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

Enfield Council recognises the importance of preparing all young people for adulthood, especially those who require additional support, and has maintained a focus on PfA in Education, Health and Social Care for several years.

As part of Enfield’s successful bid for Delivering Better Value funding from the DfE, PfA was identified as a discrete workstream, through which a number of focus areas were identified to evolve Enfield’s Preparation for Adulthood offer aligned to the SEND partnership strategic priorities to provide a more holistic offer. In order to inform the PfA development work, scoping was carried out across families, young people, Education, Health and Social Care services, and a number of issues were identified:

• Parents and young people recognised that services focused on Preparation for Adulthood from the age of 14 onwards but expressed concern that, in many cases, there was little discussion of adulthood before this point, leaving some with anxieties around a process which seemed to be too short.
• PfA was inconsistently delivered across educational settings in Enfield, with many primary and Early Years settings delivering ‘life skills’ which were not linked to future goals and secondary and FE settings discussing PfA as part of the Annual Review process from the age of 14 upwards. Many educational settings expressed a desire to strengthen their PfA practice but required guidance and support in doing so.
• PfA support and processes were largely aimed at children and young people with an EHCP, though parents and educational settings all identified that many young people on SEN Support and those without SEN needs would also benefit from a more consistent approach to PfA.

In response to scoping and data analysis, the SEND partnership identified a priority focus of developing ‘PfA curriculum guidance’ with the aims:

• To support educational settings with the delivery of preparation for adulthood skills, to ensure all children & young people are prepared, supported to build the knowledge, skills and confidence and achieve their full potential when transitioning from education to adulthood.

• To support curriculum delivery consistency and progress monitoring across education settings.

• To support education settings and services with statutory processes: outcome-setting, target-writing and annual reviews.

• To empower families to support their child or young person towards adulthood in a way which is appropriate to a home and community setting.

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

Co-production was key to the development of the PfA guidance. A working group was set up, encompassing representatives from Enfield’s parent, carer forum, representatives from mainstream and special educational settings across all phases of education, the SEN Service, Virtual School, Social Care and Health, the Education Psychology Service, the Enfield Advisory Service for Autism, the Schools and Early Years Improvement Service and the Youth Justice Service.

Initially, an audit was undertaken of PfA processes and resources currently used within Enfield, as well as good practice nationally. There had already been some positive steps taken in Early Years settings in Enfield with exemplar descriptors of PfA goals, which suggested a way forward, and this was backed up by detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of other nationally available PfA guidance documents which identified that, as a group, an outcomes-based approach was preferred.

Based on scoping feedback, the working group developed the guidance in alignment with the four Preparation for Adulthood strands, each of which were then further broken down into a series of skills-based outcomes. Each skills-based outcome is accompanied by a number of ‘steps towards outcomes’ (suggested ways in which settings may help a young person achieve the outcome) and support relevant resources. Outcomes are organised into 6 stages which correspond to age-related expectations but are colour-coded, so that age ranges/key stages do not have to be displayed, for the occasions when doing so may harm a child or family’s confidence or self-esteem. A set of assessment booklets was also produced, through which settings, services and, or families can record and monitor a young person’s progress towards the PfA outcomes.

Following positive feedback from parents or carers on the initial document, a request was made for a families’ version, which enables parents or carers and those working with young people outside of an educational setting to work towards the same outcomes using different steps towards the outcomes.

The guidance was initially launched to headteachers, SENCos, service leads and Our Voice, Enfield’s parent carer forum, through a series of meetings, followed up by a targeted schedule of training sessions with educational settings and service teams. These sessions were supported by ad hoc discussions as part of service team meetings and attendance at parent group coffee mornings, which allowed for more informal conversation and significantly increased uptake of the guidance. Monitoring and feedback on the guidance continues with regular check ins within team meetings and additional training sessions offered to educational settings, parent groups and services as required. This consistent approach has been key in developing engagement with settings and services and has supported the ongoing dissemination and uptake of the guidance.

