Warrington Borough Council have a new approach to planning with families, known as the Circle of Change. Warrington are concerned about families’ experiences, particularly in child protection conferences, of plans being made to safeguard children that ‘do to’ rather than ‘with’ families and also overly burden the social worker with responsibility. Circle of Change is a dynamic tool that draws on resources across the multi-disciplinary network and puts families at the centre of plans to create change.

WWCSCS’s role in supporting the self- evaluation of this new approach will begin with delivering DEMO (Diagnosing Evidence Minded Organisations) and an Evidence Masterclass in Autumn 2019.

Steve Peddie – Executive Director, Families and Wellbeing (DASS & DCS) said:

“The senior leadership team are very excited about this new innovation in child protection planning that encourages effective working together and mutually influential relationships between families, social workers and multi-agency partners. We are thrilled to be joining with What Works for Children’s Social Care to evaluate this new way of working and ensure we can evidence excellent social work practice, great outcomes for children and demonstrate our continued commitment in Warrington to be a learning organisation that takes pride in retaining quality staff.”