The five-year project, led by Professor Leon Feinstein, director of the Rees Centre at the University of Oxford, includes a collaboration between local authorities and universities to transform how information about and from children and families is gathered, interpreted and used to influence child and family social policy at local and national levels.
The project will focus on children and families who need additional support from local authority children’s services including children and families referred to children’s social care services, younger children who need help to have a good start at school and children in care and young people leaving care.
The project includes five local sites - in Greater Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, North Yorkshire and Hampshire local authorities - that will work with academics from Oxford University, the University of Sussex and London School of Economics and Political Science, University College London and Manchester Metropolitan University to build capacity and understanding about how to better use administrative data, children and families’ voices and information from practitioners to improve services.
Researchers will collaborate with children, young people, parents, carers, professionals and policymakers to understand and shape how information can be used ethically and effectively.
Local sites will also explore how the use of these different types of information can be co-designed with children and families, and how to support sustainable learning and change.
Children and families will be involved in naming the project, the Nuffield Foundation has said.
A series of workshops, webinars and podcasts will share learning from the initiative with all those working with children and families, including researchers, practitioners and managers, and policymakers.
Tim Gardam, chief executive of the Nuffield Foundation, said: “We established the Nuffield Foundation’s Strategic Fund to encourage ambitious, multi-disciplinary projects that would re-frame the social policy agenda and improve people’s lives.
“This project stood out for its originality and intent to work closely on the ground with local government and practitioners, as well as children and families. It aligns with our focus and priorities across the foundation’s interests in education, welfare and justice.
"By transforming the quality and use of information and data by local authorities, this project has real potential to reduce inequalities and improve the lives of the most disadvantaged children and their families.”
