Report: Supporting young people in care – ‘Better by Design: a report for Achieving for Children’
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The Department for Education have published an evaluation of a programme for young people with challenging behaviours in the care system.

‘Better by Design: a report for Achieving for Children’ examines the:

  •     potential of the ‘Better by Design’ approach
  •     importance of a clear referral system
  •     need to support children at the ‘right time’
  •     need to manage the unit costs of hub services
Executive Summary

Achieving for Children (AfC) is a social enterprise company created by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to provide their children’s services.

In 2015, AfC successfully bid for one year of funding from the Department for Education (DfE) Children’s Social Services Innovation Programme. The funding was for AfC to deliver and evaluate a project called Better by Design (BBD).

BBD is a new project, developed by AfC in collaboration with the University of Birmingham. BBD comprises a different way of working with young people who present particularly challenging behaviours. It combines social learning principles with collaborative problem solving approaches, in order to build the skills and capabilities of young people in care, or on the edge of care. The aim is for them to manage their own challenges, difficulties and relationships in a different and more constructive way, and thereby improve their behaviours and the way they relate to others.

Key innovations of the project are:

  • Recruitment of ‘Innovation Family Workers’. A new team of Innovation Family Workers has been recruited for BBD, specifically without social care experience or social work qualifications but with strong inter-relational skills.
  • New ‘Innovation Mentors’. The BBD project involves recruiting specialist foster carers known as ‘Innovation Mentors’ who are trained in BBD by AfC.
  • Migrate young people in out-of-borough residential care back to in-borough Innovation Mentors via a ‘residential hub’. This residential short-stay setting is home to the young people for around 8 weeks. Duringthis time the Innovation Family Workers introduce the young people to BBD approaches and prepare them for life with their new Innovation Mentor.
  • Work with young people (and their families or care givers) on the edge of care to keep them from entering care. The aim is to improve the way young people and their primary care givers engage and interact at home. This is so that the young people can remain in a home setting, if it is safe to do so.

To download the report, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-young-people-in-care-better-by-design