It's a challenging time for Children's Service leaders, with many reforms being introduced. In this article, Jordan Binedell, Principal Consultant, argues that the real challenge is not simply managing each programme in isolation, but creating a clear sense of purpose that helps teams, partners and leaders understand how it all fits together. Across children’s social care, a significant number of national reforms are being introduced at pace. These include Families First Part

In this guest article, Dr Beverley Barnett-Jones h.c. MBE argues that racial justice must be treated as central to how the family justice system works, backed by better evidence and culturally responsive, trauma-informed practice. In recent years, conversations about ethnicity, inequality and racial justice within children’s social care and family justice have moved closer to the centre of professional debate. This shift matters because family justice represents one of the mo

In this article Hannah Sampson explores the national fostering reforms, arguing that national policy and regional collaboration must drive a fundamental redesign of how the system supports, recruits and retains foster carers. Foster Care Fortnight is always a chance to recognise the vital role foster carers play in children’s lives. This year feels different. Alongside that recognition, there is a clear push to change how the fostering system itself works - at a scale and pa

Client: Department for Education Date: September 2025 – March 2026 Challenges faced by the client: Across England, many Designated Family Judge (DFJ) areas experience sustained delays in care proceedings, with a significant proportion of cases exceeding the 26-week statutory timeframe for completion. Delays in public law proceedings within the family justice system have significant consequences for children and families. These delays can leave children waiting for stability a

Introducing The Journey Through Proceedings We are proud to announce the launch of Series 2 of The Journey Through Proceedings. This mini-series brings the lived experiences of fathers at the heart of care proceedings. It is an essential listen for anyone working in, or affected by, the family justice system. Through honest accounts, the series explores the emotional realities fathers face, alongside the moments of strength and hope that can emerge in even the most difficult

In this article, Ben Rosie explores why it is essential to look at more than timeliness when measuring success in the family justice system. Since 2014, the family justice system has relied on the Public Law Outline’s 26‑week statutory limit as its primary indicator of success in care proceedings. While this brought a focus to streamlining processes and procedures, and ensuring cases do not drift, a system can meet the 26‑week limit and still deliver outcomes that are unstabl

The public family justice system is a complex network of professionals, legal frameworks, and administrative bodies designed to protect children and support families. Understanding how these components interact is vital for anyone working within or navigating the court ecosystem. To provide clarity on this intricate landscape, we have developed an interactive system map that visualises the connections between key stakeholders and processes. An interactive overview of the syst

As two-tier areas face the prospect of local government reorganisation, Emmet Regan argues that getting the budget right for children’s social care requires an approach that is forensic, honest and built on evidence of what works. In the world of local government, budget setting is too often dismissed as a dry, technocratic exercise. Yet, for those working within children’s social care, it is anything but. The process of LGR whether through mergers, the creation of new unitar

Local Government Reorganisation can be a catalyst for a more preventative, integrated, humane system says John Copps. For busy council officers – facing challenges day-to-day and relentless scrutiny from regulators – is easy to look at local government reorganisation as a distraction. But LGR is more than an exercise in administrative tidying-up. It is a chance for real reform. With 21 ‘two-tier’ areas due to break up into new unitary councils, the map of children’s services

As learning from the DFJ Trailblazer Programme continues to shape thinking across the sector, many local authorities are beginning to focus on what this means for data, analysis and performance reporting. With changes on the horizon, including a new statutory pre-proceedings dataset, analysts and data leads are increasingly being asked to think ahead about how data is designed, interpreted and used across systems. To support this, Mutual Ventures and Data to Insight ran two D

In this article, Prof. Donna Hall and Andrew Laird argue that the principles of Radical Place Leadership need to flow all the way from the council corporate centre to the heart of communities. Many organisations and systems are currently considering a fresh approach to the leadership of their localities. Councils see that traditional models of public service delivery (new public management) have failed. They simply don’t work for real people, families, communities and are def

In our end‑of‑programme webinar series, we took a deep dive into the most pressing family justice and children’s social care topics, sharing learning from across the programme and the wider children’s services sector, and explored what this means for professional practice, system working, and the future of the sector. Through the series we brought together practitioners, analysts, and system leaders to explore real‑world learning, share local experiences, and examine approach

Join us for two data deep dive sessions , 24th February 1-2pm and 10th March 1-2pm. As learning from the DFJ Trailblazer Programme continues to shape thinking across the sector, many local authorities are beginning to focus on what this means for data, analysis and performance reporting. With changes on the horizon, including a new statutory pre-proceedings dataset, analysts and data leads are increasingly being asked to think ahead about how data is designed, interpreted and

Morgan Nasir-Finlayson highlights the importance of lived experience and kindness. Reflecting on her work leading the Designated Family Judge Trailblazers programme , Morgan shares how including people with lived experience in decision-making is crucial to meaningful change. Thank you to graduates of the Pause programme and Family Justice Young People’s Board who helped us with our work. Click here to listen to The Journey Through Proceedings podcast. If you'd like to discu

Mutual Ventures welcomes the government's plan for renewing fostering and the commitment to further embedding regional collaboration. The announcement on fostering marks a significant move in the government's ambition to reform children's social care and provide more loving homes for children. It is an acknowledgement of the vital role that foster carers play in the social care system, society and in the lives of vulnerable children. Central to the proposals is a bold commitm

In this article, Ben Rosie argues that the family justice system remains too complex and inaccessible for the families it serves. There is a need for clearer communication, more inclusive practices, and a culture that enables families to understand and participate meaningfully in decisions that shape their lives. For many families, involvement in the family court is often their first interaction with the legal system and one of the most distressing experiences they will ever

Catch up with our webinar that explored inclusive change and the Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme, and how children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) can be central to these reforms. Local authorities are leading the way in implementing the Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme reforms, transforming how support is delivered to children and families. But how do these changes impact children and young people with Special Edu

The next twelve months will be critical for public services and determine the scale of the reform that will be delivered in the next three years. John Copps picks out some of the areas to watch out for. 2025 felt like stuttering progress for a government that has styled itself as a champion of public services. It was always going to be a tough job, but the rollercoaster of the previous ten years has not been replaced by something that feels like stability. There’s been lots o

Building on the success of the DFJ Trailblazer and Guided Learning programmes, Mutual Ventures has been commissioned by the Department for Education to help all DFJ areas in England participate in the National Learning Support programme. In a series of articles, the Mutual Ventures team summarises the DFJ Area Trailblazer Pilot, sharing insights from the five pilot areas to inform others developing their own solutions. In the fourth article, Ross Murray, explores efforts to i

Building on the success of the DFJ Trailblazer and Guided Learning programmes, Mutual Ventures has been commissioned by the Department for Education to help all DFJ areas in England participate in the National Learning Support programme. In a series of articles, the Mutual Ventures team summarises the DFJ Area Trailblazer Pilot, sharing insights from the five pilot areas to inform others developing their own solutions. In the fifth article, Ross Murray, explores efforts to be