Case studies

Gloucestershire County Council has taken a dynamic and innovative approach to recruitment and retention of social workers which has driven increased stability in the workforce to achieve better outcomes for children, young people and their families.

The Youth Combined Authority is a group of young people who have the role of advising on and scrutinising the work of the mayor and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority on key issues and concerns of young people in the community.

A police-led pilot initially run in Tameside and Bury and now operating across Greater Manchester seeks to use police data in collaboration with youth justice services and local authority children’s services in order to make ‘invisible’ children in need of support, visible.

The Hackney Early Interaction Project is a pilot project which has gathered and applied learning on how local services can best facilitate children’s early language development. The project has taken a deep dive in to one neighbourhood in the London Borough of Hackney, by mapping and building on the strengths of current local systems to enhance the universal and early language offer in the community. The Hackney Early Interaction project has been funded through the North-East London Integrated Commissioning Board (NEL ICB) Place Based Partnership from September 2022-March 2024.

Focusing on the positive difference local resources and people could make to improve mental health outcomes for children and young people proved an invaluable experience and lead to system changes at a strategic and operational level in Hull.

In January 2015, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council went out to tender for the school nursing service and didn't receive any bidders. Between January and March, they did an options paper and Cabinet decided in March 2015 to transfer the service in-house and propose that they should subsequently explore also bringing health visiting in-house.

This case study forms part of a children's public health transfer resource. On 1 August 2017, the council transferred all of its children’s services to a community interest company owned by the council and two other local authorities.  

The challenge Healthwatch Hillingdon’s role is to be an independent champion for people, making sure that those running services, put people at the heart.  During a local authority review of child and adolescent mental health services, it seemed that there was a lack of engagement with children and young people.

Very young children in Manchester were found to have high levels of tooth decay. Prolonged bottle feeding, often with sugared drinks, was of particular concern in this area.

 All children have health needs, and local authorities now have a major role in meeting these.