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

Following the launch of the PfA curriculum guidance in October 2025, data metrics will be reviewed in Summer 2026; however, feedback and case study tracking has been overwhelmingly positive, with a significant take-up of the guidance across educational settings and a consistently increasing number of families also referring to the guidance at home. Benefits have been identified in all areas:

Young people:

Clear outcomes coupled with a simple method for tracking has enabled many young people to take ownership of their progress towards adulthood. Outcomes are based on a wide range of skills and track progress across much smaller increments than traditional age-related expectations, allowing schools and families to celebrate small wins and more frequent progress than has previously been possibly for children who may struggle to access the traditional curriculum. One mainstream secondary setting in Enfield reported that the guidance is being used by all young people, regardless of need, to track their own progress towards adulthood and that this has been helpful in supporting college applications in Year 11.

Families:

The families’ version of the guidance has also allowed parents/carers to take on more ownership of their child or young person’s progress. Given the home based nature of the steps towards outcomes in this version, families who have previously felt intimidated by homework and more formal approaches have been able to engage with and stretch their child or young person’s learning. Early monitoring with families is showing that they are using the guidance across services, early commonality of language used across outcomes is proving helpful, especially for families in which English is not their first language.

Educational settings:

Educational settings are reporting using the guidance in several ways; PfA curriculum planning, supporting statutory processes (including informing annual reviews / EHCNA requests) and supporting the PSHE and Personal Development curriculum across the board. Two of the schools who piloted an early version of the guidance have seen a positive response to its impact in recent Ofsted inspections where they felt it was useful in showing progress made by children who could not otherwise demonstrate clear progress towards ARE. Additionally, education settings have identified the guidance to be of support in the transitions processes through sharing assessment and tracking of individual PfA strengths and needs.

Services:

The SEN Service has noticed the most immediate effect from the guidance, with strengthened PfA-based outcomes being submitted by schools within Annual Review and EHCNA paperwork. Other services are also using the statements to help to set targets. The guidance has supported services to start PfA discussions at an earlier stage, which will ultimately lead to a more secure transition to adulthood and adult services and greater confidence in young people and families around the move to adulthood.

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

Monitoring the uptake of the guidance is still underway and feedback is being received from families, SENCOs and service representatives across Enfield. To continue to develop the project, Enfield Council are working on several next steps:

• Continued work with other services to further embed guidance, including offering training to services where needed.

• Continued expansion of the number of parents/families using the guidance by targeting families through other services, thus allowing families to see the ways in which PfA links to all areas of their child / young person’s life.

• One area in which the guidance does not appear to be consistently utilised is in private Early Years settings. Expanding training and communication around PfA with these settings is an area of focus for next steps, linking to strengthened transitions between these settings and primary school placements.

• Following requests from families and young people themselves, a young person’s guide to PfA is currently in production to complement the existing guidance. This will take the form of a resource, providing information and signposts to further support.

• To maximise the reach of the guidance (and the upcoming young person’s guide), we are looking into ways of developing the guidance into different formats, such as video or infographics.

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

• Coproduction has been a key strength of this project, enabling partners to quickly and comprehensively recognise the needs within this area and develop a document that fully addresses these needs. It has also ensured excellent buy in from all services represented and eased difficulties around identification of key change makers within each service.

• The project grew in scale from a one off guidance document for schools and services to a range of guides and supplementary materials aimed at various audiences. This has resulted in changing timescales, which may be problematic for others seeking to replicate the model. As each new document is valuable, it would be advisable for those replicating the model to factor in enough time to create a suite of resources.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Across West London, local authorities have faced a long‑standing shortage of suitable residential provision for Children with complex emotional, behavioural and mental health needs. Children are frequently placed far from their home boroughs, disrupting education, family contact and continuity of care. For a small but highly vulnerable cohort, this has included repeated placement breakdowns, use of exceptionally high‑cost provision, in some cases, unregistered placements linked to deprivation of liberty and unnecessarily long stays in Accident & Emergency or paediatric wards.

The WLRP was developed as a sub‑regional collaboration sponsored by the DCS’s in the region. It is a collaboration between Health and Social Care to develop a new model of quality local provision enabling more vulnerable children with complex needs to remain connected to their local communities, avoiding unnecessary stays in A&E and the disruption, distance and insecurity associated with placements in the private market. The project builds on the integrated and robust relationships of system partners already in place across Hounslow and has been coproduced using a wide range of professional disciplines.

A council‑owned property in Hounslow has been identified and progressed for remodelling into a six‑bed children’s home, enabling faster delivery while maximising value from public assets. The home has been designed to flex between group living and higher‑need solo provision, allowing children to be supported safely at different stages of crisis, stabilisation and recovery.

