

decoration

use of space

registration design

prototyping of journey through the service

A quarterly youth participation group consisting of current and previous service users ensures continued engagement. The group discusses themes such as what young people might want to change about the Well Centre. It also considers session numbers, session content and communications.

There is also good engagement with young commissioners from the local boroughs, and the service is inspected by young people from the local HealthWatch.

Groups for young people on specific health promotion and wellbeing topics are run by 2 health and wellbeing practitioners and are always well attended.

Impact Clinical outcomes
Quantitative data indicates that 82% of young people attending the Well Centre have shown improvement in their WHO-5 Wellbeing Index scores (a validated wellbeing questionnaire). On average, scores increased by 62%, with a 10% change representing a significant improvement.
Experience of young people

94% (77 responses) of young people would recommend the service.

A large proportion of positive feedback related to the friendliness of staff, which created trust and space to confide.

Experience of professionals

Professionals report improved knowledge and confidence alongside being able to deliver improved access to services, especially for those who live in more deprived neighbourhoods.

Professionals have also observed improvements in onward referrals for interventions and support from other services. This focus on early intervention helps to redirect cases from emergency care and CAMHS and provides the most appropriate timely support for children and young people.

Sparkbrook Children's Zone, Birmingham - an integrated Early Help model

Sparkbrook Children's Zone (SCZ) is a partnership project between Birmingham Children's Hospital, a local Early Help team and a single primary care network.

A key component of the SCZ offer is the co-located Early Help support service, aimed at addressing the social determinants of health. This approach plays a pivotal role in signposting and referring families to local support services to prevent costly late interventions.
Local context
The Sparkbrook ward has a large population from minority ethnic backgrounds (85%) and a high population density (the second highest in Birmingham) with a high proportion of young people (about one-third are aged 0 to 15).

Sparkbrook is Birmingham's most deprived ward, with almost half of children in the area defined as living in poverty. 93% of residents live within the nation's most deprived 10% of areas, compared to 40% citywide. 89% of families accessing SCZ are from the most deprived quintile.

The pilot site was selected due to the area's high levels of diversity and deprivation, infant mortality, childhood obesity, special educational needs and disabilities, poor oral health, and low immunisation uptake. High levels of unnecessary A&E attendances were also recognised before the pilot.
Service evolution
SCZ was established in March 2022 as a pilot integrated health and social care clinic through a single primary care network of 8 GP surgeries, with a list of 14,000 children and young people.

The initial pilot relied on 2 funding streams, including local authority and Early Help support. Partnership development facilitated the co-location of an existing mental health service with SCZ, strengthening the available mental health offer. The local authority initially funded a healthy weight programme, but this funding has since ended, prompting SCZ to deliver a service to address the resulting gap in provision. There are ongoing challenges around data sharing and consistency of funding for SCZ.

The initial pilot ran in a single community venue, co-located with other community services and family support. A second clinic was developed to improve accessibility to reduce a high proportion of missed appointments. Further expansion has led to an out of hours clinic from 5pm to 8pm in a nearby GP surgery which has effectively addressed high numbers of missed appointments.

The key workforce covering a single primary care network of 8 GP surgeries includes:

a GP lead

a paediatric consultant lead

a paediatric nurse (band 6)

an Early Help lead alongside 4 other professionals from Early Help (programme manager, communication and development office and family support advisors)

Service delivery

Referrals are identified by GPs and made via EMIS. Children, young people, family and carers can also self-refer through their GP.

The SCZ model does not have any triage or case discussion, and all cases referred are offered direct facing care.

A 4-hour clinic is delivered 2 to 3 times per week by a GP, paediatrician and paediatric nurse.

The paediatric nurse completes a well child check, including oral health screening, immunisation check and feeding and toileting concerns. The GP or paediatrician completes an extended clinical assessment.

During these initial assessments, a third of children, young people, family and carers are identified to have needs that could benefit from support from the Early Help service:

the main themes of needs relate to those with neurodiversity and behaviour or sleep issues, mental health and housing

39% of these cases benefit from co-ordinated support via the Family Connect Form - a comprehensive tool for capturing detailed information on a family's circumstances and needs. This enables professionals from various disciplines to collaborate more effectively, allowing for the early identification of potential risks and the organisation of MDT support around the family to meet needs before they escalate

A mental health service is also co-located on the clinic day allowing direct access as soon as needs are identified.

Outcomes of 2072 attendances at the SCZ clinics over 2.5 years:

70% are discharged

6% follow up with SCZ

5% follow up with GP

4% referred to secondary care

0.9% emergency admission to hospital

27% referred for Early Help support

Outcomes from Early Help support:

94% of cases supported by Early Help do not require escalation to social services support.

Professional knowledge sharing

The key workforce delivers a quarterly virtual 1-hour learning session open to all partners connected to the SCZ model.

