Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Abianda is a London-based Charity that works with young women and girls affected by criminal exploitation and violence, associated with ‘gangs’ and county lines and we provide training, at local and national levels, to the professionals who work with them.

Abianda’s vision is that young women and girls are free from oppression and harm caused by criminal exploitation and violence.

Our mission is to support young women to develop independence and agency. We do this through:

• The provision of specialist one-to-one, group and contextual safeguarding services, which increase safety, skills, self-advocacy, independence and agency;
• Working with national and local services to challenge and change their approaches, through the delivery of our training and systems change programmes;
• Building a network of young women and girls who can disrupt and re-design policy and practice to create lasting impact.

At Abianda, we recognise that criminal exploitation flourishes within the deep structural inequalities of our society, which are reinforced through intersectionality, where overlapping forms of discrimination such as race, gender, class, and disability shape how harm is experienced and how support is accessed. The root cause of criminal exploitation, ranging from poverty and deprivation, to education failure and exclusion, are often complexities that services can struggle to respond to.

Through Abianda’s 12 years of work across sectors, we have seen that young women and girls are often invisible within the services and systems that should protect them from harm caused by criminal exploitation. If systems continue without girls and young women’s specific needs in mind, services will fail to address the underlying drivers of exploitation, leaving girls and young women misunderstood, excluded from crucial decisions, and ultimately unsupported.

We centre a key principle: Young women and girls are the experts in their own lives and see participation as a form of protection. When young women are meaningfully involved in shaping the systems around them, safety is not something done to them, but something built with them.

You can watch CEO Abi Billinghurst discuss ‘Participation as Protection’ when safeguarding young women and girls affected by criminal exploitation and violence.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

Abianda embeds participation and builds safety through a combination of direct 1:1 support and group work, systems change, Community Contextual Safeguarding and Abianda’s Systems Change Expert Team, made up of young women with lived experience of criminal exploitation and violence, are embedded within Abianda and actively shape services, influence policy, and drive sector change. When embedding lived experience safety must be actively built, maintained, and continuously reflected on. We acknowledge that we cannot mitigate all ‘risk’ and that young women may still encounter challenges within their work at Abianda and within their personal lives. What matters is how these are anticipated, responded to, and supported.

“Being embedded allows us to create safety for other young women because we are able to use our lived experience to help shape the work Abianda does which in turn helps the work to centre young women’s needs and helps young women participating feel as though they are being heard and seen.” – Systems Change Expert

Some examples of how we strive to build safety:

• Diversity, Equity, Belonging & Inclusion (DEBI)
• Sits at the heart of this work and without it, you cannot build safety
• We developed a clear organisational ‘code of conduct’ (renamed ‘Abianda at its Best’) alongside young women
• It includes our organisational stance on ‘calling-in’ any acts of discrimination with a view to support all team members learn and develop
• We value the lived and learned experience of the whole team.

Trust and consistency

• Providing regular check-ins and clear points of contact in the organisation for support
• A wellbeing plan that invites young women to explain what will support them to be at their best whilst working alongside us
• Creating space for honest dialogue, including the ability to have and manage difficult conversations around organisational decisions and processes
• Clear boundaries
• Conversations with all team members about the different roles and responsibilities within the organisation, to manage expectations
• Young women are not expected to share personal experiences, but are supported to do so safely if they choose
• Supports young women and other team members navigate the dual position young women have as they are both team members and young women accessing an activity that Abianda provides
• Transparency and shared decision-making
• Being open about how decisions are made and having a ‘delegation of decision making’ process in place, that explains where influence sits and what might be outside of their remit of responsibility
• If certain decisions do sit outside of their responsibility, this is explained clearly and other options for involvement are explored

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

Participation as protection is not separate from building safety, it is central to it. By embedding young women’s lived experience at the heart of our organisation, Abianda is building safety and increasing independence and agency for young women who access all our activities, including systems change work. Abianda has a more nuanced understanding of risk and safety in the context of criminal exploitation, including safeguarding processes and the different systems young women come into contact with and it has strengthened our ability to influence wider systems and services to respond more effectively and safely.

“Being embedded allows us to be involved in decisions that affect our lives which gives us a sense of control and self respect…Being embedded provides opportunities for conversations about the misunderstandings about safety and learning about what might have been missed with young women.” -Systems Change Expert.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

Building on this work, Abianda is:

• Developing a formal Systems Change Plan to strengthen how lived experience informs sector change
• Expanding pathways for young women to lead research, develop and deliver training and workshops to professionals and other young women
• Developing a process for young women and girls accessing our 1:1 direct support to be able to contribute their voices
• Strengthening our data and evidence base to demonstrate impact
• Deepening partnerships across sectors to embed gender-responsive, participatory approaches

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

For organisations seeking to embed lived experience:

• Start with how your organisation will building safety for lived experience to be embedded
• Be clear about boundaries and expectations
• Have different ways to engage
• Be prepared to learn and adapt
• Invest time and resource
• Share power genuinely and transparently – and if you can’t at all times, acknowledge this and be transparent about why
• Recognise participation as protection, when young people shape systems and services, those systems become safer, including the system of your organisation

“Being embedded gives us a voice as young women which is validating and shifts the usual experience of being silenced and punished for speaking up. By including our voices we can then improve the safety of other young women because we influence service design” – Systems Change Expert

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

In 2020 LBBD was chosen to be a Contextual Safeguarding Scale-Up partner with the University of Bedfordshire piloting contextual approaches to vulnerable adolescents. There was a recognition that traditional child protection plans do not work for adolescents who are at risk outside the home (ROTH) and a piece of work was started to explore this in more depth and look for an alternative way to address this. This initial work was unfortunately hampered by the Covid pandemic and change of key individuals involved.

Audit and inspection had identified some areas of practice that we needed to strengthen, including safety planning for children at risk outside the home (ROTH), understanding of adolescent neglect, how we addressed the needs of siblings and the need for more pro-active disruption activity to reduce risk in contexts of concern.

Therefore, at the end of 2024 we decided to revisit the work undertaken with the University focusing on contextual conferencing for adolescents at risk outside the home.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

Our plan to revisit this work was ratified at our Vulnerable Adolescent Strategic group ensuring partner agency and senior manager buy-in and support.

A small task and finish working group was established to look at pathways for vulnerable adolescents within social care systems, operationally and from an IT perspective. The working group included representatives from safeguarding and quality assurance, adolescent and youth justice services, and performance and analytics.

