When interventions don't work

When Interventions Don’t Work

How to support care-experienced children, young people, and their families using a systemic lens

Professionals working with care-experienced children and families often find themselves asking the same question:

“We’re doing everything right — so why isn’t this working?”

This session is for social care, health, education, and residential professionals who are supporting children and young people where proven interventions, good practice, and best intentions still don’t lead to lasting change.

Rather than focusing on behaviour in isolation, this session invites you to step back and look at the whole relational system surrounding a child — family relationships, professional networks, organisational pressures, culture, beliefs, trauma histories, and lived experience.

Using a systemic lens, we’ll explore:

• Why interventions can fail even when they are evidence-based
• How behaviour is shaped by relationships, systems, and context — not just individual need
• The hidden patterns and loops that keep families and professionals stuck
• Using a systemic lens to support care experienced children, young people and their families to achieve better outcome

A key part of the session is reflexivity — understanding the part we play within the system. This includes how our responses, assumptions, roles, and pressures influence the families we work with, often without us realising it.

This session offers a space to think differently, gain new insight, and leave with a clearer understanding of why things get stuck — and how working systemically can open up new possibilities.

Who this session is for:

• Professionals working with care-experienced children and young people
• Residential, fostering, adoption, and safeguarding teams
• Social workers, therapists, educators, and service leaders
• Anyone feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or questioning why current approaches aren’t enough

By the end of this session, you will leave with:

• A clearer way to understand why interventions don’t land
  Not because practice is poor — but because behaviour, risk, and change are shaped by relationships, context, and systems that often go unseen.
• A practical way of thinking systemically without making your work more complicated
  A lens you can use immediately to hold complexity, make sense of stuck situations, and work more intentionally with children, young people, and families.
• Greater reflexivity in your role and positioning
  An awareness of how your responses, assumptions, and the wider system influence what happens next — without blame or self-criticism.
• More confidence and clarity when working with care-experienced children and families
  Not new techniques — but a different perspective that supports calmer decision-making, clearer boundaries, and more sustainable practice.