Healthcare, education and social care services support healthy, safe development of children into adulthood. Use and costs of these services are concentrated among certain children, such as those with complex health conditions, who need to use these services much more than their peers. We call this additional or high needs.

Government policy is to join up services within integrated care systems, but there is a lack of research on provision of healthcare, education, and social care services for children with additional or high needs and how much services complement each other across the child life course and how patterns of services vary across England. We also want to find out whether early investment in proactive support, such as day care or special educational needs support, might prevent later problems and be better for families. This project will inform the development of Integrated Care Systems and Partnerships across England by generating evidence across public service sectors for children and young people.

This project is led by Professor Matt Sutton and Professor Ruth Gilbert; it is funded by the Children and Families Policy Research Unit.