Our Impact

The impact of poverty on families is painfully visible in the statistics for children’s declining mental health. 2023–24 continued to be a very challenging time as school and local authority budgets dwindled, leaving mental health and special needs support stretched beyond capacity and unable to cope with the scale and severity of need.

Donate

Why We Measure Impact

UPLifting Children was designed to improve children’s resilience to their difficult circumstances and reduce the incidents of family-related trauma by targeting attachment, self-regulation and competence.

We introduced Goal Based Outcomes in 2017, which specifically measure the impact of therapy, have a direct relationship with the work we do and sit within our theory of change framework. We have a goal for the child, for the parent and for the teacher which enhances understanding and progress made for multiple aspects of children’s, parents and teachers experiences and makes everyone an active agent of change. Goals agreed with the child capture what they hope to achieve for themselves, including the child’s valuable perspective on their situation; these may be different from the goals a clinician/parent/teacher might wish to see them achieve. As such, it gives a different perspective to measurement and can capture nuances not available from traditional behavioural or symptom-based outcome measures. Therapists evaluate and monitor Goal Based Outcomes throughout the interventions and these are recorded on our database and collated and analysed to inform service design and learning.

Child Outcome Rating Scale

In 2024 we introduced the Child Outcome Rating Scale and progress is measured regularly from the beginning to the end of intervention.

We also use pre and post intervention surveys with parents and teachers and seek feedback, so we have both quantitative and qualitative evidence which helps understand how complexity impacts interventions.

100% of the children and young people who completed early intervention have improved self-esteem and confidence.

98% of the children and young people who completed early intervention have improved emotional regulation.

97% of the children and young people who completed early intervention have improved communication skills.

96% of the children and young people who completed early intervention have improved mental health or relationships.

87% of the children and young people who completed early intervention have improved participation in school and learning.

85% of the children and young people who completed early intervention have improved behaviour.

Our Impact 2023-2024

In 2023-24 we enabled over 3,000 children and young people, in 28 primary (93%) and secondary (7%) schools across ten London Boroughs to access bespoke, multi-disciplinary therapeutic and mental health support in the environments where they live and learn. The prevention and early interventions we delivered across London in 2023-24:

This combined approach can be life-changing, reducing the long-term impact of adversity and trauma, enhancing children’s ability to build and maintain healthy relationships, improve their academic success, and strengthen their emotional resilience.

Online Parenting Programme

Of the parents who completed our 8-week UPLifting Families online parenting courses in 2023-24: