Innovative projects we’ve funded
Through our Innovation programme, 60 Fellows have completed the journey of turning ideas into action, with 12 impactful projects receiving funding. These initiatives have already benefited over 1,000 children and families, helping to reshape systems and improve support for those most in need.
Below are the 13 innovative ideas we’ve proudly supported.
Now Foster
Now Foster is a charity that enables more people to experience the joy of fostering. We work with public sector organisations across the UK to reimagine fostering and empower brilliant foster carers to support children and young people.
Thrive
The Thrive app supports social workers with workload and wellbeing, freeing up time and energy to be spent working directly with children and families.
Crescendo
We support practitioner-led change, enabling them to create the necessary changes that allow for increased time spent in direct practice. By addressing barriers within the system, our work improves job satisfaction, boosts morale, and enhances the overall well-being of practitioners.
Child First Custody Training and Research Pilot (ChiRP)
ChiRP is a training model for custody diversion workers and police officers, helping them work in more productive ways with young people at risk of criminality and exploitation.
Sistem Arts
Sistem Arts is a project that uses performing arts to encourage children at risk in the London Borough of Merton to think more deeply about situations and relationships in their lives that could be harmful.
Caring Nutrition
Caring Nutrition provides interactive nutrition and cooking workshops for foster carers to improve the health outcomes of looked-after children.
Why Care
Why Care is a holistic recruitment, assessment, and support partner for local authorities, utilising technology and the experience of those with lived experience of the sector to improve fostering recruitment, assessments, and support for everyone.
Create Your Village
Create Your Village is a co-produced, bespoke support offer for care-experienced parents in the London Borough of Islington. The support aims to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma by providing holistic and timely preventative support, as well as offering crisis interventions to reduce risk.
TBOX in Practice
TBOX in Practice is an easily accessible tool for practitioners, providing a platform to identify and risk assess indicators of exploitation (sexual, criminal, serious youth violence, modern-day slavery, and missing). Following the risk assessment, practitioners will be able to access targeted safety plans, evidence-informed direct tools, and interventions.
Conscious Policy Group
The Conscious Policy Group seeks to improve the safety of children online by building a policy/strategy organisation that brings expertise and experience from statutory safeguarding into the Online Safety sector, strengthening, shaping, and informing how new Online Safety systems are designed, implemented, and managed.
Life Story Cards
Life Story Cards are therapeutic, trauma-informed cards for social workers to make life story work a core, enriching part of a child’s care experience. This will be piloted in Wirral.
Impakt
Impakt is an organisation aimed at addressing and challenging the growing issue of unlawful school exclusions in the UK, ensuring that every child’s right to education is protected. Impakt will provide a vital support system for families, schools, and policymakers to create a fairer, more inclusive education system. This will be piloted in Southwark.
ReWired
ReWired is an access and training programme for young people with a social worker or those open to youth justice services. Participants will shadow leading industry professionals in creative settings, providing them with the skills to practice in entry-level roles within the sector. This will be piloted in Merton.