Regular, meetings and tabletop exercises mapped a pathway within the existing child protection pathway from referral through Conference to plan, ensuring compliance with safeguarding requirements and an ability to report on ROTH activity. This included adapting existing electronic forms and designing ROTH specific exemplars. In recognition that risk to the child was contextual, the words “child protection” were removed from the ROTH vocabulary.

The Conference pathway was designed with 3 potential outcomes:

ROTH CIN – under S.17 and requiring consent.

ROTH Plan- aligns with a traditional CP Plan while explicitly recognising that the harm is extrafamilial.

Traditional CP Plan -where the Conference identifies risk to the child is attributable to parental omission or commission.

Regular meetings and training sessions were held with CP Chairs, identified as key to independent oversight. These looked at ROTH processes, pathways, thresholds and planning.

Decision made to keep children at risk outside the home already on traditional CP and CIN Plans under those umbrellas unless a significant event requiring a Conference occurred, at which point they could convert to ROTH.

ROTH champions were recruited within social care, the wider council, voluntary and community sector, health and education to support wider education of the new approach and dissemination of best practice.

A range of alternative Conference venues were identified to mitigate risks to children in different areas in the community.

Extensive training was offered to social care and partners through the Council training offer and the safeguarding partnership.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

As of March 1st 2026, 13 children had been considered through a ROTH Conference.

Of these, 9 children are supported as ROTH CIN, 3 children are supported through ROTH Plans, and one child is supported through a traditional CP Plan.

Case example:

J is 17 of Black Caribbean heritage. He lives with his father in LBBD having moved from another borough due to contextual safeguarding concerns. These included his home being targeted by other young people, J being stabbed and his father being threatened with a weapon.

Following J’s move, a transfer in Child Protection Conference was requested to facilitate case transfer. Upon review, the decision was made to convene a ROTH conference as the cause of harm was extra-familial. J, his father, and originating authority attended the meeting. At this, significant concerns were discussed resulting in J being supported through a ROTH Plan.

The focus of the plan was to build support networks in LBBD whilst disrupting sources of harm in the previous borough. This required significant co-ordination cross-borough for all agencies. J’s father received support regarding his response to harm occurring outside the home. We believe that the status of ROTH Plan, being equivalent to a CP Plan, supported in progressing the disruption plans around J across several boroughs.

The robust, co-ordinated partnership response to contextual harm and engagement between partners, J and his family, resulted in a quick reduction in risk. J was supported to engage in education, something he had not achieved in his previous borough, and is engaged with services around his emotional wellbeing. His father has been supported and been integral to the safety planning. Due to significant and sustained changes, J has now stepped down to a ROTH CIN Plan. The family continue to receive support, but the level of intervention is proportionate to current risks.

We have been invited by LIIA to present the ROTH conference pathway to London practice leads as it is aligned to the MET’s current position on children at risk outside the home needing to be seen as children in need of child protection responses. It is also viewed as an approach that could be adopted by the new multi-agency child protection teams.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

One of the most significant learnings is that change takes time. Embedding new practice is an ongoing challenge that requires tenacity and continuous input.

Ongoing monitoring of the system through observation of ROTH conferences and dip sampling to identify areas of good practice and those needing further development is crucial.

Training and recruitment of champions is ongoing and regular de-brief sessions are held with CP Chairs to ensure ongoing learning from conferences.

Working with IT colleagues to continually tweak the recording system to ensure best practice and reporting ability for ROTH.

Next step is to include responses to ROTH into planning for children in our care.

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

• Senior leadership & partner buy-in via the Safeguarding Children’s partnership prior to and during development is crucial.
• Establish a multi-agency task and finish group at development phase that can make the necessary changes within systems and practice.
• Have an agreed reporting mechanism in place for strategic oversight and sign off that ensures that partners are also committed to the new process.
• Identify a designated coordinator to maintain ongoing oversight of new processes ensuring that practice is consistent and in line with expectations.
• Be open to changing processes based on feedback and regular de-brief sessions.
• Ensure CP Chairs are trained and committed to the process prior to launch, ensuring they are confident with threshold.
• Plan for ongoing workshops and practice development across the partnership.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

We have significantly improved our response to keeping adolescents who are homeless or at risk of homelessness safe and well. Our Ofsted inspection report in 2023 found that our response to children who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless needed to improve. The report concluded we did not take sufficient account of children’s needs, and some children were not given access to an advocate and independent advice about their entitlements. A programme of work over the last three years has addressed this.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

To respond to the need identified, we have developed and implemented the following:

• We appointed a Dedicated Homeless Lead Social Worker to drive best-practice standards, ensuring seamless integration between social care and housing colleagues for truly holistic child-centred support.
• A streamlined referral process ensures young people can access critical support faster and more easily than ever before.
• We have embedded detailed quality assurance activity using findings to drive improvement.
• Through intensified collaboration with the Children’s Rights Officer. The officer sees the young person independently and joins the assessment with housing, providing independent advice
• Improved participation with young people, including through participation and focus groups whereby young people have contributed to and improved service design.
• Rapid restorative interventions are now available from our Specialist Intervention Service to support young people who present as homeless through restorative intervention and application of Family group meetings. Young people can also get support from Lifelong Links reconnecting with positive people in their lives.
• We have strengthened partnership working with Education, CAMHS, and substance use specialists, creating a comprehensive safety net.
• Partnership with commissioning colleagues led to suitable semi-independent accommodation facilities for young people who require this type of placement, this includes a ‘short term’ crisis placement whilst assessment take place.
• Our 16-17 Homeless Protocol sets out a clear process and expectations that staff follow to provide effective, consistent responses and support complaint with National guidance for homeless 16 /17-year-olds.
• We have established The Children’s Homeless Strategic Group. This now provides high-level governance and oversight to deliver and maintain the progress we have achieved and build on this.
• We organised for Coram young ambassadors to visit the Vineries (Housing Provision) where several of our young people are placed. They facilitated a session with our young people who found the session exciting as they were able to share experiences and bring ideas to service improvements. Coram were impressed with the level of collaboration and the holistic offer for young people.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

Overall, the impact is that adolescents who are homeless or at risk of this receive a more consistent response, focused on safety and wellbeing. Audit evidences that all young people get a timely response and are not left homeless. In 2025-6, housing allocations were consistently made within 48 hours of referral demonstrating effective joint working and timely responsiveness to young people presenting as homeless.

Between April 2025 and March 2026, a total of 45 young people aged 16–17 presented as homeless or at significant risk of homelessness. Of these, 26 young people were accommodated under Section 20, 14 young people were supported under Section 17 arrangements where accommodation was needed but family linked support remained viable, and 5 young people were able to return home or access alternative outcomes. Restorative work introduced early and where parents or carers were able to engage meaningfully with support is particularly effective.

