We agree with successor programme evaluator Coram, that the key measure of success for the Department’s Innovation Programme must be what has changed for children as a result.25 The Department told us that it cannot yet report any ‘perfectly causal line’ between the programme and improved outcomes for children. The Department highlighted encouraging data from one of its successor projects including a 38% reduction in arrests and a 57% reduction in A&E visits for the young people referred to the scheme, with similar good evidence from other projects.26 Understanding the impact of the scheme is made harder by the lack of clarity over the outcomes government wants for children’s social care. The Department has undertaken to provide a national framework of outcomes in response to recommendations of the Care Review.27