Child and family social care, and multi-agency partners across health, policing and education are currently working through a lot of changes.  

However, reforms and system change, transformation plans, new standards, updated guidance – while all important and all moving at pace, are not always obviously connected. As part of Foundations’ Evidence into Practice initiative, Foundations and Research in Practice are working together to share available evidence, actionable recommendations on children’s social care and learning about how to put it into practice.

Changes in the sector include:

Even in this flurry, thankfully, a familiar constant is there. People care deeply about supporting children and families. There’s no shortage of dedication or commitment to social justice, and there is a real appetite and increased commitment in national policy to the use of research evidence to support better decision-making, stronger systems and services and better outcomes for children and families.

The Department for Education has embedded the requirement to use the Practice Guides they commission Foundations to produce in the delivery of social care reforms. Referenced in key publications, including the Children’s Social Care National Framework, Families First guidance, Working Together 2026, and Lead child protection practitioner standards, this demonstrates a significant move forward in embedding the use of What Works evidence in children’s social care policy and practice development.

The work Research in Practice and Foundations are undertaking will make sure this evidence reaches local leaders, commissioners, and practitioners.

Enabling the uptake and use of research evidence about what has been shown to improve outcomes is the core of this project. Through regional activity, communities of practice, and shared learning spaces, we aim to support local authorities and regional networks to use evidence in a way that feels grounded in reality.

In the autumn, we will be offering open-access, national webinars on Reunification and Foster Care. These will present key messages from each of two newly published Practice Guides from Foundations, alongside presentations that foreground developments in these areas of practice.

A series of workshops aimed at regional leaders and commissioners will offer space to reflect together on Practice Guides and Guidebook interventions, helping these bodies of evidence to support decision-making, and service and system development.

We all know that research evidence doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It comes to life when connected to systems leadership, the everyday realities of practice and other forms of knowledge. When we triangulate research evidence with local data, the voices of our local communities and professional knowledge, it becomes a practical tool that helps us think, plan, and act with confidence.

As we know, working within complex systems during a period of significant transformation requires a commitment to continuous learning, reflection, and adaptation. Research evidence plays a critical role in helping us fit together the frameworks, guidance, and reforms intended to improve the lives of children, young people, and families in meaningful and effective ways. By drawing on a range of evidence to inform decisions, challenge assumptions, and learn from implementation, we can continuously refine our approaches, respond to changing needs, and strengthen our collective impact on outcomes for children and families.

There’s no neat endpoint to this. It’s steady work, and it will look different in different places. Our aim for this project is that, together, we can create spaces in which we and colleagues across the sector can learn from each other, building clarity, confidence, and adaptive capacity.