This protocol summarises plans for evaluating the Family Valued model roll-out in up to five local authorities in England, building on a qualitative pilot evaluation of Family Valued in Darlington published in 2021.
Note: this page was updated in June 2026 to reflect changes to the project in response to challenges and disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Find out more in the original protocol document (outdated).
As part of the Department for Education’s (DfE) Strengthening Families, Protecting Children (SFPC) programme, we are evaluating the roll-out of the Family Valued framework in up to five local authorities: Warwickshire, Newcastle, Coventry, Solihull, and Sefton. The SFPC programme aims to improve working with families to safely reduce the number of children entering care.
Family Valued is a model developed in Leeds for supporting a whole-scale shift of children’s services to restorative practice, changing service-wide ways of working with children and families so that support is done ‘with’ them, not ‘to’ them. The programme involves training of varying depth and intensity on restorative practice for all staff in children’s services and their partner agencies, as well as support to adopt or expand Family Group Conferences (FGCs) for families as an alternative to Child Protection Conferences. The programme also offers support to commission new restorative services and to reform the systems and structures of children’s services to address gaps and optimise relationships with families and partner agencies, in line with restorative practice principles.
This evaluation was designed between 2019 and 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic. Our original evaluation plans involved an impact evaluation that used a Stepped Wedge Cluster Randomised Control Trial (SW-CRT) design, which meant that local authorities were scheduled to start delivering Family Valued at different times during the study, until the framework was adopted in all local authorities in the sample. It also involved an Implementation and Process Evaluation (IPE).
The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the trial and introduced issues and delays with the implementation schedule of Family Valued. Solihull and Sefton also experienced challenges that led to leadership management changes, compounding disruptions. Given these circumstances, DfE and Foundations decided to cancel the SW-CRT strand of the evaluation and deliver the impact evaluation of Family Valued using a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) quasi-experimental design.
Due to the disruptions experienced in Solihull and Sefton, we could not include these areas in the impact analyses. However, the accompanying IPE continued as planned and will involve all five local authorities funded to implement Family Valued as part of SFPC i.e., Warwickshire, Newcastle, Coventry, Sefton, and Solihull.
All evaluation protocols developed in the course of this project are available on the Open Science Framework (OSF).
We assess one primary research question about care entry, and five secondary research questions about service-level outcomes that may be impacted by Family Valued.
Primary research question: What is the impact of Family Valued on children becoming looked after within 18 months of a referral to children’s social care?
Our secondary research questions will address what the impact of Family Valued is on:
The IPE will assess how the model is delivered across the local authorities and identify any elements of successful delivery, as well as improving the understanding of the model. Its research questions specifically relate to fidelity and adaptation, programme differentiation, reach and acceptability, and mechanisms and outcomes.
Rated 1: Set up and delivery is low cost, equivalent to an estimated unit cost of less than £100.
Rated 2: Set up and delivery is medium-low cost, equivalent to an estimated unit cost of £100–£499.
Rated 3: Set up and delivery is medium cost, equivalent to an estimated unit cost of £500–£999.
Rated 4: Set up and delivery is medium-high cost, equivalent to an estimated unit cost of £1,000–£2,000.
Rating 5: Set up and delivery is high cost. Equivalent to an estimated unit cost of more than £2,000.
Set up and delivery cost is not applicable, not available, or has not been calculated.
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Supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.
Preventing child maltreatment: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.
Enhancing school achievement & employment: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.
Preventing crime, violence and antisocial behaviour: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.
Preventing substance abuse: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.
Preventing risky sexual behaviour & teen pregnancy: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.
Preventing obesity and promoting healthy physical development: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient.
Rated 2: Has preliminary evidence of improving a child outcome from a quantitative impact study, but there is not yet evidence of causal impact.
Rated 2+: Meets the level 2 rating and the best available evidence is based on a study which is more rigorous than a level 2 standard but does not meet the level 3 standard.
Rated 3: Has evidence of a short-term positive impact from at least one rigorous study.
Rated 3+: Meets the level 3 rating and has evidence from other studies with a comparison group at level 2 or higher.
Rated 4: Has evidence of a long-term positive impact through at least two rigorous studies.
Rated 4+: Meets the level 4 rating and has at least a third study contributing to the Level 4 rating, with at least one of the studies conducted independently of the intervention provider.
Rating has a *: The evidence base includes mixed findings i.e., studies suggesting positive impact alongside studies, which on balance, indicate no effect or negative impact.
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