KCA Case Study:

Cornwall Five To Thrive

A write-up of our collaboration with Cornwall local authority, Aug 2024


View/download full case study PDF

The challenge

Cornwall is a local authority that is geographically challenged in attempts to create and sustain consistency of service across the county. Transport is road based and there are not many of them. Settings providing Early Years services were isolated from each other and lacked a shared understanding of best practice.

The Early Years Service relates to all provision for children 0 – 5, across a wide range of settings including childminders, preschool settings, and nurseries. The commissioner and her colleagues were working on a strategic plan to create and sustain a shared understanding of children’s needs and a shared language across Early Years settings and services in Cornwall.

Our approach

Introducing and embedding Five to Thrive into Early Years practice in Cornwall became a strategic priority from mid-2013. The team at KCA then worked with staff in Cornwall to co-create a programme of training to contribute to the implementation of this strategy.

KCA then delivered 40 training events in total in Cornwall, some multidisciplinary and broad in scope others aimed at specific practitioners or at particular areas of practice. Across those 40 events we secured post training feedback from 570 practitioners.

The impact

In 2024 an in-depth case study showed practitioners and leaders in settings and services that had embedded Five to Thrive saying they still use it daily in their practice, that it helps greatly with staff resilience, and that the Reflect programme they developed using Five to Thrive had enabled many very vulnerable children to be maintained in their Early Years setting and to flourish.


Some other recent case studies

More good days at school

A write-up of our collaboration with Youth Endowment Fund, Oct 2024

An on-going randomised control trial research programme to understand whether trauma informed practice can prevent young people from becoming involved in violence, thereby helping to reduce school exclusions and improve the children’s life chances. There are 26 schools receiving intervention by way of collaborative enquiry, whole school training and training focussed on SLT and pastoral leads. The goal is to create resilient school communities better equipped to support recovery and healing with a view to being able to influence educational policy.

View/download case study

Medway Council and Kent and Medway Violence Reduction Unit

A write-up of our collaboration with Medway Council, Kent and Medway VRU, Oct 2024

With the aim of supporting children to remain in mainstream education wherever possible and to bring Medway in line with national average of children with an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) being educated in mainstream schools, ensuring specialist placements are reserved for those with the most complex needs, the Trauma Informed Schools (TIS) programme was launched. Collaborative enquiry, whole school training and workshops facilitated by KCA helped to build staff capacity in understanding trauma using relational approaches to strengthen relationships and boost resilience. All of the 69 schools involved in the programme say that they would recommend this training.

View/download case study

Swindon Early Years Project

A write-up of our collaboration with Swindon Borough Council, Sep 2024

KCA has a long-standing partnership with Swindon Borough Council, working on several projects for the children’s services workforce. Starting in 2013 to implement the Five to Thrive approach. Further training in 2014 for Early Years Practitioners, Health Visitors, and Children’s Centre. In 2015, the programme extended to those working with older children. In July 2019, KCA’s role evolved with the Swindon Early Outcomes Project, which result in online training as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic.

View/download case study

See all our case studies…

Request a callback

Please fill in your details and we'll get back to you as soon as we can