Minister for Children and Families Department for Education 1 October 2026
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your correspondence, shared by a constituent who forwarded the Child in Focus Network letter regarding the training required for professionals working with children living in permanence.
I am grateful to the wider PATCH community and the Child in Focus Network for the commitment they continue to show in championing the needs of children and families whose lives have been shaped by adversity. I am particularly grateful for the work of PATCH and the Child in Focus Network in drawing together professional expertise, research evidence and lived experience. The government shares their ambition that children living in permanence should be supported by systems which understand their experiences, recognise their strengths and respond effectively to their needs.
The correspondence rightly highlights the profound and lasting impact that harm can have on children. We know that experiences of abuse, neglect, family instability, trauma, loss and separation can affect children’s emotional wellbeing, relationships, learning and development long after immediate safety has been secured. For many children, permanence provides the security and stability necessary for recovery, but it does not remove the effects of adversity or conclude a child’s developmental journey. It is therefore essential that services continue to understand and respond to children’s needs throughout childhood and adolescence.
I was particularly interested in the HARM Seen concept and the emphasis placed on understanding the cumulative impact of Hurt, Abuse, Rupture and Memory. The framework reflects an important truth: children cannot be understood solely through the behaviours they present today, but through an appreciation of the experiences that have shaped their development over time. The shift from asking “What is wrong with this child?” to “What has happened to this child and what do they need now?” is one that has informed much of the recent reform agenda across children’s services and aligns with the government’s commitment to more relational and child‑centred practice.
The concerns raised regarding children whose developmental needs remain unseen resonate strongly with the government’s determination to move the system towards earlier intervention and prevention. Too often, services become involved only once the child’s needs have escalated into crisis.
Through the £2.4 billion Children’s Social Care Reform Programme and the implementation of Family Help, we are seeking to strengthen the capacity of local areas to identify risk, provide support earlier, and work alongside families before difficulties become entrenched. A greater understanding of child development, trauma and neurodevelopment can play an important role in helping professionals recognise needs sooner and respond more effectively.
I also agree that a highly skilled workforce requires more than isolated training opportunities. Children with complex experiences benefit when professionals across education, health, social care, policing and justice share a common understanding and language. The proposal for a National Knowledge Framework is therefore a valuable contribution to the wider discussion about workforce development and professional standards. As we continue to implement the recommendations arising from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, we remain focused on strengthening the knowledge, confidence and capability of professionals working with children and families.
From Autumn 2027, we will introduce a new national professional development offer for the social work workforce, creating clearer career pathways and supporting a more confident, skilled and resilient workforce. Through structured development at all career stages, the offer will help to strengthen the knowledge, skills and professional judgement social workers need to support children and families facing increasingly complex circumstances.
Social Work England, as the independent regulator for social workers, sets professional standards which apply to registered social workers in all roles and settings and are necessary for safe and effective practice. These standards set out what a social worker in England must know, understand and be able to do in order to practise safely and effectively, including being accountable for the quality of their practice and the decisions they make.
The observations regarding mental health made in the letter are particularly important. We know that many children growing up in adoption, special guardianship and other permanence arrangements can experience elevated levels of emotional and mental health need. This is why the government continues to invest in early mental health support for children and young people through schools and communities. Mental Health Support Teams, which began as trailblazer pilots and are being expanded nationally, provide early intervention for children experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties and work directly with schools to promote emotional wellbeing. Alongside this, the government has supported the training of Senior Mental Health Leads in schools and colleges and continues to promote whole‑school approaches to mental health and wellbeing.
These initiatives reflect the principle, which the correspondence eloquently articulates, that earlier support can help to prevent difficulties escalating and improve long‑term outcomes for children.
We also recognise the importance of ensuring that children with social care involvement and their families receive mental health support that is joined up, responsive and reflective of their experiences. NHS England has invited expressions of interest from Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and their local authority partners to participate in an ambitious new mental health pilot for children with social care involvement and their parents, caregivers and/or guardians.
