Case studies from the developmental evaluation of Together for Childhood

Key findings

Families have improved communication and are empowered to make decisions about their own lives

Together for Childhood Grimsby has strengthened relationships between parents and carers, children and young people, and the wider community to create safer environments to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Community members are seeking increasing support from Together for Childhood Grimsby and engaging in prevention and early help-seeking behaviour

By fostering trust, positive relationships have developed. The community members engage in prevention, strengthening the fabric of their community.

The local workforce, groups and organisations are better connected with partnerships and equipped to meet community needs

The local workforce, groups and organisations are increasingly strengthened through enhanced connectivity and robust partnerships, which help them address the unique and contextual needs of the community.

Adaptive data collection and shared learning at all levels have strengthened the evidence base for preventing child abuse and neglect

Together for Childhood Grimsby has contributed to driving systemic change in the prevention of child abuse and neglect, sharing research shared at local, regional and national levels.

Recommendations

• Improve connection between Together for Childhood sites and the wider NSPCC to ensure cohesive efforts and shared resources across all sites.
• Enhance training programmes and clearly define roles to better equip the workforce in addressing community-specific challenges.
• Foster a supportive environment that promotes staff autonomy and confidence, enhancing preventative work while maintaining well-being.
• Increase outreach and involvement opportunities to ensure community members are actively participating and benefiting from available resources.
• Utilise data-driven insights from research and evaluation to refine strategies, improve practices and share knowledge widely for greater impact.

"Together for Childhood feels like an anchor, and from that anchor we all go off in different directions, but it’s something strong and powerful keeping us together, supporting organisations so we can build capacity and increase the impact on the individual things we’re doing.” 
Together for Childhood staff, Grimsby

Key findings

Families in Govan are more attuned and responsive to children’s wellbeing needs

Parents and carers have been supported to better understand and respond to their child's emotions, helping better connections between caregivers and children. This has enabled families to seek timely support in formal and informal ways.

Stronger partnerships have enabled more open dialogue around child abuse and neglect across the Govan workforce

By providing safe, non-judgemental spaces for conversations around child protection and safeguarding, Together for Childhood has empowered local organisations and families to address neglect and safeguarding concerns effectively and collaboratively.

There is improved understanding of local need, services and gaps to inform and strengthen services for children and families in Govan

Research conducted by Together for Childhood has been shared with local organisations so that they can design evidence-informed preventative interventions that are sensitive to local need.

Recommendations

• Establish strong leadership that provides clear strategic direction for Together for Childhood for the rest of its term.
• Build and share a clear plan that communicates the role and purpose of Together for Childhood to all stakeholders.
• Be seen as an approachable partner through increased visibility of Together for Childhood within the local community.
• Be led by evidence and the voices of children and families by sharing and acting on learning.
• Encourage continuous learning by embedding research and evaluation from the outset and consider how sustainability can be evidenced.

“I think when you can talk about place-based things, places have really different needs, like Govan has very different needs from the West End, from the East End sort of thing and I think that it’s important to really look at that. [...] I think there’s things that are very specific to local communities and that’s kind of more important in a way because that’s where the change starts from.”

Community member, Govan

Key findings

Together for Childhood has fostered a sense of ownership and commitment to child sexual abuse prevention

Through a consistent presence in Ernesettle, working collaboratively and building networks, Together for Childhood has created the conditions for people to have the knowledge, awareness, confidence and transferable skills to play their part in safeguarding children and to take this work forward independently.

Children and adults’ increase in knowledge about sexual abuse has broken down barriers about healthy relationships within families and communities

Together for Childhood has amplified the voices of children and young people to facilitate change, partnered with community groups to spread awareness, and developed resources to encouraged open and clear dialogue about healthy relationships.

Together for Childhood has helped to embed a collective focus on child sexual abuse into the systems working within Plymouth

Multi-agency working, with a shared focus, has helped to align the strategic objectives of Plymouth’s statutory boards to include core elements of child sexual abuse prevention. This includes not only better recognition of, and response to, child sexual abuse but implementing more primary and secondary prevention approaches.

Active ingredients have driven the development of multiple projects and activities which contribute to the prevention of child sexual abuse

Notably these are relational and trauma-informed approaches, clear and consistent language, collaboration and co-production, flexibility and responsiveness, and safe and supportive continuous learning.

Recommendations

To strengthen the effectiveness of Together for Childhood Plymouth, we recommend that the partnership:

• widen communications that child sexual abuse is preventable, promoting the learning from Together for Childhood to increase awareness of collective action, bring more partners on board (including political and strategic stakeholders) and highlight new opportunities to embed a prevention focus across the city
• work with local organisations that support the voluntary and community sector in Plymouth to provide learning opportunities to enhance knowledge of child sexual abuse and safeguarding and to improve policies and practices
• embed child sexual abuse prevention within existing strategy, services, and activities across the city that work with and within communities to improve services and support for children and families
• enhance Together for Childhood’s secondary prevention offer by creating projects and activities that support children who live in contexts that can make them more vulnerable to child sexual abuse
• develop and expand the Together for Childhood volunteer strategy to support sustainability, involving volunteers who are community based and workforce champions in roles that educate and support professionals across a range of statutory, corporate, community and voluntary organisations.

“I think a real strength of it is that it’s not just focused on leaders or focused on the people on the workforce, it’s focused on everybody, communities, individuals, professionals, leaders and I think that’s a real strength of it. I think it’s really innovative.”

Local partner, Plymouth

Key findings

Children with special educational needs and disabilities have a better understanding of healthy relationships and prevention messages

Together for Childhood staff have worked in collaboration with local families and organisations to create inclusive and accessible resources that promote developmentally appropriate conversations about child sexual abuse.

Local schools have enhanced relationships and sex education

This is helping children form healthy, respectful relationships and understand their development in a supportive environment.

Community members and local organisations recognise their role in preventing child sexual abuse

As such they are better able provide trusted support for children and know how to act if they are concerned about a child.

There is an improved response to preventing child sexual abuse, including addressing problematic and harmful sexual behaviour

This has been improved across systems through targeted workforce development and strategic coordination.

Together for Childhood Stoke has fostered a culture of safeguarding

This culture of safeguarding supports specialist understanding among the local workforce, while empowering communities to discuss, recognise and respond to child sexual abuse.

Recommendations

• The Together for Childhood partnership should continue to embed youth voice and community collaboration to achieve effective local development and practice.
• The Together for Childhood partnership should diversify prevention approaches to fill the gap in secondary level prevention activity.
• The Together for Childhood management should invest in the continued professional development of the Together for Childhood Stoke staff.
• Together for Childhood staff should create enabling environments for reflective dialogue and shared learning networks within and across the Together for Childhood sites.
• The learning and evaluation of Together for Childhood should be a central component in strategic and operational development for Together for Childhood.

“Together for Childhood tries to encourage everyone to have responsibility and understand their roles in terms of safeguarding young people, so that it’s not just an agency or specialist role. It’s a collective community role in supporting young people.”

Community member, taken from Stoke community leader's research