The therapeutic and operational model was co‑produced with health partners from the outset. Clinical leaders from West London NHS Trust worked alongside commissioners and practitioners to design a trauma‑informed approach grounded in Non‑Violent Resistance (NVR), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and psychologically informed practice.

The Northwest London Integrated Care Board (ICB) has committed to embedding Mental Health Expertise within the home, funding specialist Mental Health Practitioner input and enabling the home to operate as part of an integrated health and care pathway rather than a standalone residential placement. Local delivery including clinical supervision of these practitioners will rest with local NHS Trust partners.

Care‑experienced young people are engaged in shaping the environment, design principles and ethos of care, helping ensure the home feels safe, relational and appropriate for adolescents with complex trauma histories. Early engagement with Ofsted helped shape decisions around layout, governance and readiness for registration.

At a system level, the project will change how West London partners respond to complexity. Rather than competing for scarce external placements, boroughs are collaborating around shared capacity, shared risk and shared outcomes. At a practice and pathway level, the model will directly address the drivers of poor outcomes for children with complex needs. By creating local, registered provision with embedded mental health input, the project will reduce reliance on distant and unregulated placements, improve safeguarding oversight and promote placement stability.

The involvement of the ICB will ensure children’s mental health needs are addressed proactively within the placement, reducing reliance on crisis responses and fragmented care. Furthermore, the model will enable transitions to local CAMHs teams to be managed in a more coordinated and seamless way.

Next steps include completion of the build, workforce recruitment, Ofsted registration and phased opening of the home. Early placements will be carefully supported to embed learning and refine practice. Partners will focus on evaluating outcomes and embedding learning into sufficiency planning. Key lessons including, treating sufficiency as a system challenge, not a single‑Local Authority issue. Embedding health partnerships early, with ICB commitment to clinical input.

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

The project was able build on and strengthen existing borough-based relationships, through demonstrating the benefits for all agencies. System partners have been allocated specific elements of the building design and the home’s operating model, including staff training requirements which has positively enabled ownership and leadership. Initial practice improvements flowing from this have seen a reduced reliance on emergency and unregistered provision for the target cohort. It creates clearer step‑down pathways from crisis and is expected to improve placement stability and mental health engagement.

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

The model has strengthened joint ownership across health and social care and reduced reliance on emergency and unregistered provision for the target cohort. It creates clearer step‑down pathways from crisis and is expected to improve placement stability and mental health engagement.

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

Open the home (planned December 2027), embed outcome monitoring, evaluate health and stability outcomes, and use learning to inform further sub‑regional provision with ICB partners. Develop and embed a community of practice across all homes operated by the Council enabling a system that supports timely and well supported moves and can flex to needs.

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

Involve clinicians early, embed mental health support within placements rather than around them, and plan for risk and workforce challenges from the outset. Agree outcome measures early to support meaningful evaluation.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Demand for statutory SLCN support locally has risen significantly, with requests for EHC needs assessments peaking in the early primary years. Schools reported limited confidence in identifying and supporting SLCN, alongside inconsistent practice across settings and delayed access to therapeutic input without an EHCP. This combination led to avoidable escalation of need, poorer outcomes for children, and increasing pressure on high-cost statutory services.

The system required a fundamentally different approach, one that intervened earlier, integrated education and health expertise, and strengthened sustainable capacity within schools.

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

Confident Communicators is an innovative, co-designed model that brings together local authority advisory teachers, NHS speech and language therapists, and school staff to deliver holistic, child-centred support. It focuses on Reception and Year 1 children at risk of escalation, providing early, targeted intervention that combines direct therapeutic input with workforce development. Education and health professionals jointly assess each child and design bespoke intervention packages tailored to their individual needs. A key adult within the school, typically a teaching assistant, is trained and coached to deliver these interventions, ensuring that expertise is embedded within the school rather than remaining external.

The programme extends beyond the classroom through an integrated family support offer, including a home visit that enables parents to reinforce communication strategies in everyday contexts. Termly multi-agency reviews involving families ensure progress is consistently monitored and that decisions about continuation, discharge, or escalation are evidence-based and timely. Importantly, this is not a stand-alone service but a model that combines targeted support for individual children with system-wide capacity building, ensuring that impact is sustained and scaled.

