Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme (DfE)

The Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme was launched by the UK government’s Department for Education (DfE) to test innovative ways of supporting vulnerable children and young people with investment of up to £200m.

The centre is responsible for developing and delivering evaluations for seven of the funded projects based across the UK, drawing on a range of methods to help increase the quality of the evidence base.

The team are investigating how much progress funded projects have made towards achieving the overall Innovation Programme objectives, whether the projects meet their objectives, how the people involved are affected, and whether they are more effective than previous provision or services in other areas.

The projects being evaluated are:

• Mockingbird Family Model (project led by the Fostering Network)
• Lifelong Links (project led by Family Rights Group)
• House project (University of York evaluation lead)
• Bradford’s B Positive Pathway

Three ‘Targeted Funding Opportunities’ focused on ‘Staying Close’ support for care leavers moving on from residential care are also being evaluated by the team.

External team members include Jo Dixon, University of York (CI).

Former team member: Ellie Ott, Louise McGrath-Lone

More information: https://innovationcsc.co.uk/innovation-programme/

• Reports and Resources

  The following PDF reports are free to download:

  Lifelong Links. Evaluation report. November 2020. Dr Lisa Holmes, Dr Mariela Neagu, David Sanders-Ellis, Dr Neil Harrison, Rees Centre, University of Oxford.

  An evaluation of the Bradford B Positive Pathways innovation programme. Evaluation report. May 2020. Dr Caroline Cresswell and Jo Dixon, University of York; Dr Lisa Holmes, Rees Centre, University of Oxford.

  Mockingbird Programme. Evaluation report. September 2020. Dr Ellie Ott, Dr. Louise McGrath-Lone, Vânia Pinto, David Sanders-Ellis and Helen Trivedi, Rees Centre, University of Oxford.

  The House Project for young people leaving care. Evaluation report. October 2020.  Jo Dixon, Dr. Caroline Cresswell and Jade Ward, University of York.

  Staying Close

  The Break Staying Close, Staying Connected Project. Evaluation report. August 2020. Jo Dixon, Dr. Caroline Cresswell and Jade Ward, University of York.

  The Fair Ways Staying Close Project. Evaluation report. October 2020. Dr. Mariela Neagu, Rees Centre, University of Oxford; Jo Dixon, University of York.

  The Portsmouth Aspiration Staying Close Project. Evaluation report. August 2020. Dr. Mariela Neagu, Rees Centre, University of Oxford; Jo Dixon, University of York.