The co-location of multiple services within SCZ encourages informal interdisciplinary knowledge sharing and streamlines referral pathways.

Children, young people, family and carer engagement and health promotion
Impact
Project monitoring data and evaluation reporting by Birmingham Health Partners have shown impact in several areas:
Parent and carer experience

Survey feedback indicates overall satisfaction rating as 4.2/5 (42 responses).

Positive feedback has been linked to a more geographically accessible service and easier pathways between services.

Specialist input

94% of cases supported by Early Help within SCZ do not require onward escalation to social services support, highlighting the effectiveness and timeliness of intervention.

The SCZ model provides access to a clinic with paediatrician input in 1 week, a significantly reduced wait compared to a wait of 7 months in Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Health outcomes
Co-ordinated response to a measles outbreak was possible through shared decision-making among professionals and SCZ being trusted as a community-focused service.
MDT experience

Professionals report improved collaboration between health and Early Help service has improved communication and interprofessional learning.

Increased job satisfaction has also been reported due to being able to spend more quality time with children, young people and families and address their holistic needs.

Cost effectiveness:

Most children and young people are discharged as their needs can be met within the service. Fewer secondary care referrals and emergency department attendances have led to savings of £44.08 per patient compared to standard primary care.

There are additional system savings from intervening early, effectively mitigating the escalation of problems, thereby reducing the demand for more resource-intensive and costly interventions.

East Lancashire Child and Adolescent Services Primary Care Team, Lancashire - an integrated mental health model

The East Lancashire Child and Adolescent Services (ELCAS) Primary Care Team was set up to increase primary care capacity for managing mental health needs and improve access to secondary care when required.

The team is an example of a sustainable and complementary service development within a specialist children and young people's mental health service.
Local context
The team covers East Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen, an area of 13 primary care networks with a resident population of 556,000.

It is a diverse socioeconomic area but includes 4 of the 10 boroughs in England with the highest child poverty levels. One of the boroughs has the highest proportion of children in relative low-income families in the UK at 43%.
Service evolution
The design of the ELCAS Primary Care Team model was informed by the THRIVE framework for system change. This is a person-centred and needs-led approach to delivering mental health services for children, young people and their families. It conceptualises need in 5 categories: thriving, getting advice, getting help, getting more help and risk support.

In 2016, ELCAS primarily comprised of a child and adolescent psychiatry-led specialist CAMHS team, focused on the "getting more help" aspect of the THRIVE framework. In 2016, in response to GP feedback, ELCAS developed an approach to embed the "getting advice" aspect of the THRIVE framework into primary care.

Primary mental health workers (PMHWs) were employed by ELCAS but based in GP practices across Pennine Lancashire. Initially 3 PMHWs were appointed with non-recurrent funding for a 1-year pilot. Their roles were evenly split, with 50% of their time dedicated to consultation and training for professionals and the remaining 50% focused on direct clinical care. This has evolved to a permanently funded team, with design influenced by GP and primary care network leads, commissioners, service users, and ELCAS service and team leads.

Successful recruitment and retention have led to an experienced team with a broad range of expertise, with PMHWs appointed from diverse professional backgrounds including psychology, nursing and social work. Band 6 and band 7 PMHWs are co-located in adjacent primary care networks to create a supervisory structure. This supports integration with mental health services providing "getting help" or "getting more help", as well as providing consultation and training to other local agencies. Parenting practitioners deliver parent training groups, now in conjunction with Mental Health Support Teams in schools.

More recently, ELCAS has worked with local primary care networks to establish a new role, child and young person's wellbeing practitioner (CYWP), created through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme and NHS England pilot funding. This band 5 practitioner delivers longer-term psychological intervention within these primary care networks for children identified as requiring help by PMHWs based in the team.

The team across 13 primary care networks currently consists of:

1 consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist (1.25 programmed activities per week)

1 team lead (Band 8a)

8 primary mental health workers (including Band 6 PMHWs and Band 7 senior PMHWs)

1 children and young people's wellbeing practitioner (Band 5)

2 parenting practitioners (Band 4)

1 GP specialty trainee

1 administrator

Service delivery

PMHWs provide a "single point of consultation" for professionals in the primary care networks, advising on how best to support children and young people's mental health needs. Requests for non-urgent advice and consultation are accepted flexibly (in person, by telephone or email), with a response within 7 days.

If the PMHW feels direct care following consultation is appropriate (or is unsure what is required), they will arrange assessment without the need for a written referral.

The team also accepts written referrals from professionals and online self-referrals. There are 3 referral meetings each week, where written referrals are triaged.

Acceptance criteria are broad and map onto NHS England model specifications for Tier 2/3 CAMHS, with routine assessment of neurodevelopmental disorder a notable exclusion.

