Brighton and Hove City Council developed its Early Parenting Assessment Programme (EPAP) in 2011 to support families where there are concerns for the welfare of children pre-birth. The programme is designed to support and assess families through group work and 1:1 sessions from pregnancy up until the baby is 6 months old. What Works for Children’s Social Care will work with Brighton and Hove to evaluate EPAP through the PINE programme. This will begin with WWCSC delivering an Evidence Masterclass in Brighton and Hove before work starts on the self-evaluation EPAP in Autumn 2019.

Tom Stibbs, Principle Social Worker said:

“We are looking forward to working with What Works for Children’s Social Care as part of their Practice in Need of Evaluation programme. It is a priority for us to continue to evaluate the support we offer to families and to try and learn about what makes a difference for families and children. A key part of this is thinking about how our services need to adapt as the needs of families in the City change. We are, therefore, pleased that we can work with the Centre to review our Early Parenting and Assessment Programme to ensure we offer the best support we can to families with children as early as possible within our systems.  Working with the Centre also provides an excellent opportunity for us to develop how we use evidence and research in practice and embed our aspiration to be a learning organisation.”