Ensuring stability for children in care and care leavers is essential to providing them with the security, support, and opportunities needed to thrive. This chapter explores initiatives designed to create lasting, loving homes for children in care and ensure that young people leaving the system receive the guidance, resources, and networks they need to navigate adulthood successfully.
From multidisciplinary approaches that enhance adoption support to employment models for care leavers, this chapter highlights pioneering efforts to improve experiences and outcomes for care-experienced young people.
Projects featured in this chapter
Multidisciplinary approaches to adoption assessment and support processes
By Adoption England
A two-year programme to develop multidisciplinary and multiagency approaches to improve adoption assessment and support services. This programme aims to overcome these challenges by bringing a range of professionals together as early as possible in a child’s adoption journey to provide a holistic assessment of a child’s needs, with better support for families and new pathways created for children who need additional support from within the NHS.
Comfort Cases
By Comfort Cases UK, a registered charity
A project providing children entering the care system with a bag of bespoke belongings (comfort cases) they can call their own when they have been removed from everything and everyone they know. Filled with essential and comforting items such as, books, PJs, toiletries, soft toys, blankets and even SIM cards for older children.
Step Up Family Finding
By Coram, a registered charity
A programme aiming to reduce delays in finding adoptive families for children with priority characteristics – often referred to as ‘harder to place’ children. The programme provides intensive, bespoke matching for priority children finds that the programme has potential to speed up family finding for priority children and could find families for children who may otherwise not have been placed with an adoptive family.
Sibling Time
By Coram, a registered charity
A programme that provides a supportive and therapeutic environment for children in care to maintain meaningful contact with their siblings.
Creative Mentoring
By The Mighty Creatives, a registered charity
One-to-one support for children and young people in the care system and in need, who are at greatest risk of not being in education, employment or training. Creative Mentors work to build trusting relationships, introduce creative activities according to the child’s interest and facilitate inspiring experiences to support personal, social and emotional development and educational achievement.
Family Business Model
By Suffolk Council
An employment model designed to support care leavers in building successful and fulfilling futures. It includes ring-fenced apprenticeships, employment opportunities with local businesses, and a bespoke training and support programme.
Exploring Innovations in Transition to adulthood study (EXIT)
By the University of Warwick
A study investigating the challenges and opportunities in scaling practices designed to support care leavers as they transition to adulthood.
Preparing for Adulthood
By Birmingham City Council
A service is designed to support young people and to engage with them earlier to ensure they have a smoother transition into adulthood. Personalised support is created for each young person who needs help. This support varies from one-to-one or group sessions depending on the needs of the young person.
Next Venture Fund for Care Leavers
By Durham County Council
A £10,000 funding pot awarded by the Council’s Chief Executive, designated for projects designed to benefit care leavers.
Local House Projects
By National House Project, a registered charity
An initiative focused on helping young people develop the knowledge, relationships, and resilience needed to build their first home and achieve long-term independence.
Extending Shared Lives to Care Leavers
By Shared Lives Plus, a registered charity
Learnings from Shared Lives Plus’ extension of its foster-style care model to support young people leaving care. In Shared Lives, an adult or young person who needs long term support is matched with a carefully approved Shared Lives carer, by their local Shared Lives scheme which are run or commissioned by council’s adult social care services. Together, the person needing support and the Shared Lives carer share the carer’s family and community life.
Children and Young People with Experience of Care by The Churchill Fellowship
By The Churchill Fellowship, a registered charity
Reflections from Fellows participating in the Children and Young People with Experience of Care Fellowship.
A National Voice Awards
By Coram Voice, a registered charity
A project that invites local authorities to nominate the work done in their local children in care council, which is then celebrated at an in-person ‘Amplify’ event’.
Bright Spots programme
By Coram Voice, a registered charity
A research project that helps local authorities to use children and young people’s voices to inform service development and strategic thinking.
This report, the third to be produced by Coram’s Innovation Incubator, seeks to collate projects and approaches developed from across the sector in a bid to tackle key challenges faced by children’s services by thinking in new ways. It offers a space for lessons to be shared, products and approaches to be known about and the opportunity to celebrate the people effecting change across the country as a collective force for positive change.
Download the full report here.
About the Coram Innovation Incubator
Children’s chances in life still depend on where they live and who they live with, and 2.3 million children are living with risk in the UK. In the digital-first generation, up to 1 in 6 children face mental health challenges. Resources available do not reflect the scale of need and there are unacceptable variations in availability and quality of services, education and childcare.
The Coram Innovation Incubator exists to meet these challenges. As a membership organisation for leaders and managers within children’s services, we support our members to develop, test, evaluate and scale innovative solutions that improve the quality and impact of children’s services. We facilitate, celebrate and catalyse innovations that lead to significant and sustained impacts on children’s life chances.
Innovation is the creation or adoption of new ideas, methods, or products. It encompasses both technological advancements and novel approaches in various fields. Innovation is the catalyst for positive change. It fuels progress, fosters economic development and shapes our future.
“Being part of the Coram Innovation Incubator has been absolutely beneficial to us. We have learned so much along the way and the generating and sharing of ideas, has encouraged innovation within our LA.” –Aneesa Kaprie, Transformation Lead, London Borough of Bromley
How you can innovate further
Become a member of the Coram Innovation Incubator with access to innovation coaching and innovation project partnership.
Attend our upcoming event: From Insight to Impact: AI, Intersectionality, and the Future of Children’s Services on Monday 15 September 2025.
Get in touch with us to tell us about any promising innovations you’ve seen from across the sector.
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