Multidisciplinary case discussion

PMHWs deliver brief case management using the assessment, consultation and brief intervention (ACBI) approach. This is a person-centred model of consultation allowing clinical care to be typically delivered in up to 3 sessions by experienced practitioners.

The CYWP delivers evidence-based low-intensity psychological interventions for anxiety, depression and conduct difficulties, including guided self-help.

Care is delivered flexibly, including in primary care settings or remotely, using the Attend Anywhere platform.

If a child or young person require further interventions from specialist CAMHS teams, the ELCAS MDT can facilitate this seamlessly without the need for further referral.

Professional knowledge sharing

PMHWs join various child health and multi-agency support hubs operating across the different primary care networks.

PMHWs offer training flexibly within their primary care networks and organise bespoke sessions for GP practices and other community services. The team also delivers Youth Mental Health First Aid training to professionals in the region.

The weekly MDT meeting often includes continuing professional development activity.

A GP specialty training post was developed in the team in 2018 and has proved popular, leading to an additional post being created. Regular teaching is delivered for all local GP specialty training posts in their academic programme.

Children, young people, family and carer engagement and health promotion

2 parenting practitioners facilitate the "incredible years parenting programme". This offer rotates across all primary care networks. This is now in conjunction with Mental Health Support Teams based in primary schools. Groups have previously been delivered multilingually in English and Urdu.

The team offers a weekly virtual drop-in session to support access for children, parent and professionals to "get advice", including on an unnamed basis.

The team has trialled use of personal health budgets, as an NHS England exemplar site, to complement the personalised care delivered by the ACBI model. This involves identifying goals with children, young people, and their family and carers, and using small grants to help them achieve these where appropriate.

Impact Children, young people, family and carer outcomes

79% of children and young people receiving direct care from the team in the ACBI model did not require onward referral to specialist CAMHS teams. This indicates the potential scope for managing needs in primary care settings or on digital platforms.

Child Outcomes Research Consortium analysis shows statistically significant mean improvements in patient and clinician-reported outcome measures.

Identifying need and improving pathways to care
Service evaluation has shown a statistically significant increase in referral and acceptance rates from a host GP practice since the deployment of a PMHW there. The practice sustained this referral rate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Workforce experience
Connected Care Network, Birmingham - a digitally enabled and VCSE integrated model

Inspired by the Connecting Care for Children model in London, Connected Care Network (CCN) was established in North Solihull, Birmingham. It operates across health, education, social and voluntary and community sectors, shifting away from standardised solutions in favour of an approach that considers local relationships, demographics and need. The CCN aims to provide a digitally enabled, integrated model of care that ensures the right care at the right time in the right place.

The commissioning of 2 local VCSE organisations as lead delivery partners demonstrates how bringing together the health and VCSE sectors can deliver holistic, integrated care in a community.

The model also focuses on enabling children and young people and their family and carers to "tell the story once", reducing the frustrating burden on families to repeat their needs.
Local context
The North Solihull primary care network is the largest in the Birmingham and Solihull ICB, with approximately 20,000 registered children and young people. 100% of the population lives in neighbourhoods classed as the most deprived 20% in the country, with more than 50% living in the most deprived 10%. 30% of under-5 years are defined as living in poverty. 21% of children and young people living in North Solihull have special educational needs, compared to the borough average of 15%.

The Joy App has been pivotal in providing an ICB-approved software solution for integration. This platform connects with primary care clinical systems and is flexible enough to be suitable across organisations. Alongside an intuitive client management system, the ability to track referrals and record outcome measures has made it core to the CCN's integration success.
Service evolution
Extensive stakeholder engagement was carried out with children, young people, family, carers and key stakeholders at "place" and commissioning level to determine local priorities. This led to joint planning and pooling of resources from various agencies.

2 of the lead delivery partners are part of a well-established and connected network of VCSE organisations focused on children and young people. This was made possible by providing contracting and funding through the ICB, with the full-scale model operating from August 2023.

Local partners from across the system continue to join, enabling the CCN to expand its breadth and reach. The CCN prioritises identifying and using existing processes, teams, professionals and organisations. Where gaps are identified, the CCN takes the lead in creating new pathways to address these. This has often meant needing to find new funding and grants.

The key workforce across the primary care network is:
Service delivery

Referrals are received from local professionals through an online referral form, co-ordinated by the Joy App. There are no referral criteria other than a professional requiring support to address a need they have identified for a child, young people, family or carer.

The top 5 referring agencies to the CCN are primary care, schools, Solihull Youth Justice Service, the local authority inclusion service and VCSEs.

MDT case discussion and triage

The GP clinical lead provides 2 telephone clinics per week, primarily for children and young people with long-term health conditions or challenges navigating the health system.