The programme was developed through a six-month co-production process involving families and practitioners. This ensured that the model reflects lived experience, fits within school and home routines, and prioritises the child’s inclusion and wellbeing alongside measurable SLCN outcomes.

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

Early evidence demonstrates significant impact at both the individual and system level. Children participating in the programme have shown significant measurable improvements in speech, language and communication using NHS Therapeutic Outcome Measures (TOMs). Of the 63 children supported to date, 22% have been successfully discharged, requiring no further intervention to meet their communication milestones, while only 7% have progressed to an EHCP referral. These outcomes are particularly notable given that children can receive up to six terms of support and the first full cohort has not yet completed the programme (due to conclude in Autumn 26).

The programme is also delivering strong outcomes for the workforce and wider system. Practitioner confidence in identifying and supporting SLCN has increased significantly, rising from an average of 6 out of 10 to 9 out of 10. School staff report greater consistency in practice, improved use of communication strategies in everyday teaching, and a stronger sense of confidence in meeting children’s needs. Feedback highlights the value of multi‐agency collaboration in driving these improvements. One practitioner noted that the programme “up-skilled me no end” and should be available in every school.

Taken together, these outcomes demonstrate a clear triple impact of improved outcomes for children, increased workforce capability, and reduced demand for statutory intervention. An independent evaluation by Speech and Language UK is currently underway to further validate and strengthen the evidence base.

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

The programme has been designed with sustainability and scalability at its core. By embedding skills and knowledge within school staff through ongoing training and coaching, the model reduces reliance on external specialists over time. The use of shared tools, consistent outcome measures, and clear step-up and step-down pathways ensures that the approach is both replicable and adaptable.

Future priorities include completing the independent evaluation to refine the model further, expanding workforce development through training all schools in the SLCN progression toolkit, and strengthening early identification pathways across education and health services. Another next step includes using data from the programme to better target 0-5 commissioned SCLN services. The programme will also explore expansion to wider year groups to extend its preventative impact based on school feedback. These developments will support the transition from a targeted intervention model to a whole-system approach.

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

To replicate our Confident Communicators model, we’d start by agreeing a shared definition of the challenge locally, including what ‘SEN Support without an EHCP’ looks like and how success will be measured for children and for the wider system. Co-design the approach with the children, families and professionals who know and live with these challenges so that interventions fit with existing school and home routines and are more likely to be adopted consistently. Build workforce development into the core offer through training, coaching and reflective practice, so strategies become part of day-to-day classroom practice rather than an add on. Combine targeted and universal approaches, pairing intensive support for high-need children with whole-school improvements to prevent escalation. Establish a clear ‘step‐down/step-up’ pathway, making it straightforward to discharge children who no longer need specialist support and to escalate those who do, using consistent evidence. Finally, plan evaluation from the outset, with baseline and follow-up measures and simple throughput tracking.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster’s Bi-borough Children’s Services set out to improve outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) by ensuring needs are identified early, support is coordinated, and high-quality provision is available locally. We faced rising complexity of need including social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs, alongside pressure on specialist places, variation in inclusive practice across mainstream settings, and the need to strengthen trust and partnership with parents/carers through meaningful co-production. Our ambition has been to provide the right support at the right time, reduce barriers to learning and participation, and widen opportunities for children and young people with SEND to thrive in education and beyond.

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

We deliver this through a practical, multi-strand approach built on partnership with education, health and community organisations. We have strengthened strategic co-production by involving parents and carers in high-level boards and decision-making, and by maintaining regular Parent Reference Group engagement alongside a dedicated role focused on capturing the voice of children and young people.

Our Autism Partnership is co-chaired by an autistic person and provides clear workstreams across education, health and social care, ensuring that lived experience informs priorities and delivery.

To meet growing SEMH need locally, we reimagined alternative provision with Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT) and local schools and opened Freston Junction (April 2024), a 12-place SEMH provision offering in-borough education in a nurturing environment. The model includes a five-day induction, individual assessments and Individual Education Plans, alongside an integrated therapeutic offer from specialist clinicians.

