The Department for Education has today published ‘Delivering the children’s social care reset’ – setting out the government’s implementation plan for their whole-system reforms.

Here our Chief Executive, Dr Jo Casebourne, responds to the publication and outlines how Foundations will continue to work with local leaders, sector partners, and national government to ensure what works evidence has real-world impact – including through the introduction of our new Local Implementation Framework for children’s services.

All children need strong, stable and loving relationships to thrive, but too many children in the system don’t have access to them. That’s why we’re pleased to see the emphasis from the government today on the importance of supporting enduring relationships for all vulnerable children and young people.

Over the last 18 months we’ve seen significant proposals to fundamentally reform the family support system across the country – from changes to children’s social care, Family Help, and foster care, to the launch of Best Start Family Hubs and the recent passage of the Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Act. Today’s Implementation Plan from the Department for Education brings together these measures and sets out how to make them a reality.

At each step in this journey, there has been a welcome recognition of the importance of evidence if we are to shift the dial on outcomes for vulnerable children and families. Our evaluation of Family Group Conferences underpinned important measures in new legislation, our trial of kinship financial allowances will inform the new Kinship Zones pilot, and we continue to produce Practice Guides, based on high quality evidence in areas such as kinship care and parenting support, for local leaders and practitioners.

But knowing what works is only one piece of the puzzle. The Implementation Plan published today helps turn this evidence into real-world impact for children and young people by setting out the steps government and local partners can take together to deliver on this programme of ambitious reform.

To support the government’s reforms, we are today introducing a local implementation framework for children and families services. Developed jointly with sector partners and the Department for Education, this sets out an evidence-based framework to support local authorities and their partners to map local systems, identify strengths, convene key stakeholders, and follow defined steps to design and deliver evidence-informed children’s services.

It’s vital that we get implementation right, and there is not a moment to waste if we want to deliver improved outcomes for vulnerable children and families. We look forward to continuing our work with government, local leaders, practitioners and partners to deliver the change children and families need and deserve.