Professional knowledge sharing

The evolution and success of the CCN has been based on professional relationship building, trust and delivering positive outcomes across the board and across the system

Partnership working has facilitated improved local care pathways, including a new dental pathway with direct referral established through the CCN.

Children, young people, family and carer engagement and health promotion

Stakeholder engagement and co-design have been prioritised from the outset to identify local needs and tailor the CCN model to these.

Early recognition and intervention to meet low-level needs is provided through family support home visits, workshops, parent meet-ups and signposting.

The CCN works with social prescribing teams, community development teams, VCSE organisations and schools, leveraging local resources and knowledge to find tailored support for local communities.

The CCN supports children and young people while on waiting lists for specialist services. Additionally, the service has evolved to address unmet needs that were identified through local evaluation - specifically for help with sleep and diet. Early-stage development of a pathway for care-experienced children and young people is also underway through partnership working with specialist nurses.

Impact Children, young people, family and carer experience
The "tell the story once" approach has received positive feedback from families. It addresses a priority identified in stakeholder engagement by reducing the need for families to repeatedly share their stories to multiple professionals and services.
Clinical outcomes
In the first 6 months of the pilot, the CCN found:
System efficiency
Data comparing practices have shown CCN leads to:

Estimated cost savings (in April 2024, based on 427 cases referred) include:

These estimated savings relate to health services; the CCN also anticipates savings across the broader system (for example, education) and the child or young person's life course.
System co-ordination

The Joy App enables streamlined referrals and flow of information between professionals and services that support child and young people, thereby building capacity.

It also enables data collection and outcomes measurement across the system partners. Stakeholders have provided positive feedback on the system's user friendliness and capabilities.

Child Health Integrated Learning and Delivery System, London - a population health management focused model

The Child Health Integrated Learning and Delivery System (CHILDS) framework is established across the 2 boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, arising from the Children and Young People's Health Partnership.

The framework helps deliver holistic, personalised biopsychosocial care. It uses health data science and population health management tools for higher-quality care and continuous learning. Through using data, the frameworks help to proactively identify children or young people who need early intervention, prevention and care. This helps reduce health inequalities, ensuring care for children and young people with the highest needs.
Local context
Lambeth and Southwark are 2 of London's most densely populated boroughs with a combined population of 650,000 of which 110,000 are children and young people. Both boroughs rank within England's 5% most deprived local authority areas.

The CHILDS model supports a proportionately higher number of children and young people living within the most deprived areas. 61% of children and young people discussed in triage and 50% of those seen by the nursing service live in the most deprived quintile, compared to 42% of all children and young people in the local population who live in the most deprived quintile.
Service evolution
The Children and Young People's Health Partnership (CYPHP) was established in 2012. After piloting child health teams in 2014 and conducting a randomised control trial comparing intervention and control practices from 2016 to 2021, integrated child health teams now work across all GP practices in both boroughs. The proactive nursing service is also now "business as usual" and offered to all children in the boroughs.

In 2022, a clinical audit found that 18 to 20% of children and young people discussed by the child health teams had mental health needs. In response, a pilot has been launched to integrate mental health support directly into the child health teams.

The CHILDS model currently has 15 child health teams covering 100% of children and young people in both boroughs with approximately 400 to 500 cases discussed per month.
Each child health team includes: Service delivery
MDT case discussion and triage

Each child health team holds a weekly meeting to review all referrals. All resulting plans are documented in EMIS. The outcome is sent to the GP and admin support via a "task" in EMIS.

Possible outcomes of the triage meetings:

Advice and Guidance to GPs (approximately 65%)

booked into the child health clinic, held in primary care (approximately 15%)

referral to a specialist team (approximately 12%)

referral to the specialist children's community nursing service (approximately 8%)

A clinic is held every 4 to 6 weeks for children and young people the child health team have triaged. Appointments are directly booked using EMIS.

The paediatrician sees the child or young person in a primary care setting, documents the consultation on EMIS and generates a letter to the referring GP. Any actions or outcomes relevant to the referring GP will be allocated as "tasks" via EMIS for both the GP and administration team. If the child needs to be referred to a specialist clinic, the paediatrician will aim to do this during the clinic.

Comparing health service use for the 6 months before and after children and young people are seen in a clinic, there is a 40% reduction in primary care appointments with a GP or practice nurse.

