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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 Balancing the scales in research with care experienced people
    Blog

    Balancing the scales in research with care experienced people

    18 August 2022
    So as some of you know I’ve recently taken a new role at What Works for Children’s Social Care as a senior researcher, drawing together my research and engagement skills along with my lived experience of being in, and being left by, the care system.  You may also know that I recently recorded a FourThought […]
  • read more about What Works for Children’s Social Care secures funding for two major research areas
    News

    What Works for Children’s Social Care secures funding for two major research areas

    3 August 2022
    What Works for Children’s Social Care (WWCSC) is launching two new research projects, supported by funding from the government’s Evaluation Accelerator Fund (EAF). The funding will be used to research strategies to support kinship carers and special guardians, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the ‘Staying Close’ residential care programme to support care leavers. Whilst […]
    A child slides down a yellow slide watched by a smiling mature couple
  • read more about Spark Grant Scheme 2
    News

    Spark Grant Scheme 2

    20 July 2022
    WWCSC is pleased to announce the launch of the second round of our Spark Grant Scheme. The purpose of this programme is to fund new and innovative research in children’s social care, conducted by researchers who might otherwise be underrepresented in the research community, and/or who might struggle to get funding through other routes. We […]
  • read more about Where are the secure children’s home places?
    Blog

    Where are the secure children’s home places?

    15 July 2022
    Written in collaboration with Dr Anders Bach-Mortensen, postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford and previously affiliated researcher at WWCSC. Back in 2020, we looked at the pathways of children referred to secure children’s homes for welfare reasons, and discovered that two out of five children could not […]
  • read more about Practice in Need of Evidence call
    Blog

    Practice in Need of Evidence call

    13 July 2022
    Researching what works for children’s social care means we are often looking at sensitive issues, and some of these issues can be particularly upsetting. However, it’s vital that we look at even the darkest areas and challenges to make sure we are doing all we can to protect children and support families. I want to […]
  • read more about What Works for Children’s Social Care partners with Frontline on new social work leadership programme
    News

    What Works for Children’s Social Care partners with Frontline on new social work leadership programme

    11 July 2022
    The Department for Education has awarded a contract for the new social work leadership programme to children’s social work charity Frontline. What Works for Children’s Social Care is partnering with Frontline and North Yorkshire County Council to deliver this programme, which will allow us to bring a focus on evidence-based practice to the leadership development […]
  • read more about Understanding formal kinship care
    Blog

    Understanding formal kinship care

    8 July 2022
    When keeping a child with their family isn’t possible, social workers will first look within a child’s network for alternative care options. Known as ‘kinship care’, this can be a temporary or permanent plan for a child that avoids the potential trauma of moving to live with carers they don’t know. The Independent Review of […]
  • read more about Joining forces with the Early Intervention Foundation: How the decision to merge puts us all on a strong footing
    Blog

    Joining forces with the Early Intervention Foundation: How the decision to merge puts us all on a strong footing

    7 July 2022
    Jenny Coles, Chair of Trustees, WWCSC and Professor Nick Pearce, Chair of Trustees EIF Jenny Coles, chair of trustees at What Works for Children’s Social Care, and Professor Nick Pearce, chair of trustees at EIF, share their thoughts on the boards’ decision to merge organisations to form a new what works centre on children and […]
  • read more about Early Intervention Foundation and What Works for Children’s Social Care announce decision to merge
    News

    Early Intervention Foundation and What Works for Children’s Social Care announce decision to merge

    7 July 2022
    The two boards of trustees have agreed in principle to join forces to create a single what works centre on children and families covering both early intervention and children’s social care. The merger of the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) and What Works for Children’s Social Care (WWCSC) will bring together two what works centres to […]
  • read more about Understanding Residential Care
    Blog

    Understanding Residential Care

    30 June 2022
    Although the poor outcomes for children in residential care are widely recognised, far less is known about who these children are and what their experiences are of the care system. If we want to improve these children’s outcomes, we need to have a better understanding of these young people’s lives, so we can develop interventions […]
  • read more about Supporting LGBTQ+ young people in social care
    Blog

    Supporting LGBTQ+ young people in social care

    29 June 2022
    To celebrate Pride Month, we look at LYPSA, a study we've been doing in collaboration with the University of Birmingham to explore the experience of LGBTQ+ young people in care.
    A line of children sat on a wall and facing the sea. They all have their arms linked
  • read more about Children in Need – Understanding Service Provision in England
    Blog

    Children in Need – Understanding Service Provision in England

    24 June 2022
    Despite huge numbers of children receiving support from a social worker each year, in research little is known about these children, why they receive support, how it is delivered and what it achieves. Director of Research Aoife O'Higgins considers our latest report and the influence it could have on improving support for these children.