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Children and young people supported by social care in Greater Manchester are to get mental health help from professionals sitting inside their social care teams, under a pilot announced by the Government on 23 October 2026. The scheme, called Care Together, will run in Stockport, Tameside and Rochdale.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England say the aim is to replace a patchwork of separate services with one joined up team. NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board (ICB) will run the pilot, which follows the independent Fonagy Review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism.
At a Glance
- The Government is investing up to £9.4 million over three years in the Care Together pilot, which NHS Greater Manchester ICB will run with Stockport, Tameside and Rochdale councils.
- The pilot will cover up to 7,000 children and young people supported by social care, along with their parents, carers and guardians.
- NHS mental health professionals will be embedded in children's social care teams to offer family therapy and support for primary caregivers.
- The pilot is due to launch in early 2027 and run until 2029, with an evaluation to judge whether it could be extended to other areas.
- The announcement says the pilot follows Professor Peter Fonagy's review, which recommended better integrated mental health support.
How the Care Together Pilot Will Work in Greater Manchester
The idea is simple to describe and harder to deliver. Instead of a social worker referring a child to a separate mental health service and waiting, a mental health professional from an existing NHS service would work as part of the social care team itself. The Government says this should give families faster, simpler access to support and cut the need to navigate several services.
The support is meant to be driven by need rather than by thresholds. It includes family therapy and help for parents and primary caregivers, not only for the child. Care Together will test and evaluate the model, which the Government describes as a replacement for fragmented provision.
The £9.4 million is committed over three years. NHS Greater Manchester ICB will lead delivery and work with the three local authorities. The Government says the number of people covered comes from the latest figures on children in need, children on protection plans, children in care and care leavers, including adopted children, in those three areas.
Who Is Covered by the Care Together Pilot, and When Does It Start?
Up to 7,000 children and young people, plus their parents, carers and guardians, fall within the scope of the pilot. That is a ceiling rather than a guaranteed caseload. The announcement says "up to", and it does not break the figure down by borough or by the type of social care involvement.
Nothing begins straight away. The pilot is set to launch in early 2027 and run until 2029. During that time an evaluation will assess whether the approach could be scaled up elsewhere in the country. The announcement does not say who will carry out the evaluation, or what measures of success it will use.
What Ministers Say Care Together Will Change for Children in Care
Dame Diana Johnson, Minister of State for Public Health and Patient Safety, said fragmented mental health services have left young people in care, care leavers, parents, carers and guardians unsure where to turn. She said the pilot would bring thousands more children in Greater Manchester specialist support "before they reach crisis point".
Children's Minister Josh MacAlister said children supported by social care often face severe mental health challenges because of the trauma and adversity they have experienced. He pointed to wider work on care leavers, including the national rollout of the Staying Close programme and corporate parenting duties for public bodies.
Professor Manisha Kumar, Chief Clinical Officer at NHS Greater Manchester, said the pilot sits within a wider transformation of children's and young people's mental health services in the region. She said the aim is trauma informed, joined up care, and that the work would help shape national changes.
How Care Together Fits Into Children's Social Care Reform
The Government places the pilot alongside several other commitments. It says it is backing reform of children's social care with £2.4 billion through the Families First Partnership Programme, and has committed to creating 10,000 new foster places this Parliament. It also says a £500 million expansion of children's homes is under way, alongside a crackdown on excess profits and on illegal, unregistered homes.
The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act has been passed, according to the announcement, and is described as changing how public agencies safeguard children, work together and share information. The Act also expands Staying Close support up to the age of 25, covering employment, housing, education and health.
The Fonagy Review link matters because that review argued for more integrated, needs led support. We covered the Government's response in our explainer on the Fonagy Review. Care Together is one of the first concrete tests of that thinking for a group of children who often have complex needs.
What the Care Together Pilot Hasn't Yet Explained
The announcement leaves several practical questions open. It does not say how many mental health professionals will be recruited, which NHS services they will be drawn from, or how the posts will be funded once the three years end. Those details are likely to matter if other areas are to copy the model.
It also does not set out what outcomes the evaluation will look for, such as waiting times, crisis referrals or placement stability. Until the pilot launches in early 2027 and results emerge, the claim that embedding mental health staff speeds up support remains an aim, not a finding. This article draws on the Government's announcement and the quotes it contains, so it does not assess the pilot's design beyond what that release sets out.
Key Takeaways
- Care Together will embed NHS mental health professionals in children's social care teams in Stockport, Tameside and Rochdale, run by NHS Greater Manchester ICB.
- The Government is investing up to £9.4 million over three years, and the pilot could cover up to 7,000 children and young people plus their families and carers.
- The support includes family therapy and help for parents and primary caregivers, not only for the child receiving social care.
- The pilot launches in early 2027 and runs until 2029, with an evaluation to decide whether it should be scaled up to other parts of the country.
- The announcement does not yet give staffing numbers, evaluation measures or funding plans beyond the three year pilot.