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Open Funding Round 3: Now Live

14 February 2022


WWCSC is pleased to announce  the launch of our third Open Funding Round. Over the course of the last two years we have funded projects and evaluations to grow the evidence base in Children’s Social Care. These have included whole-system change models, piloting new ways of working for social care professionals and targeted interventions for children and families. We are keen to continue this work and we welcome applications from any type of organisation or institution, and are particularly interested in applications submitted in partnership with local authorities and/or for interventions or programmes that were co-produced with children and families with a social worker.

What kind of interventions/programmes are you interested in?

We are interested in applications for all sorts of interventions, programmes or ways of working, as long as they are designed to improve outcomes for children with a social worker. 

The programme or intervention you submit could be:

  • A new intervention, programme or way of working with evidence of promise, that has yet to be put into practice in children’s social care.
  • An intervention, programme or way of working that is already being used, but could be rolled out to another group and/or another area
  • An intervention, programme or way of working that is already being used, but hasn’t yet been independently evaluated
  • An adaptation to an established intervention, programme or way of working

This is an Open Funding Round, so we will consider interventions that aim to improve outcomes in all areas of life for children with a social worker, but we’re particularly keen to receive applications in the following areas

  • The children’s social care workforce
  • Children and young people’s mental health
  • Residential care
  • Domestic abuse
  • Risk and decision-making

What are you funding?

The purpose of the Open Funding Round is to grow the evidence base in children’s social care. This means that, as well as funding the roll-out of the intervention or programme, we will also be funding an independent evaluation, conducted by a member of our panel of evaluators. We will only fund interventions where an evaluation is possible.
What do you mean by an evaluation?
As our name suggests, WWCSC is interested in understanding ‘what works’. That means

that we are particularly interested in conducting impact evaluations – research that answers the question ‘if I do X, what will happen to Y?’. 

To answer this type of question, we typically fund Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs), and some quasi-experimental designs (QEDs). We may also consider pilot studies, with the intention of scaling in the future.

Can we conduct our own evaluation?
No. We believe that it’s vital that all the projects we fund are independently evaluated.

What if we don’t want to participate in an evaluation?
Our purpose is to grow the evidence base in children’s social care. We do this by evaluating interventions to understand whether they work, for who and under what conditions. Funding for the intervention is contingent on participating in an independent evaluation.


What are the timelines?

Stage 1 opens on 14 February and closes on 4 April 2022. WWCSC will review applications, and will facilitate the applicants who are successful at this stage to partner with an independent evaluator from our panel. The applicants and evaluators will develop a Stage 2 proposal and an evaluation strategy, respectively, to be submitted to an external funding panel during Stage 2 (early June to mid July). 

We anticipate notifying successful applicants in early September, with projects beginning September/October 2022.

Where can I find out more?

If you are interested in submitting an application, please head over to our Projects & Funding page, where you’ll find the relevant forms and be able to register your interest to receive regular updates on the call.  If you have any further questions, please contact programmes@whatworks-csc.org.uk.