We also widened opportunities through creative and employment-focused pathways: young people shaped our supported employment offer by co-producing short films and leading decisions on a community premiere event. Alongside this, the Tri-borough Music Hub (with AEG Music/The O2 funding) delivered a Spring 2025 pilot across four Alternative Provision settings in West London, providing seven weeks of personalised music-making sessions in each setting. Please click links below, there are two versions of the animation:

• Full version (3 mins)

We strengthened early SLCN support through Confident Communicators for Reception and Year 1 children at SEN Support, alongside a Teaching Assistant Reflection and Celebration Day across seven schools.

Finally, inclusive practice in mainstream settings is supported through our SEND Inclusive Education Team (SENDIE), which undertakes observation visits, agrees actions with schools, models effective strategies, and coordinates multi-agency input (including SALT, OT, autism advisory, EP and social care), with notes shared to schools and parents and follow-up visits where needed.

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

Our approach is improving timeliness, access and lived experience for children and families. Across both boroughs, at least 99% of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) are produced within 20 weeks this is well above national averages and helps in supporting earlier intervention and faster access to provision. Locally commissioned specialist provision is enabling some of our most vulnerable and isolated children to re-engage with education in a school setting through high-quality, therapeutic-informed support.

Co-production is strengthening children and young people’s influence on services, including participation in senior recruitment (e.g., interviewing candidates for the Principal Educational Psychologist role), shaping home-to-school transport improvement work (25 young people across three specialist SEN schools), and developing peer resources such as All For Youth Magazine and a Transition Booklet co-created with 29 Year 6 and Year 7 pupils.

The Tri-borough Music Hub pilot demonstrated measurable benefit in Alternative Provision: engagement in 92% of sessions, improved self-expression in 94%, and enhanced social interaction in 84%, alongside qualitative improvements in emotional regulation, confidence and participation.

Confident Communicators improved workforce confidence in identifying and supporting speech language and communication needs from an average of 6 out of 10 to a 9 out of 10.

SENDIE is strengthening inclusive practice at scale, completing more than 100 individual child observations across 76 schools, with SENCO feedback consistently positive and 100% reporting the visits were valuable and improved inclusion. Collectively, this is contributing to more inclusive classrooms, stronger partnerships with schools and families, and better outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

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

Next, we will build on what is working by expanding learning from Freston Junction to strengthen pathways into and out of SEMH provision, supporting sustained reintegration and positive destinations. We will deepen co-production by widening participation opportunities for children and young people who are less often heard, and by using feedback loops so families can clearly see how their input changes practice. We will continue to embed multi-agency working through SENDIE by strengthening consistency of inclusive strategies across schools and increasing shared problem-solving with health and social care partners where barriers to EHCP delivery are identified. We will also develop the evidence base across our creative and employment pathways using session feedback, school outcomes and participation measures to guide scaling of the music pilot and to grow employer engagement for supported employment opportunities for young people with SEND.

Finally, we will continue to strengthen early intervention for SLCN by sustaining workforce development and collaboration across schools so children can access support earlier and more consistently.

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

For areas looking to replicate this approach, agree a shared purpose across education, health and care, then design delivery around what families say matters most. Put co-production on a formal footing (regular forums, supported participation, shared decisions and clear feedback on what will change). Grow strong local provision with partners to reduce out-of-area placements, with routines that prioritise relationships, belonging and therapeutic-informed practice. Combine targeted specialist input with system-wide inclusion support so improvements stick in mainstream settings. Track a small set of robust measures (timeliness, engagement, confidence and school outcomes) and use rapid learning cycles to refine and scale. Above all, take a whole-system, long-term view linking education to enrichment, transition planning, supported employment and community participation.

Setting the Scene: the context and problem you are solving

Children with disabilities and their families can experience fragmented support, with multiple entry points, repeated assessments and separate pathways across social care, short breaks, early help and inclusion. For families already managing caring responsibilities, health needs and education pressures, this complexity adds burden, requiring them to repeat their story when they most need clarity and consistency.

Across Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster, support was previously delivered through separate teams, including Disabled Children’s Teams and the Short Breaks Service. Although each service added value, families could still experience the system as disjointed, moving between teams and navigating different thresholds and processes.

There were also wider challenges in ensuring children and young people with disabilities could access mainstream activities, build friendships, develop independence and experience belonging, rather than relying only on specialist provision.

