Project Description

Ealing faces a number of challenges which impact on the effectiveness of support. The aim of the programme is to reduce the risk of residential and day special education placements, improve health and mental health outcomes and enable successful transitions to adulthood.

Building My Future is testing a creative, evidence-based approach, co-produced with young people and families. The team is developing a model and a supporting targeting tool that has the potential to be shared nationally to improve practice in the area.

Four phases of work were carried out from September 2017 to August 2019:

• Expanding an existing, locally developed, best practice model, the Intensive Therapeutic Short Break Service (ITSBS).
• Developing a Risk of Escalation Tool to identify those who meet the criteria for the programme.
• Establishing a multi-professional team (BMF Core Team) with a wide skills including youth work, advocacy, mentoring and family therapy to tackle the full range of presenting issues in an intensive and holistic way.
• Establishing a BMF Virtual Team (comprising the Youth Service, Connexions and youth offending team) to support successful transition towards independent living.

Evaluation

DfE funded independent evaluation will be published in 2020.