News

Recent national reports highlight pressures across the care system, with local authorities facing difficult choices in how to house vulnerable children.

The West Midlands is developing support for local regulated providers and local authority homes. This is to strengthen the training and skills of care staff to reflect the needs of vulnerable children in care within the region.

Toucan, the West Midlands CAMHS Provider Collaborative, has launched several targeted services. These are designed to stop placement breakdown cycles that can lead to children in care being moved into emergency placements.

A major factor in the "struggle to house vulnerable children" is that young people deemed "high-risk" are often rejected by providers. To help address this, Toucan is introducing Children in Care Clinical Case Managers whose role will be to connect agencies and build partnerships around the child through carefully planned care pathways.

These specialists will act as a `professional bridge` by coordinating directly with local authorities; they will work to prevent the crisis points that often lead to emergency hospital admissions and unplanned placements. Their clinical guidance will help ensure that complex mental health needs are understood as early as possible and the right care and treatment pathway is provided.

In addition, Toucan has been developing in collaboration with partners and young people, an evidence-based model named Integrated Residential Outreach Care (IROC). IROC brings a team of health, social care, and education experts together to focus on:

•    Preventing Crises: Intervening early before a situation becomes unmanageable for care staff.
•    Stability: Keeping children stable in their long-term homes and schools.
•    Cooperation: Ensuring all services, from health, social care, education, and police work as one single team.

Elaine Kirwan, Clinical Director at Toucan, said:

“We know that children in care have the highest rates of mental health disorders compared to other groups. These risks are increased and compounded when services do not work together. Young people report this often leads to crisis and subsequent placement breakdowns that may have been avoidable if they or their carer had been able to access services earlier. Toucan is working with young people to design services that ensure that organisations work together to provide wraparound support for both the child and professionals involved in their direct care. Currently, there are times when children are expected to fit into a system that is not always welcoming for them. 

“Whilst there is much more to do, we truly believe that by working differently with partner agencies, we can help enable stability and improve the quality of care, so that children in care with the most complex mental health needs remain in safe, regulated, and appropriate homes, including foster care.”

Since its launch in 2024, the IROC model has already shown early evidence of reduced revolving door crises and greater home and placement stability. Through a regional steering group established in April 2025, Toucan is working with 14 local authorities to ensure services are designed around the specific needs of West Midlands children with the most complex needs.

Toucan is now sharing these successful West Midlands strategies nationally to help inform government policy and improve the care system across the country.