Children and Young Peoples Vanguard Project

NHS Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB is the Southwest ‘Vanguard’ site (one of 12 nationally) commissioned to deliver the Children and Young People’s Framework for Integrated Care (Community), developed out of the Framework for Integrated Care (SECURE STAIRS).

The vision of the community framework is to facilitate effective cross-agency working within a trauma-informed system that supports children and young people at risk of school exclusion, those in care or those with a Special Educational Need (SEND) / Social, Emotional & Mental Health difficulties (SEMH) need. 

The Vanguard is an NHSE health and justice funded project, aiming to provide additional support to the most vulnerable children and young people with multiple, persistent and complex needs. Rather than a heavily prescribed top-down delivery model, the Framework provides a set of principles that act as a template for trauma-informed cross-agency working, providing preventative support for children exhibiting high-risk, high-harm behaviours. 

Seven Vanguard Pathways of Work deliver services to young people through existing organisations. There is also a Barnardo’s Lived Experience Group and Trauma Informed System Manager (TISM) working across the wider health and care system, which supports the Vanguard’s work.

Our impact

Our Clinical Effectiveness Team closely supported the Vanguard Project Manager and steering group with the development of an external evaluation. The team was involved in: 

• Securing additional evaluation funding 
• Developing external evaluation specifications 
• Meeting with procurement teams, universities and potential bidders 
• Development of the evaluation tendering process and panel 
• Providing consultation and support, particularly around expectations, methodology and future sustainability of any evaluation work. 

Following a successful evaluation tendering process in 2022, a team from the University of the West of England (UWE) were appointed to deliver a mixed methods evaluation of the project. They bring an academic team with significant frontline experience in the criminal justice system to help develop the data and evaluation work of the Vanguard pathways, whilst meeting the needs of this specific project.