Through an extensive review involving families, partners and our workforce, we developed an evidence-informed vision for change. The themes emerging locally strongly reflected the national direction of travel later articulated in Stable Homes, Built on Love. Rather than waiting for reform to become statutory, we redesigned our Children with Disabilities provision in line with the ambitions of social care reform, ensuring the service was responsive to current need and ready for the future.

The Bi-Borough Children with Disabilities Family Help Service (CWDFH) was developed to address these issues by bringing social care, short breaks, family help and inclusion into one integrated, preventative model for children and young people aged 0–25. Its aim is to make support easier to access, more consistent and joined up, so children with disabilities can thrive within their families and communities.

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

The CWDFH Service brings together Disabled Children’s Social Care and the Bi-Borough Short Breaks Service into one integrated, multidisciplinary model. This reduces the need for families to navigate separate parts of the system themselves and supports a more coordinated, whole-family response.

The service includes Family Help Practitioners, Social Workers, Systemic Clinicians, Occupational Therapists, a Designated Social Care Officer, Inclusion Practitioners, Family Navigators and specialist Children with Disabilities centres. Together, they provide support across a continuum of need, from early advice and prevention to statutory intervention where required.

One assessment, one story: A single assessment approach reduces duplication and keeps the focus on the child’s lived experience and the realities of family life.

Continuity through a named practitioner: Each family has a consistent Family Help Practitioner who builds trust and maintains a coherent plan. Where needs increase or safeguarding concerns emerge, practitioners work closely with Social Workers to ensure smooth transitions and joined-up support.

Team Around the Family: The model brings professionals together to deliver timely, tailored support, including short breaks, homecare, personal budgets, parenting support, preparation for adulthood and community-based interventions that build independence and confidence.

Inclusion as a core function: A dedicated Inclusion Team works with schools, health partners, youth services and community providers to remove barriers and increase access to mainstream and community opportunities.

A clear, fair front door: Access is underpinned by eligibility criteria aligned with the Equality Act 2010, focusing on children with substantial and long-term disabilities or complex health needs. Where children do not meet the threshold, Family Navigators provide advice, visits where appropriate, and active signposting to SEND services, Early Help, Family Hubs and the Local Offer.

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

The impact of the CWDFH Service is seen in the shift families experience: less system navigation, more relationship-based support, clearer planning and a stronger focus on inclusion and everyday outcomes. Families describe the service as more joined-up, with fewer handoffs and greater confidence that someone is holding the whole picture.

What families are telling us (anonymised feedback):

“From the first visit, the practitioner was professional, kind and understanding. They built a relationship with our child, worked around our routines and kept us informed. We now have a tailored package of support and feel much more settled as a family.”

What this looks like in practice:

One family approached the service during a period of disruption, following a sudden change in parental availability and reduced informal support. Previously, they may have had to navigate separate pathways, repeating their story while waiting for support.

Under the Family Help model, a named practitioner completed a holistic assessment, built a relationship with the child and coordinated support across services. Clear communication meant decisions translated quickly into practical help.

The result was not just a package of care, but a family feeling more settled, empowered and confident, with support that fitted their lives rather than the system.

Early impact themes:

· Stronger relationships, with families highlighting consistency, empathy and trust

· Smoother transitions between early help, short breaks and statutory support

· Greater focus on inclusion, independence and coordination across partners

Why this matters:

In a context of increasing demand and complexity, the model reduces duplication, strengthens decision-making and keeps inclusion and lived experience at the centre.

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

The service continues to embed its integrated model with a focus on inclusion, outcomes and sustainability.

Key priorities include:

• Deepen the inclusion offer so more children and young people can access mainstream and community opportunities

• Strengthen workforce confidence through training that supports consistent, relational practice

• Improve data and performance monitoring to evidence impact and inform improvement

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

This model offers practical learning for other local authorities seeking to improve outcomes for children with disabilities and reduce inequality.

• Design around the family, not the system. A coordinated model improves experience and reduces fragmentation

• Continuity is an intervention. A consistent practitioner builds trust and strengthens engagement

• Make inclusion core. Dedicated inclusion capacity enables wider system change

• Work in partnership. Collaboration across agencies supports earlier, more effective intervention

Overall, the CWDFH Service shows how an integrated, preventative and inclusion-led approach can create a more coherent system, improve family experience and help children and young people with disabilities thrive.