Within the Children's Community Nursing Service:

specialist children's nurses provide support with medicine management and treat diagnosed conditions (asthma, eczema and constipation)

referrals to the nursing service are through active case identification through EMIS, referrals from the child health hub team or self-referral

Professional knowledge sharing

Children, young people, family and carer engagement and health promotion

The service provides health packs tailored for different health conditions for families to support health promotion and supported self-management.
Impact Family experience
94% of families would recommend the service to others, 95% felt the care their child received was good, and 85% felt the time and date of their appointment was convenient.
Specialist input
The average waiting time to access a clinic with paediatrician input in the CHILDS model is 3 weeks. This compares to the 7-week average wait for an outpatient clinic for general paediatrics.
Health outcomes
The service has facilitated clinically significant improvements in eczema symptom control (96% of discharged patients had improved scores in validated symptom measures) and uncontrolled asthma (90% of those with uncontrolled asthma at initial assessment were discharged with reasonably or well controlled asthma).
System efficiency GP experience
70% of GPs felt the child health teams had improved care for their patients, 70% felt it had improved access to advice and 60% felt it had improved their knowledge about child health.
Data sharing and collection arrangements from Child Health Integrated Learning and Delivery System - London
The CHILDs team has established data sharing and collection processes for the following purposes:
Data for service delivery and monitoring

Access to primary care records for secondary care clinicians (this requires a data sharing agreement and data protection impact assessment)

Recording outcomes (including consistent documentation of MDT discussions and clinics by using standardised templates)

Monthly reporting on activity and outcomes (this requires a data sharing agreement and data protection impact assessment and includes GP Federations running searches of activity captured using the templates and sending to the CHILDS team)

Patient and GP feedback on the service through surveys

Identifying those who may have an unmet need (this includes a search of diagnosis codes and medications in primary care records to find those with certain conditions)

Identifying unmet needs (this requires a data sharing agreement and data protection impact assessment and includes families filling in an online biopsychosocial "health check" to understand their level of need)

Monitoring symptom control (this is assessed at every appointment with the nurse)

Data for population health management

Data extracts from primary care (this requires a data sharing agreement and data protection impact assessment and includes GP Federations extracting primary care data on behalf of the GP practices)

Data extracts from community and secondary care data extract (this requires a data sharing agreement and data protection impact assessment and includes data extract from each hospital)

Pre-assessment health check data (this requires a data sharing agreement and data protection impact assessment and includes pseudonymised biopsychosocial information to understand wider population health needs)

Public health information (for example, deprivation indices and air quality)

Child health services research

Data extracts from primary care, secondary care and health information (these are the same extracts as for population health management).

Ethical approval and consent are also required to undertake health services research.

Bromley Child Health Integrated Partnership, London - a rapidly adopted model

Bromley Children's Health Integrated Partnership (BCHIP) is a new pathway for referring children to general paediatrics. The model was based on the CHILDS model developed in Lambeth and Southwark and rapidly scaled up in the first year.
Local context
Bromley is the largest borough of London by area. Its population is over 350,000, of which approximately 22% are children and young people. The communities within Bromley differ considerably: the densely populated areas bordering inner London boroughs have higher levels of deprivation and illness prevalence. There is a large part of the borough with lower levels of deprivation and some small communities are spread over a large rural area.

The proportion of residents from minority ethnic backgrounds in Bromley is higher than the average for England but lower than the London average.

Before the pathway's introduction, paediatric secondary care services in Bromley were under significant pressure. At the end of 2022, there was a 39-week wait for outpatient general paediatric appointments despite an increase in the number of new patient appointments being offered.
Service evolution The core PCN team consists of: Service delivery 1. Case identification

GPs and allied primary care healthcare professionals can refer into BCHIP.

No referral letter is required as EMIS clinic notes can be used to inform triage discussions.

MDT case discussion and triage

A weekly virtual MDT discussion includes the core team, which includes the lead GP, consultant paediatrician and community paediatric nurse. Up to 10 new referrals are discussed each week.

Typical outcomes are:

discharge with Advice and Guidance following triage discussion

GP to request further investigations and re-refer for review

recommendation of trial of treatment and then review with advice to re-refer if unsuccessful or if there are ongoing issues

recommendation of referral to a community service or specialist service - referral is done directly by the BCHIP team where possible

booked into a face-to-face BCHIP appointment

Outcomes of the triage meetings are immediately shared with the referrer via EMIS. An MDT summary note is also transcribed directly to the EMIS patient record, and the referring professional is notified of this new entry.

Outcomes of 1,219 cases discussed in triage:

54% discharged from service

25% referred into the BCHIP face-to-face clinic

7% referred to specialist secondary care

5% inappropriate referral

3% referred into community services

6% further review in triage required or no outcome recorded

Children and young people needing face-to-face assessment are asked to attend the monthly joint clinic with the GP and consultant paediatrician at a GP surgery within one of the primary care networks.

A maximum of 12 patients are seen in each 4-hour clinic.

Outcomes of approximately 300 children seen in the B-CHIP clinic:

76% discharged from service

10% further review in primary care

11% referred to specialist secondary care

3% referred into community services

Professional knowledge sharing and communication

Children, young people, family and carer engagement and health promotion

Children and young people were given a say from the beginning by involving them in the decision of the service name.

