Newsletters
Our Regional Improvement Plan can be found here
If you would like to apply to be a SESLIP consultant, please follow this link to Kent Business Portal – KentBusinessPortal and after registering on the portal, search for Ref – SC240046 – SESLIP – DPS
Updates
Aspirant DCS Programme NOW BOOKING
Starting in Autumn and running until Spring, the DCS Leadership Programme will welcome around 40 new Aspirant Directors.
Find out more:
If you are interested in applying for our DCS Leadership Programme and would like to know more information about what’s involved and how to apply, we will be holding online webinars in early 2026:
- Webinar 1 – Wednesday 28th January @ 2pm
- Webinar 2 – Tuesday 3rd February @ 2pm
- Webinar 3 – Thursday 12th February @ 11am
During the webinar you will hear from those that helped develop and deliver the programme, discuss what the programme entails in detail, and there will also be plenty of opportunities for you to ask any questions you mi
Parenting Through Adversity: Parents of children & young people 11 to 18
On 13 January Foundations (What Works Centre for Children and Families) published Parenting through adversity: parents of children and young people aged 11-18
Headlines:
This Practice Guide focuses on parenting support for families experiencing adversities who have at least one child or young person aged 11 to 18 years old.
This Guide relates to all outcomes of the Children’s Social Care National Framework. The enablers of the National Framework (leadership, workforce, multi-agency working) have a role in supporting the delivery of this Guide’s key principles and recommendations.
The full version of the Practice Guide is here
This Guide should be considered alongside the Parenting through Adversity (0-10) Practice Guide.
Reminders From Previous Weeks
Fostering in England: year to end March 2025
On 26 November DfE published annual statistics for Fostering 2024-2025
Headlines
- the number of mainstream fostering households has continued to decline over the past 4 years, but at a slower rate compared to last year
- there has been an increase in the number of newly approved mainstream households entering the sector this year, following a longer-term downward trend which plateaued between 2023 and 2024
- the proportion of formal kinship care arrangement (family and friends) households has remained consistent with last year. However, there has been a slight decline in the proportion of newly approved formal kinship care arrangement households still active at 31 March
- there continues to be an increase in the proportion of IFA mainstream households with the number of IFA households and places seeing a slight increase from the previous year
- the number of short break places has increased by 41% since 2021
Tipping point: tackling the challenges in safeguarding children educated at home
On 24 November NSPCC published Tipping point: tackling the challenges in safeguarding children educated at home
The research includes:
- a review of UK literature on safeguarding in home education published since 2015, including learning from Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) and Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs) in England
- a Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent to all local authorities in England to understand the scale and nature of home education in each area
- 11 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with local authority home education teams in England
- qualitative and quantitative insights on home education gathered by Childline and the NSPCC Helpline between 2019 and 2025.
Children looked after in England including adoptions: year to end March 2025
On 26 November DfE published annual statistics for Children looked after in England including adoptions 2024-2025
Headlines
The number of CLA reported by local authorities on 31 March decreased by 2% (down 1,760 children) compared to last year – now at 81,770 children. This decrease is due to a fall of 1% in the number of non-UASC CLA (down 860 children) and a fall of 12% in the number of CLA who were UASC (down 900).
The rate of all CLA per 10,000 children aged under 18 years has decreased to 67 – down from 69 last year and down from a recent peak of 70 in both 2022 and 2023.
New practice guide: parenting through adversity (11-18s)
On 4 December Foundations published a new practice guide: Parenting through adversity (11-18s)
Headlines
- This Practice Guide focuses on parenting support for families experiencing adversities who have at least one child or young person aged 11 to 18 years old.
- This Guide relates to all outcomes of the Children’s Social Care National Framework. The enablers of the National Framework (leadership, workforce, multi-agency working) have a role in supporting the delivery of this Guide’s key principles and recommendations.
- This summary online version complements a full version of the Practice Guide.
- This Guide should be considered alongside the Parenting through Adversity (0-10) Practice Guide.
SESLIP Targeted Support
The SESLIP Targeted Support scheme is now open to enquiries from children’s services authorities in the south east.
This project is funded by the DfE’s RIIA grant and is open to both CSC and SEND.
Details
The prospectus introduces our dedicated Targeted Support Core Team, which includes experienced, ex-local authority leaders, who have worked at director, assistant director and principal programme manager levels,
The core team’s practice is enhanced by collaboration with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from across the full range of children’s services.
A bespoke package will be agreed at scoping stage.
For more information, or to become involved as a subject matter expert, contact Claire@clairewoodcockconsulting.com
Regional Improvement Plan 2025-26
On 18 July 2025 SESLIP published our regional improvement plan for 2025-26
Headlines
The new regional improvement plan has 47 projects and a budget of just under £2m.
The plan incorporates our delivery plan for DfE’s RIIA grant of £1.6m to SESLIP for the current year
Tools & Templates
We have produced a Regional Improvement Plan (July 2025)
On 13 January Foundations (What Works Centre for Children and Families) published Parenting through adversity: parents of children and young people aged 11-18
On 26 November DfE published annual statistics for Fostering 2024-2025
On 26 November DfE published annual statistics for Children looked after in England including adoptions 2024-2025
On 24 November NSPCC published Tipping point: tackling the challenges in safeguarding children educated at home
On 24 November AEPA published Belonging and Excellence: The importance of local education partnerships.
On 20 November, Home+Future, the South East RCC, published the region’s Sufficiency Statement 2026: Building positive futures
On 14 November CCN published SEND in England: how we got to crisis point and why we need reform of the system
On 11 November the Children’s Commissioner published Children on custodial demand
On 11 November Rees Centre published Success – whose definition counts? A co-designed framework by and for young people leaving care
On 10 November, the National Centre for Family Hubs published a case study from the Isle of Wight
On 5 November Centre for Young Lives published Best Start: A Fresh Start for
Children and Family Support
Part 2 Report
On 5 November DfE and DHSC launched an independent review of social work regulation
On 30 October Contact published a policy briefing How Continuing Care for Children fails those with the most complex health needs (England).
On 30 October DfE published the annual Children in need statistics for the year to 31 March 2025.
On 28 October DfE published Academic year 2024/25 Home to school transport: LA data collection
On 22 October MoJ published Presumption of parental involvement review: final report
On 20 October DfE published the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper
On 20 October ONS published Suicides in children and young people across the academic year, England: September 2011 to August 2022
On 20 October The Children’s Commissioner published The Children’s Plan: Vision for Care
On 13 October The Domestic Abuse Commissioner published Everday Business
On 13 October Home+Future (the south east’s RCC) published Briefing 002 – cross regional placements
On 10 October The Youth Endowment Fund published Access to mental health support
On 6 October Ofsted published Children’s social care questionnaires 2025
On 3 October APSEND and CSTUK published Upstream – best practice examples from specialst, AP and mixed trust schools
On 3 October 2025 IFS published Support for children with disabilities and special educational needs as part of its Green Budget for 2025
On 2 October Kinship published its annual survey of Kinship carers “Handle with Care”
On 2 October 2025 EEF published an independent evaluation of the BITUP programme – a low cost programme to improve secondary school attendance.
On 26 September 2025 HMIPrisons published Children in custody 2024–25
An analysis of 12–18-year-olds’ perceptions of their experiences
in secure training centres and young offender institutions