Almost 600 SEND professionals from local authorities, education, health and partner organisations shared their experiences, perspectives and aspirations, creating a unique picture of the workforce that supports children and young people with SEND across the capital.

The report represented the voice of the SEND workforce, exploring the opportunities and challenges facing the SEND workforce, including workload pressures, wellbeing, recruitment and retention, multi-agency working, inclusion, digital innovation and hopes and fears for reforms. Successful system reform and workforce
reform must go hand in hand.

The findings highlight a workforce that is highly committed to improving outcomes for children and families and emphasises their role as one of the most significant factors of successful reforms implementation and lasting impact.

The report contains 6 recommendations – both regional and national.

We want to capture different examples of inclusion bases that specialise in a range of areas, like autism, speech, language and communication, SEMH and more. This is designed to inspire the development of practice across London during this demanding time.

We want to hear from innovative schools and settings that:

• Improve outcomes for children and young people
• Enable pupils to participate successfully in mainstream school life
• Strengthen inclusive practice across the whole school
• Make effective use of specialist expertise work in partnership with families and other professionals

If you are interested to learn more about eligibility and the process, please see the guide below.

To submit an application, please click here.

The deadline for submission is Wednesday 30th September 2026. Successful applicants will be contacted w/c 9th October 2026. LIIA understands it is a busy time for schools and authorities, so have made the process easy to complete and are here to provide any additional support. 

If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to reach out to Matt Rees (LIIA SEND Project Support Officer) – matthew.rees@londoncouncils.gov.uk.

This edition highlights the breadth of work taking place across LiiA, including key developments, insights and updates that demonstrate our continued commitment to supporting collaboration, shared learning and improved outcomes for children and families across London.

Led by the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) on behalf of the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services (ALDCS), with Camden Council acting as the lead authority, the successful bid represents a significant milestone for London.

Why Regional Care Cooperatives Matter

Regional Care Cooperatives are a key component of the Government’s plans to reform children’s social care. Their purpose is to improve outcomes for children and young people by addressing longstanding challenges within the sector, including rising costs, sufficiency challenges, market instability and workforce pressures.

By working collectively, local authorities can strengthen their influence over commissioning and market development, helping to improve the availability, quality and sustainability of care for children and young people.

A Collective London Response

London submitted its Expression of Interest in May 2026, with all London local authorities supporting the proposal. The bid also secured support from a broad range of strategic partners, including:

• All London Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)
• NHS England
• The Metropolitan Police
• Ministry of Justice

This collective commitment reflects a shared ambition to improve outcomes for children and young people through stronger collaboration across the wider public service system.

Building on Strong Foundations

The London RCC has been designed to build on the capital’s existing track record of partnership working and innovation.

Key features of the proposed model include:

• A hub-and-spoke delivery model, combining local and sub-regional commissioning arrangements with support from a central regional team
• A strong focus on increasing the number of children living in family-based care, including foster care and kinship care
• Expanded provision delivered by local authorities and the not-for-profit sector
• Enhanced regional market management and collaborative commissioning
• A “One Customer” approach that aligns commissioning activity across local authorities and partner agencies
• A commitment to innovation, testing new approaches locally and scaling successful models across London

Moving into Mobilisation

Following the successful award, the programme is now entering its mobilisation phase. A dedicated programme team will be established within LIIA to support implementation and work with boroughs and partners to develop the RCC’s governance, commissioning and operating arrangements.

Over the coming months, London boroughs and partner organisations will be involved in shaping the detailed design of the cooperative, ensuring the model is both ambitious and deliverable while remaining focused on improving outcomes for children and young people.

Looking Ahead

The award marks the beginning of an important new chapter for pan-London collaboration in children’s social care. By working together at scale, London has an opportunity to strengthen sufficiency, improve value for money, increase family-based care options and create a more sustainable system for the future.

Further updates will be shared as the programme progresses.

You can read the newsletter below and download it here  ASYJ Leaders July 2026 Newsletter

Since our last update, it has been another exceptionally busy period for Local Area Partnerships across London. Activity has been shaped by the submission of Local Area SEND Reform Plans to the Department for Education and NHS England, alongside further developments in the national reform agenda following publication of the Every Child Achieving and Thriving Schools White Paper and additional guidance on the emerging Experts at Hand model.

In response, LIIA has been working closely with partners across London to understand the implications of these reforms and support local areas as they navigate the next phase of implementation. Through our review of SEND Reform Plans, launch of the Experts at Hand Community of Practice, and wider “Untangling the Reforms” work, we are helping boroughs identify common themes, share learning, and develop more integrated approaches to supporting children and young people with SEND.

