IMPROVING EVIDENCE FOR BETTER OUTCOMES

We aim to improve the lives of children and families through setting standards and generating the best research into what works for children’s social care.

What Works for Children’s Social Care (WWCSC) and the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) merged in December 2022 and are now Foundations, the What Works Centre for Children & Families. You can visit our new website here. 

This website will remain live for now but is not being updated. Here you can find research and work we carried out as WWCSC before the new organisation was formally launched in June 2023.

What Works for Children’s Social Care seeks to improve the lives of children and families through setting standards in research and generating the best evidence into what works in children’s social care.

Our vision is for a world in which all children thrive, regardless of their early childhood experiences and that children’s services improve the lives of children who need support and protection.

We generate, collate and make accessible the best evidence for practitioners, policy makers and practice leaders.

What Works For Children’s Social Care (WWCSC) and the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) are merging. The new merged organisation is operating initially under the working name of What Works for Early Intervention and Children’s Social Care.

We work across three areas:

LATEST NEWS

  • read more about Round two of our Spark Grant Scheme: Building capacity in children’s social care research
    Blog

    Round two of our Spark Grant Scheme: Building capacity in children’s social care research

    20 April 2023
    Our Spark Grant Scheme aims to fund new research in children’s social care, conducted by researchers who may struggle to secure funding through other routes, particularly Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and/or researchers from underrepresented, minoritised groups. The mission Building on the success of the first round of our Spark Grant Scheme, we are pleased to […]
  • read more about Navigating power dynamics in peer research
    Blog

    Navigating power dynamics in peer research

    18 April 2023
    The following blog was written by Lily-Rose Sharry, a peer researcher working on our Care Leavers’ Emotional Wellbeing (CLEW) project. Through exploratory research, this project aims to improve understanding of the help that local authorities provide to care leavers to support their emotional wellbeing. As a part of this, we have carried out a qualitative […]
  • read more about The Pine Progression Fund: taking the next steps through the evaluation pipeline 
    Blog

    The Pine Progression Fund: taking the next steps through the evaluation pipeline 

    12 April 2023
    Following the success of our PINE programme, we're excited to launch the Pine Progression Fund. Pippa Milligan introduces the new programme and the three organisations taking part.
  • read more about Social Workers in Schools: why we are not recommending investment
    Blog

    Social Workers in Schools: why we are not recommending investment

    30 March 2023
    Donna Molloy, Director of Policy & Practice, unpacks the findings from our Randomised Control Trial (RCT) into the Social Workers in Schools intervention and our recommendations for policy and practice.