Children and Young People’s Vanguard Project

NHS England South West Health and Justice team commissioned NHS Bristol North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) to deliver the Framework for Integrated Care, providing additional support to the most vulnerable children and young people with multiple, persistent and complex needs in the community.

The Framework provides a set of guiding principles and practices which act as a template for trauma-informed, integrated working.

The aim is to provide preventative support for children exhibiting high-risk and high-harm behaviours. The creation of the Vanguards nationally highlights a poignant shift in thinking from asking children and young people ‘what is wrong with you’ to approaches that seek to understand and address ‘what has happened to you.’

The community framework facilitates 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) or Social, Emotional & Mental Health difficulties (SEMH) need.

The Vanguard consists of 7 services that have been funded for 3 years from 2022 to 2025, based across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, which make up our Vanguard pathways. These include:

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
Youth Justice Services
Schools
Liaison and Diversion
Barnardo’s
Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP)
Enable Trust
Avon and Somerset Police
Substance Misuse Services
Young Victims Service (YJS)

Each pathway has embedded the Framework principles with additional funding to enhance their existing work with children and young people with complex needs in a trauma-informed way.

This programme has provided an opportunity for integrated working between statutory services and third sector organisations across multiple local authorities while embracing co-production in the real-world complexity of children and young people services.

Barnardo’s young advisors with lived experience continue to support the co-production of the project. The Vanguard is supported by the ICB Trauma Informed System Manager (TISM) to promote a trauma informed approach for the Vanguard organisations and align with the wider system

Our impact

Following a successful evaluation tendering process in 2022, a team from the University of the West of England (UWE) was appointed to conduct 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.

NHS England Health and Justice South West have funded the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Vanguard for an additional year 2024 to 2025, to enable all the pathways to build evidence of success and benefits to support sustainability plans all the services are working on the sustainability, some of the services already have funding plans past October 2025 to continue delivering their service. Further updates on the sustainability and legacy of the project will follow in the coming months.

Our second interim evaluation report shows good outcomes, and the final report will be shared in Autumn 2025.

Read the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Vanguard Project Interim Evaluation Report - May 2025

Shortlisted for HSJ Awards

The Children and Young People’s Vanguard Project has been shortlisted in two Award categories for its work to improve support for children and young people exhibiting ‘high risk’ behaviours which may result in contact with the criminal justice system.

The shortlisted categories include:

The Early Intervention and Prevention for Children, Young People and Families Award
The Reducing Inequalities and Improving Outcomes for Children and Young People

If you have any questions about the Vanguard project, please email Emma Morgan at emma.morgan17@nhs.net.