Young people feel heard through meaningful participation and advocacy support.

Advocacy is well-embedded, taken up in 84% of cases in 2025-26. When taken up, advocacy resulted in young people having a better understanding of rights and entitlements, and decisions were better-informed. This advocacy complimented detailed information letters and leaflets co-designed with young people setting out the difference between Sec 17 and Section 20 options.

As a result of participation, services and support have improved. For example, young people told us that we need to raise awareness of homelessness pathways and support. As a result, we run quarterly training and ran awareness raising for schools designated safeguarding leads.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

We will continue to strengthen practice, drive continuous improvement in partnership with young people. Young people have asked us for clearer information on timeframes. In direct response to their feedback, we are now co-designing updated clear, accessible guidance to provide greater transparency and certainty around service delivery timeframes.

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

To replicate our model for improving adolescent homelessness services, we recommend focusing on three core pillars: strategic governance, youth-led design, and journey-based learning.

• Establish Strong Governance: Prioritising service improvements as a strategic priority. Effective governance provides the necessary oversight to keep progress on track and ensure accountability.
• Engaging with young people has been a key part of our improvement journey, listening to and acting on the views and experiences of young people. This, in turn, has enabled young people to feel safe and heard.
• Reflecting on children’s journeys and the previous involvement of services has enabled lessons to be learned, and improvements to be made at an operational and strategic level.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

We all want the very best for our children in Brent – for them to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. As technology is becoming an increasingly central part of children’s lives, evidence and local experience shows that unrestricted access to smartphones and social media is having a negative impact on pupils’ mental health, sleep, attention, and overall wellbeing. Schools and families are also becoming more concerned about children’s exposure to risks such as cyberbullying, harmful online content, and inappropriate use of technology during the school day.

Within this context, school leaders across Brent recognised that individual school policies alone are not enough to address the growing challenge. There is inconsistency in expectations between schools, uncertainty among parents and carers, and increasing pressure on staff to manage smartphone use alongside learning and safeguarding priorities.

In response, Brent school leaders came together to agree a shared, borough wide commitment: the PHONE pledge. The pledge was developed to provide a clear, collective approach to promoting healthy digital habits, protecting children’s wellbeing, and supporting families to navigate the challenges of modern technology. It articulates a shared responsibility between schools, families, and the local authority, ensuring that expectations are consistent and clearly communicated.

The PHONE pledge set out five key commitments: protecting children’s safety and wellbeing; helping families and staff with clear guidance and support; observing and reviewing approaches to ensure fairness and effectiveness; nurturing pupils’ digital literacy and responsible online behaviour; and educating the wider school community through shared best practice across the borough.

Many Brent schools were already limiting smartphone use during the school day, but the pledge formalised this practice and strengthened it through collective action. It also encourages families to consider delaying smartphones for non educational use until children were older, reinforcing consistent messages between home and school.

The introduction of the PHONE pledge has marked a united, proactive response to a shared problem, demonstrating how borough wide collaboration can protect childhood, support learning, and promote healthier, safer use of technology for all children in Brent.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

The response to concerns about children’s smartphone use in Brent was developed through a structured combination of strategic leadership, evidence gathering and collaborative system working.

The work began within the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) network, where mobile phone use emerged as a growing safeguarding and wellbeing concern. To build a clearer picture of practice across the borough, the DSL network designed and distributed a survey on mobile phone use in schools. The findings highlighted significant variation in approaches, increasing pressures on staff, and uncertainty among parents and carers, reinforcing the need for a coordinated, borough wide response.

In response to this evidence, a dedicated steering group was established to develop a shared approach to smartphones in schools. The group was facilitated by a School Effectiveness Lead Professional (SELP) and included headteachers from across Brent, ensuring representation from different phases and local clusters. To inform the work and avoid duplication, the facilitating SELP held initial discussions with neighbouring local authorities, including Harrow, Barnet and Westminster, to understand their approaches and draw on emerging regional learning.

The steering group met through a series of online sessions, during which the purpose, scope and focus of the work were discussed, tested and refined over time. Shared online documents were set up to enable collaborative drafting, allowing all members to contribute asynchronously, comment on emerging ideas and build collective ownership of the developing pledge.

Steering group members also acted as links back to their respective clusters, sharing early drafts of the pledge with other school leaders and bringing feedback into the steering group discussions. This ensured the final approach was grounded in operational reality, reflected the diversity of school contexts, and had broad professional buy in.

• Once agreement was reached, the SELP facilitator led on translating the shared principles into practical delivery mechanisms. This included:
• Developing template letters for schools, inviting them to sign up to the PHONE pledge
• Creating a simple online form to enable quick and accessible sign up
• Drafting template parent and carer letters, to be issued once the list of participating schools was finalised, ensuring clear and consistent communication with families

To support visibility and consistency, the SELP also worked closely with the communications team, who developed the pledge into a poster for schools. This helped embed the pledge within school communities and reinforced shared expectations around healthy and safe smartphone use.

Through this approach, the initiative moved from identifying need, to co designing a solution, to delivering practical tools that enabled schools to adopt a consistent, borough wide response. The combination of cross authority learning, professional collaboration, and clear operational support ensured the PHONE pledge was both strategically robust and practical to implement.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

As this is a new and emerging initiative, it is too early to evidence measurable long term impact on children and families. However, early indicators suggest the PHONE pledge is beginning to make a positive difference at both system and school community level.

Early qualitative impact has been seen through strong engagement from schools. A growing number of schools have voluntarily signed up to the pledge, indicating appetite for a shared, borough wide approach and confidence in the principles underpinning it. Feedback from headteachers suggests that the pledge has helped legitimise and strengthen existing school policies on smartphone use, giving leaders greater confidence to act collectively rather than in isolation.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

As an emerging borough wide initiative, the next phase of the PHONE pledge will focus on embedding, strengthening and evaluating the approach, while continuing to build shared ownership across schools and families.

A key priority is to increase participation and consistency across Brent. This will involve continued promotion of the pledge through existing professional networks, targeted engagement with schools that have not yet signed up, and ongoing review of communications to ensure messages to parents and carers remain clear, consistent and focused on wellbeing and safeguarding.

To support visibility and sustainability, work will begin on developing a small, recognisable PHONE pledge logo. This will enable participating schools to display their involvement on school websites, letterheads and communications, clearly signalling that they have signed up to the borough wide commitment.

The work will also be extended through the development of a shared resource bank for schools. This will bring together practical materials to support implementation of the pledge, such as example policies, parent communications, assemblies, curriculum resources, staff guidance and signposting to external support. The resource bank will be shaped by schools’ contributions and emerging practice, enabling peer learning and reducing duplication of effort across the borough.

Evaluation and learning will form a further strand of development. Follow up engagement through the DSL network and headteacher forums will be used to gather qualitative feedback on how the pledge is being implemented, the conversations it is enabling with families, and any early changes schools are observing.

As the work matures, there will be opportunities to strengthen pupil voice and parental engagement, ensuring future developments are informed by lived experience. Ongoing dialogue with neighbouring local authorities will continue to support shared learning and potential regional alignment.

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

For others seeking to replicate this model of practice in their local context, several key learning points have emerged through reflection on the development of the PHONE pledge.

• Start with shared evidence and professional concern: Using an existing professional network, such as Designated Safeguarding Leads, to surface concerns and gather baseline information helped build a shared understanding of the issue and created momentum for action. Beginning with evidence rather than solutions supported constructive, non polarised discussion.
• Invest time in co design and consensus building: Bringing together headteachers from different phases and contexts and allowing time for the purpose, scope and focus of the work to evolve was critical. The iterative nature of the discussions meant the final approach felt credible, realistic and owned by the system, rather than imposed. In hindsight, allowing even more structured time for early discussion may have accelerated agreement later in the process.
• Use skilled, neutral facilitation: Having a School Effectiveness Lead Professional act as a neutral facilitator helped maintain trust, manage differing views and keep the work moving forward. This role was particularly important in translating professional dialogue into practical outputs, such as agreed principles and shared communications.
• Learn from others early on: Initial conversations with neighbouring local authorities provided reassurance, avoided duplication and helped situate the work within a wider regional context. On reflection, this cross authority learning could have been embedded even earlier to further strengthen confidence and alignment.
• Keep the approach values led and light touch: Framing the work around wellbeing, safeguarding and partnership, rather than enforcement or compliance, was essential in securing buy in. Avoiding language associated with inspection or judgement helped schools feel safe to engage and participate voluntarily.
• Support implementation with simple, visible tools: Providing practical resources — such as template letters, a clear sign up process, shared documents and a recognisable pledge logo — reduced burden on schools and supported consistency. Making participation visible helped reinforce collective ownership and clarity for families.

Overall, the key learning is that system level change around sensitive issues benefits from pace with permission: moving forward decisively, while allowing time for trust, dialogue and shared ownership to develop. This balance has been central to the early success of the model and would be a core recommendation for others seeking to replicate it.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Through this pilot, we are seeing real progress in delivering earlier, more proportionate, and family-led support.

This spotlight highlights what is new, what is working, and how integrated practice is making a meaningful difference for families in Southall demonstrating a system that is moving from fragmented responses to one that is coordinated, relational, and built around family strengths.

Southall was identified as a key locality for piloting the Families First Partnership because of its high levels of demand, socio-economic complexity, and diverse community. This made it an important place to test whether a more responsive, culturally aware, and relationship-based model could improve the way families receive support. The core problem the pilot set out to address was the tendency for families to experience fragmented services, delayed responses, repeated handovers, and escalation into higher levels of statutory intervention when earlier, coordinated support may have been more effective. Ealing’s wider ambition is to reduce unnecessary escalation, strengthen early intervention, and improve outcomes for children while managing system demand more effectively. The Southall pilot therefore provided an opportunity not only to redesign frontline practice in one locality, but also to generate learning that could inform wider system change across the borough.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

The pilot was delivered through a more joined-up model across the Integrated Front Door, the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team, and Family Help. The Integrated Front Door has enabled earlier and more effective intervention by working closely with universal services and partners so that concerns are identified and responded to promptly. Through strong information sharing and collaboration, decisions are made more quickly and are better tailored to the needs of each family. A key feature of the model is that practitioners work with families rather than doing things to them. Families are asked what support would help, and they are involved in planning from the outset. The Front Door is also able to complete short, focused assessments at an early stage, allowing support to be put in place before issues escalate. This early assessment function has helped prevent some families moving unnecessarily into higher tiers of intervention.

Alongside this, the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team has played a vital role in coordinated safeguarding decision-making. Working closely with the Integrated Front Door and Family Help, the team has supported a more joined-up system in which risk is understood collectively, delay is reduced, and children receive the right level of intervention at the right time. The Family Help team has been central to shifting the overall approach from reactive intervention to earlier, relationship-led support. By becoming involved with families sooner, the model reduces unnecessary changes of worker and enables practitioners to build stronger relationships, improve engagement, and support more lasting change. Their whole-family approach means needs are addressed holistically while still managing higher levels of risk where required. The team continues to work closely with partners such as police and health services to ensure coordinated responses. Across all teams, the Brighter Futures model has remained central, embedding strengths-based and relational practice. Family-led decision-making has been actively promoted through Family Group Conferences and Family Network Meetings so that family voices remain central and wider networks can be identified as part of sustainable planning for children.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

The impact of the Southall pilot is reflected strongly in the experiences of both families and practitioners.

Families report feeling listened to, respected, and more involved in decision-making, with clearer understanding of expectations and support plans. There is evidence of improved relationships within the family, with support being delivered in a way that feels collaborative rather than directive. Practitioners highlight an increased ability to build meaningful, trusting relationships with families, alongside greater professional satisfaction and confidence in delivering preventative, strengths-based support. The shift towards earlier engagement is enabling more purposeful and sustainable intervention.

This is captured in practice feedback:

“Families are engaging earlier and more openly, which is enabling us to make sustainable changes rather than reacting to crisis.”

Case Study: Building Trust, Inspiring Change

“You have inspired me… thank you for all you have done for me and my family.”

A parent supported through the FFP Southall pilot described the powerful impact of consistent, relationship-based support on her and her children. By taking time to listen and build trust, the practitioner helped the family feel valued, understood, and able to engage more positively. This not only addressed immediate needs but also created a lasting sense of confidence and motivation. The parent spoke about being inspired by the experience, developing new aspirations, and recognising meaningful positive change within her family.

This case demonstrates how early, strengths-based intervention can: Build trust and engagement, enable sustainable change, inspire confidence and future aspirations.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

Building on these early outcomes, the next phase of the work is focused on deepening and expanding the model. This includes exploring how the Families First Partnership approach could be extended to other localities, while carefully assessing the resource implications of wider rollout so that delivery remains sustainable and effective. A key priority is to continue strengthening integrated practice and maintaining a shared vision for early intervention and safeguarding across partners. There is also ongoing work to refine tracking systems and performance measures so that impact can be evidenced more robustly and used to drive continuous improvement. Regular review points are helping the service monitor progress, address emerging issues, and adapt the model where necessary. At the same time, the Brighter Futures practice model will continue to be embedded across services to promote consistency, strengthen relational practice, and ensure high-quality family-centred support. As the model develops, there are also plans to involve additional agencies in the Multi-Agency Child Protection Team, further strengthening joint decision-making.

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

For others looking to replicate this model, the strongest advice is to start with shared values and a clear understanding of purpose. The Southall pilot shows that integrated practice works best when partners are aligned around early help, relational practice, and keeping families safely together wherever possible. It is important to invest time in building a consistent shared understanding across agencies, especially around thresholds, roles, expectations, and how risk will be discussed. Services should also ensure that families are engaged as active partners from the outset, rather than passive recipients of support, and that practitioners are equipped to work in strengths-based and culturally responsive ways.

Another key lesson is the importance of robust performance and impact tracking: if the intention is to change systems, there must be mechanisms in place to evidence what is improving, where challenges remain, and what needs to adapt. Finally, workforce capacity matters. Relationship-based work depends on stability, the right skills, and the ability to intervene early enough to make a difference. Southall’s experience suggests that when those conditions are in place, services can create a more connected, responsive, and effective safeguarding system that improves outcomes for children and families.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

The Youth Empowerment Service (YES) identified a growing challenge in ensuring equitable access to high-quality youth provision for all young people across the borough. While our universal offer is strong, we recognised that traditional face-to-face delivery can unintentionally exclude some young people – particularly those experiencing mobility barriers, social anxiety, caring responsibilities, travel limitations, or low confidence in entering unfamiliar spaces. At the same time, young people’s social lives, learning, and self-expression are increasingly shaped by digital environments, requiring youth work practice to evolve in step with their lived realities. In response, YES explored how emerging technology could be used to strengthen inclusion rather than widen inequality. This led to the development of our virtual reality (VR) youth work offer: an innovative, safe, and moderated digital space designed to remove barriers, connect young people across neighbourhoods, and create new opportunities for participation, creativity, and peer support. The project has emerged from a clear need to modernise practice, future-proof our offer, and ensure youth work remains relevant, accessible, and rooted in young people’s changing worlds.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

The development of YES’s virtual reality (VR) youth work offer has been shaped as an emerging practice model that builds on learning first tested during COVID-19, when the service rapidly adapted to digital and remote delivery to maintain trusted relationships with young people. During that period, we piloted immersive and online approaches to group work, recognising the potential for digital spaces to reduce barriers for young people who were unable or unwilling to access traditional face-to-face provision. The positive engagement seen through these early trials highlighted an opportunity to further evolve this practice using VR as a more relational and interactive medium.

As the work remains in development, our focus has been on prototyping and iterative design rather than full-scale implementation. We have worked with young people and staff to test how VR environments can best support workshops, peer dialogue, creative activities, and issue-based youth work in safe, moderated spaces. Operational activity has centred on small-scale pilots, workforce learning, and the development of safeguarding, consent, and digital facilitation standards that reflect both youth work values and the realities of immersive technology. Staff are continuing to build confidence in hybrid practice, exploring how group dynamics, participation, and trusted adult support translate into virtual environments.

This phased approach allows YES to learn in real time, using staff reflection, youth voice, and participation trends to refine the model before wider rollout. By treating the VR offer as a developing strand of practice, we are ensuring it remains rooted in evidence, inclusion, and the lived experiences of young people, while building on the digital innovation that first emerged as a necessity during the pandemic.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

The VR and immersive digital youth work pilots delivered by YES during COVID-19 demonstrated a clear impact on inclusion and engagement. Early trials showed that young people who had previously struggled to attend in-person provision – such as those with social anxiety, mobility challenges, or caring responsibilities – were able to attend and participate. Qualitative feedback indicated that virtual sessions provided a safer, less intimidating space, enabling young people to express themselves, collaborate, and form peer connections across neighbourhoods. Staff reflections highlighted increased confidence in digital facilitation and an improved understanding of how relational youth work can be translated into online and hybrid environments.

Key learnings include the importance of moderation, clear safeguarding protocols, and iterative design to ensure digital practice is safe and inclusive. While the offer remains in development, the early evidence suggests VR and immersive approaches can reduce barriers to participation, sustain engagement during periods of disruption, and complement traditional youth work, creating a blueprint for a more flexible, equitable, and future-facing youth service.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

Building on the early learning from our COVID-era trials, YES is continuing to develop and refine the VR youth work offer as an emerging strand of practice. Next steps include expanding pilot sessions to more neighbourhoods, further embedding staff training in digital facilitation and hybrid youth work, and strengthening safeguarding, moderation, and consent processes to ensure all young people can participate safely and confidently. We are also collecting structured feedback from participants and staff to guide iterative improvements and to develop metrics that can demonstrate impact across reach, engagement, and wellbeing outcomes.

Looking ahead, we plan to explore integration with other digital tools and hybrid delivery models, ensuring that VR complements, rather than replaces, traditional youth provision. By prioritising inclusion, relational practice, and careful evaluation, digital youth work can become a powerful way to reach more young people and expand the possibilities of youth engagement.

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

For organisations seeking to replicate YES’s VR and immersive youth work model, the key advice is to start small, involve young people from the outset, and prioritise relational practice alongside technology. Piloting with a limited cohort allows for iterative learning and the development of robust safeguarding, moderation, and consent processes before scaling up. Investing in staff training and confidence-building in digital facilitation is essential, as the success of virtual spaces relies on skilled practitioners who can translate traditional youth work principles into immersive environments.

Key learnings from our experience include the value of co-designing sessions with young people, testing approaches early, and being prepared to adapt quickly based on feedback. On reflection, earlier investment in structured evaluation and participation metrics would have allowed us to capture clearer evidence of impact from the outset, and greater focus on cross-team collaboration could have accelerated adoption and integration across the service.

Ultimately, technology should be seen as a tool to enhance inclusion and access, not a replacement for trusted youth work relationships. Keeping this principle at the centre ensures that digital innovation is meaningful, safe, and sustainable.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Victims of youth crime often experience harm that extends far beyond the immediate incident. This can include emotional trauma, fear, loss of trust, disruption to daily routines, disengagement from education or work, and social isolation. For young victims, the impact can be particularly profound, affecting confidence, identity development, and future aspirations. Adult victims may also experience distress, uncertainty, and frustration when navigating justice systems that can feel complex or impersonal.