The central purpose of the pilot is to move away from fragmented, threshold‑based responses towards psychologically informed, formulation‑led care that builds trusting relationships and provides continuity for children and families whose needs often span multiple services and systems. The proposed model is based on integrated working between mental health and social care partners, with mental health expertise embedded alongside social care practice.
This pilot will test how a shared model, core functions and key principles can be delivered locally while retaining flexibility to reflect local assets, workforce capacity, geography and population need. Through this work, we hope to strengthen understanding of how services can work together more effectively to improve outcomes for children and families with complex needs.
We are also testing the value of multi‑disciplinary approaches through the department‑funded pilot activity being delivered through Adoption England. These pilots bring together professionals with different skills, expertise and specialisms around adopted children, helping to create a more holistic understanding of needs and enabling more coordinated support. This work complements the mental health pilot being developed with ICBs and local authority partners. While the ICB pilot is testing how integrated, psychologically informed support can be embedded as a broader offer for children with social care involvement and their families, the Adoption England pilots are focused specifically on the needs of adopted children. Taken together, these pilots will provide valuable evidence about how health, social care and wider partners can work more effectively across systems to assess and respond to children’s needs. The learning from both pilots will help inform future best practice, strengthening our understanding of what works most effectively to improve outcomes for children and families with complex and enduring needs.
I also welcome the reference to the emerging evidence from the Family Routes study and the importance of ensuring that support does not diminish once permanence has been achieved. The experience of many families demonstrates that children’s developmental, educational and emotional needs evolve over time and require informed, coordinated and responsive services. The government recognises that permanence does not end a child’s developmental journey and that many adopted children and those living under Special Guardianship Orders continue to require therapeutic and specialist support. The Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund plays an important role in helping families access targeted interventions that address the lasting impact of early adversity, trauma and loss.
Since its inception, the fund has supported over 50,500 individual children, many over several years, and for the current financial year has a £55 million budget, allowing us to support thousands of young people and their families. We recognise the importance of the fund, with ministers confirming the fund will continue until at least March 2028.
We are also considering how early, inclusive support offers for adoptive parents and kinship carers could help build resilience through improved access to advice, guidance and services before needs escalate. This ambition is reflected in our Adoption Support That Works for All consultation, which seeks views on proposals to support earlier intervention, improve the assessment of needs and ensure that support is more joined up and multi‑disciplinary.
We recognise the importance of understanding the impact of early adversity and developmental trauma and note that the HARM Seen approach formed part of PATCH’s consultation response. We are currently reviewing responses to the consultation and look forward to responding to the sector in due course as we consider the next steps for reform.
Through these reforms, we want to ensure that adoptive and kinship families receive the help they need to provide stable, loving homes in which children can thrive. This work also aligns with the government’s wider ambition for children’s social care. Our ambition is a children’s social care system in which every child grows up with enduring, trusted relationships that provide stability and belonging into adulthood. We know that enduring relationships provide children with emotional security, trust and warmth through consistent and dependable connections, and that even one such relationship can significantly improve health and educational outcomes and help to buffer the effects of childhood adversity. For children living in permanence arrangements, these trusted relationships play a vital role in supporting resilience, recovery and long‑term wellbeing.
The government is committed to ensuring that children’s services are informed by the best available evidence and that lived experience remains at the heart of policy development. The open letter makes a compelling case for continued discussion about how contemporary scientific understanding of child development can be reflected more consistently across professional training, guidance and practice.
Thank you again to PATCH, the POTATO group and the Child in Focus Network for writing and for the contribution they are making to this important conversation. I have asked officials to consider the points raised in the correspondence, including the proposal for a National Knowledge Framework, as we continue to develop our approach to workforce knowledge, early intervention and support for children living in permanence, including adoption. I welcome the organisations’ ongoing engagement in these discussions and recognise the value that their collective expertise can bring to future policy development.
Yours sincerely, Minister for Children and Families