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21 February 2025
Frontline
How Frontline is driving change by improving services for children
Frontline’s vision is of a society where no child’s life chances are limited by their social or family circumstances. For the 700,000 children in England who are in or on the edge of care, this vision is too sadly far from their reality. That’s why Frontline has spent the last 11 years developing excellent practice, leadership and innovation in children’s social work.
In this time, we’ve recruited more than 3,600 new children’s social workers from diverse backgrounds, trained over 2,500 social work leaders and enabled and funded more than 30 innovations to protect children. We’ve also provided coaching to thousands of social workers and managers to improve their skill and ability to stay in social work. These efforts have contributed to meaningful progress in the sector, including an overall reduction in children entering care (excluding an increase in unaccompanied minors) and a significant increase in evidence-based practice methodologies across local authorities.
However, there are still many children who lack the safety and stability that every child needs. These children might be living in households struggling with poverty, substance use or mental ill health. Or, increasingly, they might be at risk of harm outside the home, from criminal exploitation, sexual abuse or gang violence. To ensure better outcomes for all children at risk of harm, we need a fundamental shift in how all services work together to support children.
Systems change is and always has been a core objective for Frontline. An important part of this change is building a strong network of skilled, brave leaders at all levels of social work and in allied professions, who are empowered to make decisions in the best interests of children.
Over the next three years, we are looking to focus on three key areas that will lead to positive change for children and their families.
1 Practice, leadership and innovation in children’s services
We will continue to develop the practice, leadership and innovation skills of social workers and other professionals in children’s services. Using our sector knowledge and experience, we will explore new approaches, such as expanding our leadership programmes, investing more in innovative ideas and developing new technology to help social workers do their best work.
2 New ways to bring about systems change
As a national charity with excellent relationships across children’s services and government, we are well positioned to influence culture and policy at the local and national level. By mobilising our thousands of fellows and growing our direct work with young people with lived experience, we can ensure the voices of these social workers and young people are able to shape decision-making and raise the positive profile of social work in the process.
3 Expanding support beyond social work
To create true system change, we need to widen our approach to include all professionals working with children. Over the next three years and beyond, we will expand our scope and explore new opportunities to improve the experience for children by developing the practice, leadership and innovation of those working across the public and third sectors.
As Mary Jackson, Frontline’s chief executive officer, explains:
The development of a new strategy offers an excellent opportunity to take stock and assess whether we are doing everything we can to achieve our mission. When working on our new strategy we have spoken to our teams, board, partners and young people to identify what more we could do to protect children at risk and their families. I am therefore delighted that we are now in a position to launch our new 2025-28 strategy, which sets out how we plan to work differently with professionals to better protect all children at risk of harm.”
While children’s social work remains at the core of our work, we are broadening our focus to be as effective as possible for children at risk of harm. This change reflects the work we have already begun, through the innovations we have funded and the launch of our new leadership programme, Progress.
To reflect these changes, we have revised our mission statement. Our new mission is to make life better for children at risk of harm by improving the services that support them.
Every child should have the safety and stability they need to thrive. At Frontline, we are committed to working alongside those who support children through life’s most difficult moments, ensuring that no child faces challenges without the care and guidance they deserve.