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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.

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  • read more about Help shape our research priorities – phase two coming soon
    Blog

    Help shape our research priorities – phase two coming soon

    20 January 2020
    We have always been clear that the answer to ‘what works’ in children’s social care will come from those closest to it – from social workers, from young people and care experienced people, from parents and carers, from senior leaders, from academics, charities and private sector providers. This is why we want to ensure all […]
  • read more about Reading referrals and forecasting the future: how difficult is it to know what’s likely to happen next in social work?
    Blog

    Reading referrals and forecasting the future: how difficult is it to know what’s likely to happen next in social work?

    16 January 2020
    Child and family social workers in England make crucial decisions every day, affecting the lives of many thousands of children, parents and other family members. Good decision-making in social work almost always involves working collaboratively with families and sharing responsibility for making decisions. Yet it also involves making professional judgements about future harm and the […]
  • read more about New research shows the potential for improving social work decision-making
    News

    New research shows the potential for improving social work decision-making

    16 January 2020
    A pilot project involving almost 300 social workers found that some established approaches used to improve forecasting in other fields may make a positive difference for social workers too – but that others may not be so effective. What Works for Children’s Social Care, in association with its research partners at CASCADE, Cardiff University, today […]
  • read more about Numbers plus
    Blog

    Numbers plus

    19 December 2019
    This month has been dominated by numbers – polls, seat counts, demographics and so on. As someone who’s spent most of his life thinking about data and evaluation, this has been interesting to follow. Early next year, we’ll begin publishing our own numbers – the results of our study on forecasting, the indicative evidence of […]
  • read more about Why evaluate?
    Blog

    Why evaluate?

    28 November 2019
    Last week we were at the National Children and Adult Services conference in Bournemouth. As well as attending the conference, and talking with people visiting the stand of our partner the Social Care Institute of Excellence, we were pleased to host a session on the morning of the last day of the conference. The session, […]
  • read more about We’re recruiting!
    News

    We’re recruiting!

    7 November 2019
    We are looking for a Communications and Events Officer to join our growing team. This role will be responsible for supporting and implementing the communications and marketing activity for WWCSC. You will work day to day with the Centre’s team and with teams of collaborators, particularly our research partner at Cardiff University. More info and […]
  • read more about How do we know we’re doing it right? Evaluating multi-agency working
    Blog

    How do we know we’re doing it right? Evaluating multi-agency working

    7 November 2019
    Our Practice in Need of Evidence programme (PINE) is well underway with our first cohort of nine partners working on conducting their own evaluations – with our support – of their promising practice. Based on the fantastic response to this first round, and really positive initial feedback from the participants, we’ve launched another round – […]
  • read more about Increasing engagement with FDAC: An open call to develop light-touch interventions for families
    News

    Increasing engagement with FDAC: An open call to develop light-touch interventions for families

    5 November 2019
    We are pleased to announce that we are looking for an organisation to help design ways to increase parental engagement in Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC), as part of a new strand of the Supporting Families: Investing in Practice programme. The recent review of the existing literature by CASCADE at Cardiff University suggests that […]
  • read more about Across borders
    Blog

    Across borders

    30 October 2019
    With England set to face South Africa this weekend in a Rugby World Cup final that almost featured Wales, the differences between two of the nations that make up Great Britain have been at the front of coverage – and having gone to school just a few miles from the Severn Bridge, these sporting rivalries […]
  • read more about Call for applications: Multi-agency working with children’s social care
    News

    Call for applications: Multi-agency working with children’s social care

    23 October 2019
    We are delighted to be seeking participants for the extension of our Practice In Need of Evidence (PINE) programme, examining multi-agency partnerships working to improve outcomes in children’s social care. Applications can be from any statutory agencies involved in multi-agency partnership work to improve outcomes for children who are engaged with children’s social care. The […]
  • read more about Local authorities participating in Mockingbird Family Model trial announced
    News

    Local authorities participating in Mockingbird Family Model trial announced

    8 October 2019
    What Works for Children’s Social Care, in association with the Department for Education, is delighted to announce the launch of the Mockingbird Family Model across ten new local authorities, as part of ‘Supporting Families: Investing in Practice’. This programme will help hundreds more foster families with practical and emotional support and advice, helping them tackle […]
  • read more about Local authorities announced for expansion of Schwartz Rounds trial
    News

    Local authorities announced for expansion of Schwartz Rounds trial

    4 October 2019
    What Works for Children’s Social Care, in association with our research partners at Cascade, Cardiff University, is delighted to announce that our on-going project evaluating the use of Schwartz Rounds in children’s social care will be expanded to five additional local authorities. The project will begin shortly in: Bath and North East Somerset Council Derby […]