This month: New research on child welfare and poverty, plus the next generation of LIFT is here

We co-organised a fantastic event at the Nuffield Foundation to launch our new report, Linking household benefits, financial precarity and child welfare.

The research linked household income and benefits data with children’s social care records across six English local authorities. Even among families already receiving means-tested benefits, the findings showed that living below the poverty line increased the likelihood of child protection plans and re-referrals to children’s social care.

Importantly, the research also found that the £20 Universal Credit uplift, introduced during the pandemic, reduced the number of child protection plans, demonstrating the measurable impact that financial support can have on safeguarding outcomes.

A key theme throughout the event was that councils already hold much of the data needed to identify financial hardship, but it is not yet systematically connected to children’s social care systems. Through tools such as LIFT and MAST, councils can begin linking this insight to earlier intervention and practical support.

As discussed during the panel, prevention is a team sport. Tackling poverty cannot sit solely with social workers. It requires coordinated action across councils to identify financial stress earlier and connect families to support including Crisis and Resilience Funds, Section 17 support, debt relief and income maximisation.

The report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is the result of a collaboration across Policy in Practice, Kingston University, Research in Practice, the National Children’s Bureau and the University of Sussex.

Download the report and watch Professor Hood’s presentation on our website here.

To meet its corporate objective of addressing poverty and inequality, Denbighshire County Council required a proactive, fiscally responsible method to identify vulnerable households and connect them with the correct resources.

As part of a Wales-wide initiative to use data to improve income maximisation, Denbighshire implemented the LIFT platform. This enabled the council to consolidate administrative datasets, including Universal Credit, Council Tax Arrears and Housing Benefit information, into a single dashboard.

Key outcomes of the pilot

Pension Credit take up results: Secured 17 new claims worth £68,220 annually, providing an estimated lifetime value of £445,454 for residents
Attendance Allowance take up results: Resulted in 43 households claiming a combined £169,036 per year, worth over £1 million over their lifetime
Disability benefits take up results (PIP and LCWRA): This high value campaign saw 112 households claim £590,901 in annual support
Employment support results: While challenging due to resident anxiety, the campaign identified a handful of residents who signed up for employment support and wellbeing pathways
Welsh Water support results: Successfully identified and assisted 21 customers with over £21,000 in water arrears
Free summer holiday events results: Using LIFT to identify 900 households in relative poverty, the council sent targeted text messages signposting families to free summer activities; this resulted in over 500 families engaging with the invitation
Private rental sector support results: Provided 384 private renters with access to essential money advice to help prevent homelessness
Single parent support results: Successfully identified 442 single parents in relative poverty to provide targeted energy and financial advice

Nicola Williams, Contracts & Performance Project Manager said:

"The Council welcomed the opportunity to build on the valuable work of supporting financially vulnerable households and hard-to-reach communities. LIFT really helps identify residents who are missing out on entitlements and it’s so fast in getting the information together - it’s at your fingertips."

We are thrilled to announce the next generation of the LIFT platform is officially live. This is not just a routine update, it is an evolution of the tools used every day to turn insights into action to efficiently support residents.

The reimagined LIFT dashboard is faster, smarter and even more secure. We have overhauled the interface and introduced a refined suite of tools engineered to simplify daily demands, strip away operational complexity and elevate how teams deliver support.

Better Off Calculator: Embedding income maximisation into AdvicePro workflows

We recently hosted an online demo for our new AdvicePro integration and were incredibly grateful for the high turnout, with hundreds of attendees joining us to see it in action.

This live feature embeds income maximisation directly into everyday workflows, making it easier than ever for advisers to help residents. Advisers can use our built-in indicator directly within AdvicePro to perform a seamless two-way data transfer in an instant, providing an almost one-click benefit check. They can also easily export a Better Off Calculator case straight back into AdvicePro.

By eliminating manual data entry, this integration saves valuable time, speeds up application processing and simplifies complex tasks for ordinary users. Ultimately, it ensures income maximisation is woven into processes where it previously was not possible, empowering frontline teams to deliver vital financial support efficiently.

Get in touch to learn more or activate the integration for your team.

MAST: Tackling poverty to reduce safeguarding risk

The Linking household benefits, financial precarity and child welfare report’s important findings directly feed into how we are developing MAST as a product. The report found that living below the poverty line increases the likelihood of child protection plans and re-referrals to children’s social care.

MAST is tackling this through an ambitious project, linking top postcodes where open cases with adult and children’s social care have had 20+ interactions with other safeguarding agencies. These areas are then run through LIFT to highlight households that are in debt, missing out on benefits, affected by welfare reforms, or at risk of homelessness.

This work is vital because we cannot fully support people without addressing household poverty. By combining the power of MAST and LIFT, we move from reactive crisis management to proactive prevention. Relieving financial strain can reduce the daily pressures that push families towards crisis and increase demand on safeguarding services.

The importance of this approach is gaining wider recognition across the sector, including coverage in Social Work Today, which highlighted the report’s findings on the link between financial hardship and child protection plans.

Many of you will have seen meningitis in the news recently, or may have been affected by it yourselves.

Earlier this year, our Managing Director, Jade Alsop, faced every parent’s worst nightmare when her son, Archie, was hospitalised with meningitis for nearly a month. I’m incredibly relieved to say that Archie has made a full recovery, thanks to his family’s strength and the world class care provided by the NHS and the team at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

To give something back, we’re launching a series of fundraising activities for Great Ormond Street Hospital, culminating in a sponsored walk from Twickenham Stadium to Great Ormond Street this summer.