Effective early intervention plays a crucial role in improving outcomes for children, young people, and families by identifying challenges at an early stage and providing targeted support before issues escalate. This chapter explores a range of initiatives designed to deliver proactive, preventative approaches, ensuring that families receive the right help at the right time.
This chapter highlights how early intervention, when designed with a collaborative, evidence-led approach, has the power to prevent crises, strengthen family and community relationships, and improve long-term life chances for children and young people. The initiatives showcased here serve as valuable examples of how strategic, well-implemented early help can lead to more resilient and thriving communities.
Projects featured in this chapter
Language for Life
By Bath & North East Somerset Council and St John’s Foundation, a registered charity
An area-specific, multi-agency initiative aiming to equip early years practitioners with specialist support and resources to focus on closing the persistent word gap that impacts on children’s later outcomes. Settings are supported to develop a detailed understanding of communication and language development using an evidence-based toolkit, and a dedicated speech and language therapist working in partnership with the early years advisory team provides one-to-one setting support, training, advice and cluster support sessions.
AllChild
By AllChild
A targeted early intervention programme that provides additional opportunities and support to children according to their individual needs. The school-based model was created to provide support for children and young people who would benefit from additional opportunities and support.
Upstream England
By Centrepoint Soho, a registered charity
A school-based prevention programme designed to identify and support young people who are at hidden risk of homelessness. The programme works in partnership with local organisations to deliver a series of tailored interventions from family mediation, health support and homelessness education, all of which are based on its psychologically informed approach to support.
Coram Innovation Incubator’s Ignite Programme
By Coram, a registered charity
A course designed to equip professionals in children’s services with the confidence and tools to develop, pilot, and implement innovative projects.
Reimagining Pre-Proceedings
By Family Rights Group, a registered charity
A project aiming to drive system change in children’s services pre-proceedings work with children and families. It seeks to safely avert the need for care proceedings, by creating the conditions for families to get the help they and their children need at an earlier stage.
Family Hubs Networks
By Lancashire County Council
Learnings from Lancashire County Council’s establishment of Family Hubs without direct funding from the Department for Education.
Camden Young Pathways Finder
By London Borough of Camden
A tailored programme of learning, enterprise skills, and employment opportunities for young Camden residents.
Blocks
By Salford Foundation, a registered charity
A 1-to-1 mentoring programme designed to equip children with the skills they need to transition successfully to secondary school.
Art at the Start
By The University of Dundee
A collaborative project investigating the role of shared art experiences in fostering strong attachment relationships and promoting the social and emotional wellbeing of young children.
Your Choice
By The Association of London Directors of Children’s Services (ALDCS) sector-led improvement partnership – London Innovation and Improvement Alliance.
A high-intensity, goal-driven intervention designed to empower young people through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, with a particular focus on Behavioural Action.
EXODUS
By UpskillU Ltd. and the Youth Endowment Fund, a Charitable Trust
A 12-month mentoring programme designed to prevent young people from becoming involved in violence and exploitation.
VRU Community Mental Health and Emotional Well-being Support Pilot
By The Coram Institute for Children
An evaluation and practitioners’ briefing on the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit’s Community-Based Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being Support Pilot.
The Door is Still Closed
By The Coram Institute for Children
A follow-up to the original 2014 report, ‘The Door is Closed’ which found that children were being allowed to become or remain homeless because local authorities were failing to provide the support they were legally entitled to.
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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