Traditional justice processes can unintentionally marginalise victims, with limited opportunities for emotional recovery, reassurance, or meaningful involvement. Within the Youth Justice Service (YJS), it was recognised that victims required a holistic, flexible, and genuinely victim-led approach, one that prioritised emotional safety, empowerment, and recovery while continuing to uphold a child-first, rehabilitative justice framework. The aim was to ensure victims felt heard, supported, and respected, not only as part of a justice process, but as individuals on their own recovery journey.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

The YJS developed a trauma-informed, co-produced victims’ model that places victims at the centre of decision-making. Victims are supported to lead their own recovery at their own pace, with no expectation or pressure to engage in specific processes.

From initial contact, practitioners focus on building trust through clear, compassionate, and jargon-free communication. Victims are informed of their rights under the Victims’ Code and are supported to decide how, when, and if they wish to engage further.

A core principle of this practice is co-production. Victims are actively involved in shaping their support plan and provided a range of flexible ways to support this. Yet, most notably within the programme is the therapeutic and development work.

Our multi agency partners accepted that music has a unique and profound capacity to reach children where words often cannot, gently unlocking healing in minds shaped by trauma. Through rhythm, melody and repetition, music can help regulate the nervous system, creating a sense of safety that is essential for repairing disrupted neural pathways and supporting healthy brain development. When a child learns to play an instrument, they are not only building new cognitive connections, but also reclaiming agency, confidence and control, key elements often diminished by adverse experiences. In this process, each note becomes more than sound; it is an act of resilience, a step towards emotional regulation, and a powerful expression of identity. Over time, the mastery of a new skill restores a sense of hope showing children that growth, joy and possibility are not only within reach, but already beginning to take shape through their own hands.

Alongside our therapeutic music offer, we have also incorporated our development away day. Delivered at a learning and development centre, this away day supports young people to rebuild their confidence, engage in team-based activities, experience time outside the home and development communication and life skills. Young people who attend are supported to achieve AQA Unit Awards, recognising their engagement and development. These certifications provide tangible recognition of progress, supporting self-esteem and future education or employment pathways.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

This approach has had a significant positive impact on victims and their families. Victims consistently report feeling listened to, respected, and empowered, with increased confidence and reduced feelings of isolation.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

The YJS will continue to:

• Expand access to creative and developmental programmes
• Increase use of flexible engagement, including text-based communication
• Further embed restorative justice options for both young and adult victims
• Strengthen feedback loops to keep victims’ voices central
• Continue professional development in co-production and trauma-informed practice

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

Key learning includes:

• Let victims lead — recovery looks different for everyone
• Flexibility in engagement is critical
• Home visits and informal contact build trust
• Creative programmes aid healing beyond traditional justice approaches
• Restorative justice must always be voluntary and trauma-informed

This model demonstrates that when victims are supported compassionately, flexibly, and collaboratively, meaningful recovery and empowerment are possible.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

The Care Proceedings Trailblazer Project was a one-year, Department for Education-funded initiative led by Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Children’s Services (April 2024–March 2025) to tackle unacceptable delays in care proceedings through cross-system collaboration, co-production and innovation. It brought together 12 London local authorities using the Central Family Court to work with the Judiciary, courts, Cafcass, parents and young people to co-produce and test ways to reduce delay and improve the experience and outcomes of care proceedings.

At the outset, care proceedings took around 59 weeks on average—more than double the 26-week statutory limit—prolonging uncertainty for children and families and delaying permanence decisions. The Trailblazer focused on practical, cross-system changes that supported quicker, well-evidenced decisions and improved the experience of proceedings for families.

The project tested changes over one year to create efficiencies, enable quicker decisions, and ensure the right children enter care at the right time. We focused on building judicial confidence in social work assessments, reducing reliance on expert and repeat assessments, and strengthening the evidence base so the system could better understand demand, activity and outcomes in pre-proceedings and care proceedings.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

We worked across 12 London local authorities, the Judiciary, HMCTS/courts and Cafcass, with parents and children at the centre of the work. Through co-production and rapid testing, we delivered practical interventions to improve the quality and consistency of social work evidence, strengthen shared understanding of what drives delay, and support families to engage confidently with the process.

We delivered a learning session with judges on parenting assessments and the evidence needed for timely decision-making, alongside sustained engagement with the Local Family Justice Board and Designated Family Judges to test, embed and scale improvements. We also co-produced the first joint regional dataset, informed by local authority practice, to build a shared picture of demand, activity and outcomes, and delivered bespoke training for 100+ social workers and Children’s Guardians to support consistent, high-quality practice.

Two tools were designed to endure beyond the project year:

• A Good Practice Guide to support high-quality, consistent social work given easy and readily available access to materials and tools and assisted by AI technology.
• Animated Explainer Videos to help parents better understand public law outline and care proceedings in a clear, accessible, and reassuring way.

These resources empower both professionals and families, enhance practice, improve communication, and ultimately support better outcomes for children.

The Care Proceedings Good Practice Guide

We created a digital Good Practice Guide giving practitioners quick access to policy, procedures and best-practice guidance for pre-proceedings and care proceedings, supporting clear, relevant and timely evidence. It includes an AI-powered assistant (chatbot) to provide fast, practical answers and support decision-making, and was co-designed with children so lived experience shaped the content and tone.

The Guide draws on best practice from the 12 participating local authorities and input from professionals across the family justice system, supporting greater consistency across agencies and areas. It has received national recognition and has been presented at the Central London Family Justice Board Conference and the Ministry of Justice’s Family Justice Learning Seminars, with practitioners reporting regular use and valuing its clarity and practicality.

The Care Proceedings Explainer Videos

We co-produced two short video explainers for parents in pre-proceedings and care proceedings to increase understanding, reduce anxiety and support informed engagement. Parents with lived experience shaped the scripts and visuals, and two parents provided voiceovers to strengthen authenticity and trust.

The videos are used across the sector and are available in British Sign Language, as well as Romanian, Spanish, French, Turkish, Arabic, Polish and Bengali, to maximise accessibility.

Across the programme, we prioritised shared ownership, practical tools and sustained governance so improvements could be embedded beyond the funding period.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

The Trailblazer strengthened regional leadership and governance, improved the collection and use of pre-proceedings and care proceedings data, and supported more consistent practice. Over the project year, participating areas delivered a five-week reduction in average case duration, with further reductions expected as learning is embedded. Having a dedicated, shared resource helped create a stronger, unified social care voice and deepen cross-system understanding of social work evidence and the benefits of a whole-system approach to delay. The regional dataset enabled partners to test and challenge assumptions about the causes of delay, clearly highlighting court availability as a significant factor and supporting more focused system discussions.