Informal feedback and patient engagement continue through the face-to-face clinic, with a patient survey content informing ongoing refinement and evolution of the final model.

Impact Children, young people, family and carer experience Specialist input

BCHIP clinic has a 4 to 6 week wait time between referral into the service and access to a clinic with a paediatrician if this is required. This represents a 33-week reduction, compared to the 39-week wait in the pathway before BCHIP implementation.

Twice as many children referred are receiving prompt advice or remote management than previously, when they had to wait to be seen in a hospital clinic before any specialist advice was available.

System efficiency
Following the implementation of BCHIP in June 2023, the local general paediatric service received a significant reduction in referrals, from 421 referrals per month (April to July 2023) to an average of 40 referrals per month (October 2023 to January 2024).
Primary care clinician experience
100% reported BCHIP had improved access to advice, 64% felt it had improved their knowledge about child health, and 93% felt it had improved care for children and young people.

Appendix 2 - Opportunities for increasing support for specific needs

Neighbourhood MDTs for children and young people will provide a universal integrated care offer, including mental health support, with additional opportunities to deliver targeted support for those with needs that demand greater coordination and continuity of care.

The specific approach for each MDT will be shaped by the local context, considering the strengths of existing services and established service partnerships in each area.
Examples of targeted support from existing services

Asthma: Connecting Care for Children (CC4C) in North West London has enhanced its core offer by delivering asthma-focussed MDT meetings and asthma-focused clinic days. Risk stratification using primary care records allows identification of children and young people with the greatest needs based on number of A&E attendances, exacerbations, risk factors and salbutamol prescriptions received. This targeted offer allows the team to optimise care by providing inhaler technique reviews, ensuring up-to-date asthma management plan and facilitating annual reviews.

Autism and ADHD: Health and wellbeing navigators within the neighbourhood MDT in East Kent and Medway and Swale work alongside the family and school to facilitate the completion of referrals for autism and ADHD. This co-ordination streamlines the referral process, reducing pressures on the GP. The navigators also provide emotional and wellbeing support to children and young people and their families and carers while waiting for diagnostic assessments.

Complex situations with multiple needs: Nurse specialists allocated to children with multiple needs are invited to join MDT meetings at Connecting Care for Children (CC4C) to provide specific guidance to primary care clinicians and paediatricians. This has enabled better co-ordination between specialist health services and between health and education teams, leading to a smoother transition to adult care for patients with neurodisabilities.

Mental health needs: The East Lancashire Child and Adolescent Services Primary Care Team delivers evidence-based, low-intensity psychological interventions for anxiety, depression and conduct difficulties, including guided self-help. Brief case management allows clinical care to be typically delivered in up to 3 sessions. If someone requires further support from specialist mental health services, this can be facilitated seamlessly without the need for further referral.

Wider educational support: The Connected Care Network (CCN) in Birmingham works closely with local partners to support children and young people and families and carers to improve school attendance, enhance educational attainment, particularly those who are at risk of being "not in employment, education or training". Partnership working includes agencies providing mental health and wellbeing support, as well as employment and skills support. It also includes Solihull Council's Inclusion service and the education, health and care plan service. The CCN input into professionals' meetings, providing direct support and help develop integrative community and school support plans.

Wider social support: "Early Help" support is a key component of the Sparkbrook Children's Zone offer. 30% of children and young people, family and carers referred for clinic assessment have wider social concerns such as domestic violence, housing, parenting support and financial difficulties. This integration and co-location of Early Help ensures support from family support advisors can be accessed as soon as the need is identified.

Examples from Connecting Care for Children Example 1: Child with complex health needs (for example, neurodisability, Down's syndrome, multiple food allergies)

Situation: Marie has Down's syndrome. She has a paediatrician and assigned nurse specialist who she sees regularly. She presents to A&E with difficulty in breathing.

Action: Discussion at MDT after A&E presentation enables Marie's care co-ordination to be planned and managed between the family, primary care and secondary and community care.

Marie's assigned nurse specialist connects with the local team by joining the MDT case discussion meeting to provide specific advice and support. The nurse specialist also liaises with the school nursing team to ensure Marie's mainstream school are aware of any changes in her health needs or support plans.

Result: The MDT professionals and family have increased confidence to manage minor inter-current illnesses despite the complex health background. Benefits also include fewer A&E attendances and smoother transition to adult care.
Example 2: Child with social needs (for example, safeguarding issue or teenage self-harm)
Situation: Carlo has poor speech and language skills. He sees the GP with his mother who explains they have poor housing, significant financial difficulties and Carlo doesn't sleep.

Action: At the MDT case discussion meeting, the GP and health visitor discuss how to support the family to access resources at the local early years centre, as well as providing speech and language support.

