Stockport MBC

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council- owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself. Children’s services are very much under pressure, and ever more so in the face of a cost of living crisis, adding to the numbers of potentially vulnerable children. There is an imperative to protect vulnerable children, the importance of early intervention and the changing relationship with schools – all under an intense media and now social spotlight. This award is intended to recognise the success of those councils that adopt a genuinely strategic approach to this vital service area in the face of extraordinary challenges. Entries can focus either on a specific aspect of the council’s work on children’s services or the entirety of its work on children’s services.

New Beginnings is an partnership between Stockport Family and Dr Jadwiga Leigh specialising in working with parents whose children are in the child protection system due to concerns relating to abuse and neglect, preventing children becoming looked after. The programme uses trauma and evidence-informed practice to work with parents with complex lifestyles and experience of childhood trauma/domestic abuse. We believe when parents are provided with love, care and support positive changes can occur and they can become the parents they want to be. This is a case study of best practice in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.