Surrey County Council (Surrey) has strengthened its social care and education services by aligning systems, processes, and workforce practice around the needs of children, families and carers. As part of a recent fostering review, Surrey’s transformation team delivered a service-wide initiative to redesign key fostering and kinship pathways within the Liquidlogic Children’s Case Management system. This programme included a phased training and support approach to help staff adapt to the changes.

The project brought practitioners, service managers, system training specialists, and transformation colleagues together to co-produce meaningful, practical change. The team focused on transparency and shared ownership, engaging stakeholders early to build trust and support successful implementation.

Through service reviews and transformation programmes, Surrey has enhanced the way teams use data and the children’s case management system, creating more efficient workflows, reducing duplication, and supporting stronger decision-making across fostering, kinship, and wider children’s services.

Building Confidence Through Change

Implementing changes to a core system within live social care services required Surrey to balance service improvement with the day-to-day demands facing frontline practitioners.

Managing Change Across Services

Teams managed high caseloads and competing priorities while adapting to new ways of working. Surrey needed to introduce changes in a way that supported staff confidence, maintained service quality, and aligned with statutory requirements and wider service priorities.

Co-Designing Better Ways of Working

Surrey addressed these challenges through early engagement and collaboration across services.

Practitioners, managers, system specialists and transformation colleagues helped shape the programme from the outset, ensuring changes reflected real-world practice. Listening sessions and workshops helped identify opportunities to streamline processes, refine proposals before implementation, and build confidence throughout the programme.

The council established clear governance and worked closely with service leaders and training teams to align changes with statutory requirements and service priorities.

A picture of of several social workers smiling holding electronic devices.

Rather than relying on a single training event, Surrey introduced a phased approach to learning. Staff built confidence gradually, applying changes in practice before progressing to the next stage. Ongoing support, accessible guidance, and clear communication channels enabled teams to address issues quickly and maintain momentum throughout implementation.
This approach supported redesigned children’s case management pathways, streamlined workflows, and improved consistency in recording across children’s services.

Delivering Benefits for Practitioners, Carers and Children

The programme has delivered benefits for practitioners, foster carers, kinship carers, and children with care experience.

Frontline practitioners report improved usability, greater clarity, and increased confidence following the redesigned children’s case management pathways and phased training programme. Streamlined processes have reduced administration and supported a greater focus on purposeful work with families.

Enhanced recruitment and assessment pathways support smoother progression through key stages for prospective foster carers and kinship carers. More consistent recording strengthens communication between professionals and supports timely, informed decision-making, helping carers feel better supported throughout the process.

For children and young people, clearer pathways and more efficient assessments support timely decisions and placements. Improved recording also strengthens care planning and oversight, helping professionals identify and respond to needs more effectively.

At a wider service level, the programme has created a more responsive and efficient fostering and kinship service that is better equipped to meet local need. By embedding practitioner-led change and sustainable training, Surrey continues to deliver long-term benefits for staff, carers, and children.

Creating Long-Term Benefits Across Children’s Services

Through collaboration, phased learning, and practitioner-led transformation, Surrey has strengthened the way teams use Liquidlogic Children’s Case Management across children’s services. The council has streamlined workflows, improved recording consistency, and supported more confident decision-making, helping practitioners focus on delivering high-quality support for children, families, and carers.

Next Steps

If you’d like to learn how teams are making a real-world impact using our children’s social care software, why not explore our collection of customer stories.

For more information, speak to our team to learn how Liquidlogic Children’s Case Management can support your fostering and kinship services.