Result: There is an increase in the MDT confidence and skills to identify and support the family with social needs and refer to local resources appropriately. MDT discussions can also highlight safeguarding concerns for children and young people that may not have otherwise been on the radar.
Example 3: Acutely severely unwell child (for example, sepsis, trauma, meningitis, surgical emergency)
Situation: Ahmed is brought to his GP with a temperature of 39 and vomiting. He is unwell and the GP calls 999.

Action: All paediatric admissions for this pathway are retrospectively discussed at MDTs, enabling the team to understand early warning signs and gain skills in identifying potential early interventions to prevent deterioration - such as, risk identification and appropriate, rapid referral.

Result: The MDT professionals strengthen their skills in identifying and accurately diagnosing acutely severely unwell children requiring hospital admission, reducing the number of cases where care may be delayed due to warning signs being missed or misdiagnosed.
Example 4: Supporting a young person with complex neuro-disability
Situation: Noah has multiple and complex health conditions, including recurrent pneumonia, upper airway obstruction, global delay and seizures.

Action: From the age of 14, Noah accesses his annual health check through the MDT clinic with GP and paediatrician input.

Result: The family feels confident that they know the GP team closely and the GP is confident to take the role of generalist into adulthood.

The Darzi investigation emphasised known sustained pressures on access to health services for children and young people.

Children and young people are the most likely age group to attend A&E with concerns that could be managed effectively in primary care or community settings. A&E attendance for children and young people is predicted to increase by 50% by 2030.

Children and young people are disproportionately represented in the demand for mental health services, with referrals increasing at more than 3 times the rates of adult referrals. During 2022/23, 949,200 children and young people had active referrals to mental health services. This is 8% of England's total population of people under 18 years.

Across community health services, children and young people face significant waits for diagnostic assessments and access to the subsequent support they need. In community paediatrics, the average wait time from referral to diagnosis exceeds 2 years for autism and ADHD, and over 3 years for cerebral palsy. Between 2022 and 2024, 17% of children waited over 4 years for their diagnosis in community paediatrics. Significant waits are also seen for access to vital therapies, with wait times of 11 months for physiotherapy, 9 months for speech and language therapy and 6 months for hearing services.

These systemic issues are contributing to poorer outcomes for children and young people, including:
Publications
Publication reference: PRN01695

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NHS England " Guidance on neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams for children and young people

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Purpose This guidance outlines the principles and core components that underpin all neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams for children and young people. It should be read alongside the 2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance and the Neighbourhood health guidelines 2025/26, which sets out the six core components of neighbourhood health models.

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Guidance for safeguarding partners on implementing family help, multi-agency child protection and family group decision-making reforms.

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Guidance for safeguarding partners on implementing family help, multi-agency child protection and family group decision-making reforms.

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Every child achieving and thriving (HTML version)

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Childhood is changing and our education system must change with it. Children are growing up in a world that is evolving faster, with increased connectivity but also uncertainty, increased communication but growing mistrust. Our children’s horizons are wider, their ambitions greater and their determination to make the world a better place even stronger.

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Create your own account and login to get up-to-date peer learning, information, guidance and support.

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Welcome

Free-to-use digital tools for the global public service community

Connect digitally with colleagues and experts, share knowledge, insight and best practice, learn from experiences and inspire innovation and new ways of working.

Sign up and start using for free now.

Why Knowledge Hub?

The benefits of KHub collaboration

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Connect digitally with colleagues and experts, share knowledge, insight and best practice, learn from experiences and inspire innovation and new ways of working. Sign up and start using for free now.

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functions of MACPTs

qualification and skills requirements for MACPT members

relevant agencies that safeguarding partners can approach to facilitate the operation of MACPTs

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The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (the bill) is a key step towards delivering the government’s opportunity mission to break the link between children’s background and their future success.

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Families First for Children Pathfinder Wirral Team Reflections

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Families first for children FFC pathfinder programme

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Get your views heard and your questions answered - it only takes 10 minutes. It's anonymous and your chance to have your say.

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Easily create surveys and polls to collect customer feedback, measure employee satisfaction, and organize team events.

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Guidance from Government on implementing LYTP.

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Information about the Local Youth Transformation Pilot (LYTP) including its aims, delivery model and participating local authorities.

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Change & Transformation Programme Update March 2026.

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Change & Transformation Programme Update March 2026.

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CS Change & Transformation : March 26 Update

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Q: At the Tuesday morning service update on the 7th July, it was mentioned that by mid-August we would know the places and spaces and which teams are likely to be in each - is this still on target?

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Q: What plans do leaders have in place to support the ongoing anxiety many members of staff have about the consultation?

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Q: Following today's service meeting and the announcement of the new Inclusion Practitioner role, I wondered whether all of the new roles and opportunities that have been mentioned will be advertised at the same time.