The Central London collaborative continues to meet quarterly to agree a minimum dataset, share practice and jointly address emerging challenges, alongside maintaining regular communication with the Designated Family Judge and the Local Family Justice Board.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

Next, we will embed and extend the minimum dataset work through the continuing Central London collaborative, using quarterly meetings to monitor trends, learn from variation and agree shared improvements. We will maintain regular, formal communication with the Designated Family Judge and the Local Family Justice Board to sustain a unified, credible social care voice within the family justice system, and continue to promote and iterate the Good Practice Guide so it remains current and trusted. We will also scale use of the explainer videos across services and partners, exploring additional formats and languages where local need indicates, and build on the training offer by developing refreshers and onboarding materials so learning is sustained as the workforce changes.

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

If you are seeking to replicate this model, start by aligning partners around the shared problem and the child’s timeframe for example, ‘why delay matters’ and what “good” looks like for children and families. Invest early in relationships and governance by creating regular forums with the judiciary and system leaders (for example, the DFJ and Local Family Justice Board) so improvements are owned across agencies rather than held by one team. Focus on practical support for frontline practice through accessible tools that help on real cases (clear guidance, examples and consistent expectations), use a minimum dataset to test assumptions and pinpoint bottlenecks so collective effort is focused where it will have most impact, and design for sustainability from the outset with clear ownership and feedback loops so training and resources can be maintained beyond initial funding.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Redbridge was selected as a national Pathfinder authority for the Families First for Children programme, a Department for Education initiative designed to deliver fundamental reform to Children’s Social Care through a ‘test and learn’ approach.

The programme requires the development of expert-led Multi‑Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs) alongside wider system reform, including Family Help, stronger safeguarding partnerships and increased involvement of family networks.

Prior to implementation, Redbridge recognised challenges common across the sector:

• Fragmented multi-agency working
• Delays in information sharing
• Increasing complexity of safeguarding need

In response, Redbridge established a co-located Multi‑Agency Child Protection Team, not only to improve local safeguarding outcomes but to act as a live test site for national reform, generating learning to help inform the future design of Children’s Social Care.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

Launched in April 2025, the Redbridge MACPT was designed as a whole-system redesign of child protection decision-making.

An Integrated team model: Co-location of social care, police, health, education partners, real-time collaboration replacing fragmented communication, shared accountability for safeguarding decisions.

Joint decision-making and triage: Multi-agency professionals assessing risk together, improved consistency, timeliness and quality of decisions, daily opportunities for shared review and identification of emerging risk.

Improved operational practice: Streamlined assessment pathways, reducing duplication for families, strengthened multi-agency strategy discussions, introduction of tools to support consistent decision-making, improved quality of safety planning.

Continuous review through: regular multi-agency partnership meetings at operational and senior leadership level, regular multi-agency partnership auditting at operational and senior leadership levels, group supervision sessions for the whole team.

Alignment with wider Families First for Children reforms including: Family Help integration, Family network involvement, strengthened safeguarding arrangements.

National contribution: Active contribution to the Families First Pathfinder programme, sharing learning across London and nationally, supporting development of emerging best practice.

This approach ensures Redbridge operates not only as a delivery model, but as a national learning system shaping reform.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

For children and families: Faster, more timely safeguarding decisions, reduced need for families to repeat their stories, more coordinated and joined-up interventions, improved quality of safety planning, children are protected earlier and more effectively.

For the system: Increased multi-agency attendance and engagement, reduced duplication and more efficient processes, greater confidence and clarity in professional decision-making.

Recognition and validation: Awarded the Redbridge Star of the Month award and shortlisted for the annual all staff ‘connector’ award (October 2025) for:

Commitment to safeguarding, collaboration and influence beyond Redbridge:

Praised by the Children’s Minister, Josh MacAlister, who described the model as: “the most advanced version of this model anywhere in the country”.

The team have had visits from Sir David Holmes (Chair, Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel) and Chief Social Worker Isabelle Trowler reflecting national interest in the team and credibility.

National impact: Direct contribution to Families First Pathfinder learning, informing how multi-agency child protection models are developed nationally, demonstrating scalability and sustainability of integrated safeguarding.

This positions Redbridge as both a high-performing local service and a national leader in reform.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

Redbridge will continue to build on its role as a Families First for Children Pathfinder authority, ensuring the Multi‑Agency Child Protection Team remains central to both local delivery and national reform.

Key next steps include:

• Deepening and embedding the MACPT model to ensure consistency, sustainability and continued improvement in safeguarding outcomes.
• Strengthening data, evaluation and evidence frameworks to robustly demonstrate impact and contribute to the national evidence base for reform.
• Expanding the model to include wider partners, particularly education and specialist services, in line with strengthened multi-agency safeguarding expectations.
• Further aligning the MACPT with Family Help and Family Network models, ensuring seamless transitions across the whole Families First system.

Critically, Redbridge will continue to act as a national learning and demonstration site, by:

• Actively contributing to Pathfinder evaluation and policy development.
• Sharing learning across London, Pathfinder authorities and the wider sector.
• Supporting the replication and adaptation of the model in other Local Authorities.

Through this work, Redbridge will play a key role in shaping how multi-agency child protection is delivered at a national level, ensuring reforms are informed by real practice, evidence and impact.

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

Key learning from Redbridge’s Families First Pathfinder experience highlights that successful implementation of a Multi‑Agency Child Protection Team requires both structural and cultural transformation.

• Invest in relationships early – strong, trust-based partnerships between agencies are the foundation of effective multi-agency safeguarding.
• Prioritise co-location or real-time collaboration – daily interaction between professionals significantly improves the quality and timeliness of decision-making.
• Establish shared thresholds and language – consistency across partners reduces variation and strengthens professional confidence.
• Embed a learning culture – regular case reflection, audit and feedback are critical to continuous improvement.
• Align with wider system reform – maximum impact is achieved when child protection is integrated with Family Help and Family Network approaches.
• Be intentional about capturing and sharing learning – particularly when operating within a Pathfinder or pilot programme.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Young people across the borough are increasingly exposed to risks linked to criminal exploitation, peer pressure, and youth violence, including weapon carrying. Traditional interventions often rely on discussion-based approaches, which can struggle to fully engage young people or reflect the real-time pressures they experience.

There was a clear need for a more immersive and impactful intervention that could help young people understand risk, recognise exploitation, and build confidence in decision-making. This was particularly relevant for those in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), SEN settings, and those known to youth justice or social care services, who may be more vulnerable to exploitation.

