Required reading: Home Again by DFE

This DFE strategy will affect the future of residential child care.

A Children’s Homes Information and Evidence Factchecker document

Required reading: Home Again by DfE

This DFE strategy will affect the future of residential child care.

Home Again: improving outcomes for children experiencing or at risk of deprivation of liberty – application guidance

Published 08 07 26

Our ambition is that Home Again provides children with tailored, streamlined interventions through a single plan across agencies. This will provide stability, avoid escalation and unnecessary use of deprivation of liberty, drawing on the most effective, proportionate and evidence-based support. While we recognise that for some children, deprivation of liberty is necessary for a short time to protect them from harm, we want to see a reduction in the length of deprivation of liberty orders, a reduction in the number of children experiencing repeat orders and an end to the use of unregistered placements for these children.

1. This to be made available to the sector

Home Again should also be underpinned by the Children’s Social Care National Framework which describes the purpose and principles of children’s social care, the outcomes that local authorities should achieve for children and families, and the enablers of good practice, including for partners.

2. The sector needs to know about this

On 12 March 2026, we launched a national online Community of Practice, designed to share promising approaches and resources for professionals working with children with complex needs across local authorities, health partners and providers.

This sounds like in USA where only accredited methods and practices and providers used/funded. The assessment, formulation, referral to identified programme, monitoring, and moving on is determined by an Assessment of Need, from research in the USA this seems to be CANS + Palantir. There is a current DfE tender for just such a platform.

3. The sector needs to know about the Enduring Relationships strategy as it is intended to affect residential child care as a sector and practice.

On 4 June, we published the Enduring Relationships strategy which set the ambition for all children in care and care-experienced young people to have strong, stable and loving relationships in their lives. Positive, consistent relationships with trusted adults are critical to children’s safety, stability and long-term outcomes. The aim is to strengthen how children are helped to build and sustain these relationships, including through improved support for foster carers and residential staff, greater continuity in professionals around the child, and a stronger emphasis on lifelong connections to family, friends and communities.

4. The sector needs to know about these test areas (page 7)

Areas are developing and testing a range of approaches, including new residential provision, integrated multi-disciplinary teams, and system-wide models of support.

5. The sector needs to know about West Sussex place based approach

We need to know about this Since December 2025, the Department for Education has been funding West Sussex children’s social care to work closely with the ICB to test a place-based approach supporting children with complex and overlapping needs at risk of or deprived of their liberty.

6. The sector needs to know about this West Sussex case study as this is very like the USA Assessment of Need methodology

The case study pages 8-9 needs to be read.

See also page 21 Establish Home Again team(s) across the regional footprint to deliver assessment, planning, intervention, support and review alongside local authority support and services already in place

See also “triage, decision-making and allocation, including determining the level and type of intervention required (page 23)

7. The sector needs to know re the current review of the residential child care workforce

Is the purpose of the review to produce this workforce as in Home Again?

8. The sector needs to know what this means?

In particular, it will require greater shared responsibility for complex decisions, enabling services to move from risk-averse approaches towards more balanced, proportionate responses.

The amount of workforce development needed to do this is enormous.

9. This is a bold statement page 13

Home Again brings together the strongest evidence of what we know works into a single, coherent and scalable approach.

This statement needs testing by a reading of Bruce Emdondson Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Residential Care for Childre who analyses 400 studies and finds that the negative and presumptive view of RCC is based largely on overgeneralizations from research with infants and very young children raised in extremely deprived environments. A careful analysis of the available research supports the use of high-quality residential care as a treatment of choice with certain groups of needy children and youth, not a last resort intervention. The nature of high-quality care is explored through child development theory and research and two empirically supported models of care are described in detail.

10. Nudge/Behavioural insights observed?

Page 13 “ …using what we have learned to expand the approach and move towards wider national reach. This will allow us to grow the programme in a way that is both purposeful and sustainable…. Our funding is to launch and grow Home Again, with a clear expectation that areas will move to a self-sustaining model by the end of the funded period. As pooled funding and resourcing arrangements are established and the impact of earlier, coordinated intervention is realised, areas should transition to local funding, with ongoing delivery supported through system savings and shared investment…

Page 14 Local authorities and partners that are not part of an RCC are not eligible to apply for Home Again wave 1, reflecting our ambition that reform for children in care is delivered through RCCs to transform outcomes for children through pooling resources, strengthening multi-agency collaboration, building workforce expertise and capability across multi-agency partnerships and shared commissioning to create sufficient, targeted placements.

11. Observation – there is no consideration given to workforce or children or providers. The word residential is mention 4 times and children’s homes 3 times.

12. There is no mention of residential child care in the Home Again teams page 21-22

13. The models of care expected are listed on pages 21-22 (They considerably narrow the current social ecology of care, knowledge and expertise).

We expect Home Again teams to offer specific interventions that have a proven evidence base of creating positive change for these children. We would expect to see the following or similar interventions included as part of the local offer:

• Targeted psychological therapies, including Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), to support children to process trauma and improve emotional stability
• Neurodevelopmental and communication support, including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and support for ADHD, autism and FASD, to address underlying needs that contribute to behaviour and risk
• Attachment- and relationship-based interventions, such as Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), to strengthen relationships between children and carers and rebuild trust
• Intensive family-based interventions, including Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and Functional Family Therapy (FFT), to reduce risk behaviours and support children to remain safely within family or community settings where appropriate
• Emotional regulation and behavioural support approaches, including DBT-informed models and frameworks such as ARC (Attachment, Regulation and Competency), to support children to manage distress and risk more safely
• Support for carers and placements, including therapeutic parenting approaches (e.g. PACE-informed practice), practical behaviour support and reflective supervision, to enable carers to respond consistently and reduce placement breakdown
• Consistent relational support, including keyworker or mentor roles, ensuring children have stable, trusted relationships with adults who provide continuity across placements and services
• Education and structured daily support, including access to appropriate education provision, consistent routines and structured environments to support engagement, stability and reduced risk
• Practical and social support, including activities that build independence, confidence and positive relationships with peers, family members and trusted adults

14. The sector needs a copy of the Assessment of Need framework (AoN). There has been work recently on Placement Request Forms (other terms are used) and this may need to be reconsidered.

Undertake a single, coordinated multi-disciplinary assessment of a child’s need, risk and strengths – building on previous information – using the Assessment of Need (AoN) framework The AoN is a validated, standardised tool that provides a holistic view of a child’s needs, risks and strengths across services. It should build on existing assessments and bring together information across agencies into a single, shared understanding of the child’s needs, avoiding duplication and the child and family needing to repeat their story to multiple services to get the right help and support.

15. It should be noted that the models here are specific and contextual. The specifics and the context are important. It cannot be assumed that models can be by implanted without these specifics and context present. (Page 25)

We would expect to see areas setting out plans for provision including integrated multi-agency hub or wraparound models (e.g. No Wrong Door12 or iROC-style approaches13), which provide coordinated oversight and delivery across services; integrated therapeutic education provision such as the Somerset model, bringing together teachers and CAMHS clinicians in a single setting with a staged ‘relax, explore, practice, stretch’ curriculum; specialist residential education such as the Mulberry Bush, combining care, therapy and learning to build readiness and emotional regulation; and flexible alternative provision such as The Hive, delivering short, tailored, interest-led sessions to rebuild engagement and identity as a learner.