Listen Up to Co-ordinate the WISE pilot programme in partnership with Greater Manchester & the What Works Centre

Posted on 4 January 2021 in News & views

Listen Up is the leading the co-ordination and research of the WISE project. The evaluation is being supported by the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care. WISE is a working partnership between various national and Greater Manchester (GM) organisations and professionals. The principle focus of WISE is to develop an alternative approach to understanding issues of safety and risk when working with young people considered to be in need of a ‘complex safeguarding’ response.

Our rationale for focusing on this area of practice includes recent research findings that risk assessment tools and checklists are largely deficit based and are not inclusive of marginalised and minoritised children and young people. It is also evident that current risk assessment used do not have a strong evidence base and that assessments which narrowly linked risks to an individual’s behaviour can lead to victim-blaming.

The initial evaluation is to be published Spring 2021.