We decided that the VR programme was able to bridge this gap, offering a safe but realistic environment where young people can explore consequences without real-world harm.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

Using Critical Incident Funding obtained from the London VRU, following a youth homicide in the borough, we procured a virtual reality intervention from Virtual Decisions. The intervention uses VR headsets to guide young people through two interactive scenarios:

Criminal exploitation scenario: young people follow a storyline where they are approached by a known individual linked to criminality and are asked to hold a bag with unknown contents. They experience peer pressure and make decisions that influence the outcome, including scenarios involving theft and debt bondage.

Weapon carrying scenario: young people navigate situations involving pressure or intimidation to carry a weapon, exploring different outcomes such as avoidance, escalation, stop and search, or arrest.

The programme requires young people to make decisions throughout the scenario, which directly impact the narrative and consequences they experience.

Delivery of the programme has been flexible and embedded across multiple settings, including:

• Primary and secondary schools
• PRUs and SEN provisions
• Youth justice service
• Adolescent safeguarding work
• Social work direct work sessions

Delivered as a preventative measure in schools, this proactive approach enables early identification of risk and the delivery of timely, trauma-informed interventions before concerns escalate into statutory involvement. A key strand of the programme focuses on transition periods, particularly for children moving from primary to secondary education. Through a wrap-around approach during these critical transition points, the partnership has been able to identify emerging emotional, social, and behavioural vulnerabilities that may otherwise go unnoticed. This work supports a deeper understanding of children’s lived experiences and the wider contextual factors influencing their behaviour.

As well as completing sessions with over 500 children and young people across the borough, we have also trained professionals, including social workers, youth justice workers and practitioners within our “Safe Spaces” project, to use the VR tool as part of their direct work or as an education piece to help them understand the pressures faced by young people in the community. Sessions are always followed by facilitated discussions to reflect on choices, peer influence, exploitation tactics, and protective strategies.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

The programme has been delivered to approximately 500 young people aged 9–21 across a range of settings.

Key impacts include:

• High levels of engagement across all age groups, including those traditionally harder to engage
• Improved understanding of exploitation, peer pressure, and consequences of decision-making
• Increased ability among young people to identify risky situations and coercive behaviours
• Positive feedback from professionals, particularly regarding the tool’s effectiveness in supporting meaningful conversations

Feedback forms have been completed by children and young people – highlighting greater understanding on both the topics, and where to seek support moving forwards.

Delivery within education settings, particularly with young people identified as vulnerable, has supported the identification of those requiring additional intervention. This has enabled onward referrals, informed reassessment of Contextual Risk Screening, and supported practitioners in planning targeted direct work.

The programme has also been used within the YouthLink hospital project, engaging young people during hospital admissions. This has facilitated meaningful discussions around community safety, including risks linked to criminal and sexual exploitation, and supported the development of robust, personalised safety planning.

Practitioners report that the immersive nature of VR helps young people better relate to scenarios, leading to deeper reflection compared to standard interventions.

The programme has also strengthened practitioner confidence in discussing complex topics such as exploitation and weapon carrying, particularly through its use in training and workforce development.

Next Steps: what you are doing next to develop or expand this practice

Funding has not yet been secured to extend the current licence for the programme beyond the end of May 2026, however if we were able to secure further funding, the aim would be to:

• Increase delivery across more schools and community settings
• Embed the intervention further within early help, prevention pathways and youth justice.
• Continued use within workforce training to widen practitioner use
• Exploring additional scenarios / programmes to reflect emerging risks and local trends (i.e vaping, identity, gangs)

We would also look to strengthen our evaluation methods to capture longer-term outcomes and behavioural change.

Evolve: advice you would give to others seeking to replicate your model

1. Invest in facilitation, not just technology: the VR experience is most impactful when paired with skilled discussion and reflection.
2. Adapt to your audience: the flexibility of the scenarios allows them to be effective across a wide age range and needs, but delivery style should be tailored.
3. Train your workforce early: building practitioner confidence ensures the tool is used consistently and effectively.
4. Start with clear safeguarding links: align the programme with existing exploitation and violence reduction strategies from the outset.
5. Earlier formal evaluation and data collection would have strengthened the evidence base further.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Our work begins when a referral is made requesting groupwork intervention, followed by a consultation with the referrer to understand the concerns affecting the young people they are considering for the programme. Through this consultation, I gather detailed information about the issues emerging within the individuals picked to participate in the group. Using this insight, I design a bespoke groupwork programme tailored to the specific risks and needs identified. Previous programmes have addressed concerns such as consent, sharing indecent images, healthy relationships, behavioural changes, conflict, harmful sexual behaviours, substance misuse, peer influence, and friendship dynamics. This approach ensures that the intervention is directly responsive to the contextual challenges young people are experiencing.

How: what you did and how it was delivered to meet the identified need

We deliver interventions through either targeted or universal group sessions, depending on the level of need identified. Targeted groups involve a small number of selected participants identified by the referring provision, allowing for focused work on specific concerns. Universal sessions, by contrast, are delivered as one off themed workshops to whole year groups, tutor groups, or wider user groups.

For the targeted programme, relevant to the earlier ‘setting the scene’ example, I design a bespoken series of sessions based on the concerns raised during consultation. The programme incorporates structured educational activities, discussion based learning, and a range of materials tailored to the cognitive abilities and developmental needs of the young people involved. This ensures that the content is accessible, engaging, and directly responsive to the issues identified, enabling participants to explore themes such as consent, relationships, behaviour, conflict, peer influence, and other contextual challenges in a safe and supported environment.

Impact: evidence of the difference it has made to children and families

Over the past 12 months, I have delivered groupwork interventions across primary and secondary schools, further education settings, apprenticeship organisations, and community provisions. Between April 2025 and December 2025, a total of 435 young people engaged in these sessions, demonstrating strong uptake and sustained demand for preventative, educational groupwork.

Feedback from both young people and families consistently evidences the positive impact of the intervention. Participants report increased confidence, improved understanding of relationships and consent, and greater self awareness. Staff and parents highlight the value of the safe, small group environment in enabling young people to speak openly and reflect on their experiences.

Examples include:

• “Overall, learning about everything and specifying our values felt great. Thank you.” – young person from apprenticeship program
• “She is really enjoying the group… the small group of nice girls makes her feel safe to speak.”- Parent of participant at local secondary school
• “Talking about relationships made me reflect on the relationships I’ve been in; both physical and other!”- young people from apprenticeship programme.

This feedback demonstrates that the programme not only increases knowledge but also supports emotional safety, reflection, and healthier decision making benefits that extend to families and the wider school or community environment.