The merger of the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) and What Works for Children’s Social Care (WWCSC) will bring together two what works centres to create a single organisation covering the full range of support for children and families, including preventative approaches, early intervention and targeted support for those at risk of poor outcomes, through to child protection and children’s social care services.  

Discussions regarding a potential merger were announced by EIF and WWCSC in May. 

EIF and WWCSC will now undertake steps towards the legal merger of the two charities, which is expected to conclude by spring 2023. An executive chair will oversee the merger process, and recruitment into this post will begin shortly.  

Professor Nick Pearce, chair of the board of trustees of the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF), said:  

“We are very pleased to be joining forces with What Works Children’s Social Care. In doing so, we will continue to build on the strong work that EIF has done since it was established nearly 10 years ago. This means championing early intervention across a broad sweep of service areas, reaching out to policy teams and leaders across government and Whitehall, and working to join the dots between national policy and local delivery. 

“Through this merger, we will be able to combine the best of both organisations and ensure there are some vital lines of continuity – making the case for early intervention, conducting high-quality research, understanding the sector and providing effective guidance – running through all our work together.” 

Jenny Coles, chair of the board of trustees of What Works for Children’s Social Care (WWCSC), said:  

“We are delighted to be joining forces with EIF to further our reach and ultimately achieve better outcomes for children and families. As a merged organisation there will be greater opportunities to fill evidence gaps by undertaking more ambitious and necessary research into what works. 

“The children’s social care sector is facing seismic change and a single what works centre will be well placed to support reform and create an evidence-based and evidence-generating system that works for everyone. We look forward to pooling expertise with our EIF colleagues and creating an exciting new organisation together.” 

-ENDS- 

Media Contact   

For the Early Intervention Foundation: Andy Ross, Senior Press Officer – 07949 339 975 / andy.ross@eif.org.uk 

For What Works for Children’s Social Care: Francesca Morosini, Head of Communications – 07773 647 480 / francesca.morosini@whatworks-csc.org.uk  

About  

Early Intervention Foundation 

The Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) is an independent charity that champions and supports the use of effective early intervention to improve the lives of children and young people at risk of experiencing negative outcomes. For more information, see: https://www.eif.org.uk/ 

What Works for Children’s Social Care 

What Works for Children’s Social Care seeks better outcomes for children, young people and families by bringing the best available evidence to practitioners and other decision makers across the children’s social care sector. 

Our research looks at the point of referral through to permanence, including adoption, care-leaver support and targeted early help. We focus on children’s social care practice in England and draw on and share learning at the international level. 

Engagement and co-design are central to our approach and we are working in close consultation with leaders, practitioners, children and young people, families and researchers across the sector to: 

• Identify gaps in the evidence, and create new evidence through trials and evaluations 
• Collate, synthesise and review existing evidence 
• Develop, test and publish tools and services that support the greater use of evidence in children’s social care 
• Champion the application of robust standards of evidence in children’s social care research.