During the previous transformation process, roles were not advertised simultaneously, which left staff having to decide whether to apply without having visibility of all available opportunities. I would appreciate any clarification on how this process will be managed this time.

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Q: How are we going to ensure that families can access and our MDTs have knowledge of help and support available to children and families living in areas where Family/Family Network Hubs are not being located (e.g. South West Shropshire: Bishop's Castle and East Shropshire: Shifnal, Albrighton, Bridgnorth and rural surrounding areas?

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Q: Currently social workers based at Guildhall, should they take a role which sees them at a locality based hub, will the hub become their new place for mileage claims?

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Q: With the FSM vouchers coming to an end and HAF becoming the main source of holiday support, we are seeing more families expressing concern about how they will manage food costs during the school holidays.

HAF is a valuable provision for many families and is greatly appreciated where it meets their needs. However, some SEND families, particularly those with children who have more complex needs, can find it difficult to access sessions safely or appropriately. Similarly, older children and teenagers may be less likely to engage with the activities on offer.

While the allocation of 16 sessions per child is helpful, families have shared concerns that this may only cover a small proportion of meals across the six-week summer holiday, leaving them worried about how they will meet their children's basic needs for the remainder of the break.

We continue to support families through food bank referrals where appropriate, although we are finding that some households are approaching or have reached the limits of what local food banks can provide within a year.

I wondered whether there are any plans to further develop HAF provision for SEND children and young people, particularly teenagers, and whether any additional support or funding may be considered for families experiencing the most financial hardship?

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Q: During the previous Early Help Transformation, many staff felt surprised by the announcement of changes to roles and structures, which understandably created anxiety and uncertainty. As the Families First Partnership develops, it would be beneficial for staff wellbeing and engagement if there were earlier opportunities for discussion and consultation around proposed role changes, team structures, and potential work locations. Greater communication and involvement throughout the process may help staff feel better informed, supported, and prepared for forthcoming changes, rather than receiving information for the first time at larger briefing events.

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Q: It would be useful to have summaries of the work taking place in the task and finish groups, and who is representing EH on these.

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Q: FSW have had the chance to have a Q&A session about the changes and how they might be impacted and I wondered if there would be an opportunity for other teams to have a Q&A session about what the changes might mean for other teams, or for those teams to hear the same messages the FSW have heard.

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Q: What is the business case that needs to be completed by May? How are staff inputting into this?

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Q: How often will we get updates about the development of FFP? In a Service update meeting Early Help were informed that consultation around the FFP will start in September. What is the duration of this consultation?

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Becoming a Change-Maker

We’re inviting colleagues from across Children’s Services and partner organisations to become Change-Makers for the Children’s Transformation Programme.

Change-Makers play a vital role in helping shape and embed the new ways of working.

This isn’t about having all the answers, it’s about bringing workforce insight, testing ideas in practice, and helping changes land well in teams.

As a Change-Maker, you will:

Act as a link between your team and the transformation work

Share feedback, questions and ideas from practice

Help sense check plans and highlight what will work (and what won’t)

Support colleagues to understand what’s changing and why

You don’t need a formal role or specialist background – just an interest in improving how we work together to support children, young people and families.

If you’d like to get involved, speak to your manager, Task & Finish Group representative or email childrens.transformation@shropshire.gov.uk

Together, we can make sure the future system is designed with the workforce, not for the workforce.

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FSW have had the chance to have a Q&A session about the changes and how they might be impacted and I wondered if there would be an opportunity for other teams to also have a Q&A session about what the changes might mean for other teams, or for those teams to hear the same messages the FSW have heard.

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It would be useful to have summaries of the work taking place in the task and finish groups, and who is representing EH on these.

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Who is the skills audit aimed at and what is it's purpose - does it cover the whole of the EH workforce or just staff in the hubs.

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What is the business case that needs to be completed by May? How are staff imputing into this?

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Question - How often will we get updates about the development of FFP?

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Why not join our RAPID ACTION TEAMS (Rats)? (Click the Link)

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Why not join our RAPID ACTION TEAMS (Rats)? (Click the Link)

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The RAPID ACTION TEAMS (Rats) are focussed pieces or work to visions, design and create crucial parts of our response to the FFP Guidelines? You will be part of shaping the new 'world' and making a difference to the children and families we work with.

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Please ask us ANYTHING - and we will review all comments and come back to you.

Click the plus button above to add your question.

If someone has already asked the same question, use and emoji to show you want to ask the same or agree etc.

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Delivering the Children’s Social Care Reset an implementation plan for local partners 2026 to 2029

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Delivering the Children’s Social Care Reset an implementation plan for local partners 2026 to 2029

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Publication of Delivering the Children’s Social Care Reset an implementation plan for local partners 2026 to 2029