Westlake, D., Melendez-Torres, G.J., Corliss, C., El-Banna, A., Thompson, S., Meindl, M., Talwar, R., Folkes, Louise, Schoenwald, E., Addis, S., and Cook, L.
This evaluation looked at three pilot projects which embedded social workers in schools. It explored how working in this way might help reduce referrals, support schools, and reduce the need for children to enter care. Schools play a key part in keeping children safe, and tend to be a source of many referrals to Children’s Social Care. The thinking behind the project was that if we can improve the way schools and social workers work together, then there could be real benefits for children and families, schools and the social care system.\ud \ud The pilots, based in Lambeth, Southampton and Stockport, offer insights about how to implement such an intervention and give us some early indications about what impact it might have. Social workers did the full range of statutory work in all three places, thought the nature of the work and how the social work teams were configured varied between the pilots. Across the pilots there were a range of types of schools involved, including mainstream primary and secondary schools and also specialist schools for children with additional needs.