This edition brings together updates from across the ALDCS SEND Programme, including progress on workforce and inclusion, emerging findings from the Big SEND Conversation, developments in SEND commissioning and financial sustainability, and new data and intelligence products designed to strengthen local decision-making. We also share insights from our reform support activity, opportunities to engage with pan-London networks and programmes, and examples of innovation and collaboration taking place across the capital.

As the reform landscape continues to evolve, we hope this edition provides both practical support and strategic insight for colleagues across education, health and care. By bringing together intelligence, evidence and shared learning from across London, we aim to support stronger collaboration and help local areas navigate this period of significant change with confidence.

As always, we welcome feedback and engagement, and encourage colleagues to make full use of the resources, networks and support available through LIIA.

We are entering a new era for the Your Choice Framework – building on strong foundations and creating new opportunities for local authorities across the country to get involved. Developed by the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA), Your Choice is an evidence-led, child-centred framework that empowers young people to identify what matters to them and work towards meaningful goals, while reducing their risk of harm.  

Since its launch in 2021, Your Choice has grown into a pan-London programme delivered across 32 boroughs, supporting over 1,600 children and young people aged 11-18 as part of a large-scale randomised control trial.  

What makes Your Choice different? 

Your Choice goes beyond traditional approaches by combining: 

• A practical, therapeutic framework rooted in third wave cognitive behavioural approaches 
• A clinically informed, formulation led approach to reducing violence and vulnerability 
• A child-first, strengths-based focus on aspirations, identity development and positive outcomes  

Delivered by trained practitioners within local authority services, the framework is designed to integrate with existing local practice and equips professionals with psychologically informed tools and techniques to: 

• Build strong, trusting relationships with young people 
• Support self-understanding, emotional regulation and intrinsic motivation 
• Activate and nurture pro social networks, behaviours and activities 
• Help young people develop coping strategies and make safer choices  

Evidence of impact 

The Your Choice programme is one of the most rigorously tested approaches of its kind. Findings from the London Young People Study highlight promising improvements in young people’s psychological outcomes and wellbeing. 

Alongside this, practitioners report: 

• Stronger engagement with young people 
• Improved relationships and resilience 
• Better pathways back into education, training and employment 
• Increased practitioner confidence and capability, contributing to retention 

Young people report: 

• Feeling happier, more positive, and more purposeful, with improved overall wellbeing  
• Increased self-understanding, emotional awareness and ability to manage thoughts and behaviours 
• Stronger social connections, relationships and engagement in meaningful activities, supporting safer and more positive life choices 

A new phase: scaling and sharing what works 

Rigorously tested, a scalable model and the newly awarded quality standard training recognised by the British Psychological Society (BPS) , the UK’s leading professional body for psychology, Your Choice is now moving into a new phase of growth and opportunity. 

We are inviting: 

• London boroughs to deepen and expand delivery 
• Local authorities beyond London to adopt and adapt the framework 
• Partners and systems leaders to collaborate in embedding evidence-based, therapeutic approaches within adolescent safeguarding 

This next phase is about sharing learning, scaling impact and embedding sustainable change across services supporting and empowering children and young people to achieve their goals and aspirations. 

Get involved 

There are multiple ways to engage with the next phase of Your Choice: 

• Adopt the framework in your local area with full support from the centralised Your Choice team 
• Build practitioner capability through our training model 
• Join a growing network of local authorities and practitioners delivering Your Choice 
• Contribute to ongoing learning, evaluation and innovation 

We are delighted to launch Jobs in Children’s Homes, a new recruitment platform for the children’s homes workforce across London and the South East.

Co-designed and developed by London Innovation & Improvement Alliance (LIIA) and Home and Future (South East RCC) the joint platform offers one place that brings together vacancies, career pathways, qualification routes, and the voices of our workforce.

Children’s homes are homes

Most of them are ordinary houses on ordinary streets, where small teams of professionals support children to live their lives. A career in a children’s home offers meaningful work, real progression, and the chance to be a steady presence in a young person’s life when it counts most.

The new website covers job opportunities, the benefits of working in this area of the children’s sector, and career development from entry level through to registered manager and beyond!

Visit our website and follow the Jobs in Children’s Homes Linkedin page and follow our page so stay up to date with staff stories, sector insight, and live vacancies from across London and the South East.

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