Prospectus for intensive cost effective and evidence based interventions for looked after children and children on the edge of care or custody

Improving permanence and stability for vulnerable children and families: implementing evidence- based interventions and expanding the foster care workforce

The Department has launched a prospectus for local authorities and their partners to bid for financial and other support to implement a range of intensive, cost effective and evidence-based or research informed interventions this vulnerable group of children who have complex needs and challenging behaviours which can result in out of home placements or placement breakdown. To complement this work, bids are also invited for local authorities and independent fostering agencies to form consortia to develop new approaches to foster carer recruitment to attract a wider range of people into fostering.

There are two strands to the funding available through this prospectus:

• Financial and other support available to implement evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions for looked after children and those on the edge of care or custody and their families
• Financial and other support for partnerships of at least one local authority and one independent fostering agency (IFA) to work together in a consortia to attract new foster carers, able to undertake a range of fostering tasks and the needs of looked after children, from a broader age and socio-economic demographic.

The prospectus explains the package of financial and other support that will be made available to the sector to take forward service improvements for this vulnerable group of children and young people.

It invites bids from local authorities and their partner agencies to become part of this innovative programme of work and provides information about what will be funded and other supports and services from the National Implementation Service (NIS) and the Department for Education. Voluntary and community sector providers are encouraged to explore with relevant local authorities the potential for collaborating as a contracted party and perhaps for taking the lead in developing the bid on behalf of the local authority and other partners.

Information days

Two Information days will be held in March for those local authorities and their partners interested in gaining further information about these programmes and the foster carer recruitment consortia. These will take place on 4 March in Leeds and 7 March in London.