Working together for children
Delivering a diverse, reliable range of services to children and their families across the UK
Join our Professionals
We are the UK’s leading provider of independent social work and psychological services, and our reputation is built on the quality of the professionals who register with us. If you have the skills, qualifications and experience, contact us today.
Join Willis Palmer
Make an enquiry
We have a diverse range of multi-disciplinary professionals providing independent social work, psychological and therapy services to children and families. Established for over 16 years, WillisPalmer delivers a high quality, reliable service. Contact us with your requirements.
Make An Enquiry
Training Courses
WillisPalmer has been providing a range of exceptional training courses for professionals working with children and families over the past 16 years. As well as our suite of training courses, we also provide bespoke training courses to meet your needs nationwide.
Book TodayTo protect and promote the welfare of children
As a social work owned and operated company, we place the needs of children and their families at the centre of everything we do.
As a social work owned and operated company, we place the needs of children and their families at the centre of everything we do.
Established for more than 16 years, WillisPalmer has established an unrivalled reputation as the leading provider of multi-disciplinary services to children and their families. Our multi-disciplinary, national network is made up of social workers, psychologists, qualified therapists, psychiatrists, family support workers and forensic risk assessment experts – who are available to undertake assignments throughout the UK and overseas. We can provide a range of solutions bespoke to your needs, including training and mentoring services.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, WillisPalmer has adapted our ways of working to enable us to continue carrying out a range of expert assessments through a hybrid method of utilising video technology alongside face-to-face observations. This includes parenting, psychological, Special Guardianship and kinship assessments and each case is tailored with a bespoke approach to meet the needs of the assessment while adhering to our public health responsibilities during the pandemic and aiming to keep children, families and professionals safe.
Upon referring to us, we source the best-matched social worker and other assessors required for each case and once you have instructed us, we can start immediately. We offer a fixed fee price, so you always know what you will pay – with no hidden extras. With our bespoke approach and hybrid methodology combining face-to-face contact and video technology, there may be savings that will be passed onto our customers due to the fact that our professionals may be travelling less than pre-COVID-19..
All expert reports are rigorously checked by a consultant social worker and then passed through our comprehensive quality assurance process, guaranteeing you the high-quality service you have come to expect from WillisPalmer.
Established for more than 16 years, WillisPalmer has established an unrivalled reputation as the leading provider of multi-disciplinary services to children and their families. Our multi-disciplinary, national network is made up of social workers, psychologists, qualified therapists, psychiatrists, family support workers and forensic risk assessment experts – who are available to undertake assignments throughout the UK and overseas. We can provide a range of solutions bespoke to your needs, including training and mentoring services.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, WillisPalmer has adapted our ways of working to enable us to continue carrying out a range of expert assessments through a hybrid method of utilising video technology alongside face-to-face observations. This includes parenting, psychological, Special Guardianship and kinship assessments and each case is tailored with a bespoke approach to meet the needs of the assessment while adhering to our public health responsibilities during the pandemic and aiming to keep children, families and professionals safe.
Upon referring to us, we source the best-matched social worker and other assessors required for each case and once you have instructed us, we can start immediately. We offer a fixed fee price, so you always know what you will pay – with no hidden extras. With our bespoke approach and hybrid methodology combining face-to-face contact and video technology, there may be savings that will be passed onto our customers due to the fact that our professionals may be travelling less than pre-COVID-19..
All expert reports are rigorously checked by a consultant social worker and then passed through our comprehensive quality assurance process, guaranteeing you the high-quality service you have come to expect from WillisPalmer.
About the Network
WillisPalmer has a national network of over 300 professionals providing social work and psychological services. Our team comprises highly experienced expert social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, family support workers and forensic risk assessors.
ABOUT USJoin Our Professionals
Our reputation is built on the quality of the professionals who register with us. WillisPalmer has exceptionally high standards to ensure we deliver excellent, focused, quality assured, child-centred social work and psychological services to our clients.
JOIN OUR TEAMOur multi-disciplinary managed services
WillisPalmer has established an unrivalled reputation as the leading provider of multi-disciplinary services to children and their families.
Independent Assessments
WillisPalmer has an extensive team of expert social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists and family support workers who are trained and experienced to carry out independent assessments of children and families.
We have been providing independent assessments for local authorities, courts and independent organisations for 16 years.
Our expert Independent Social Workers undertake a wide range of assessments including PAMs Parenting Assessments, Sibling Assessments and Fostering Assessments while our trained psychologists carry out Assessment of Psychological Functioning, Cognitive Assessments and Education Assessments.
WillisPalmer offers therapeutic services and assessments to young people and their carers and Forensic Risk Assessments for those involved in intra-and-extrafamilial sexual abuse.
As a genuinely multi-disciplinary organisation, we also carry out multi-disciplinary assessments of children and families.
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Multi–disciplinary
WillisPalmer provides a unique, genuinely multi-disciplinary approach to the welfare of children and families.
Our multi-disciplinary teams are made up of expert workers including an independent social worker, psychologist, psychiatrist, educational psychologist, therapist and family support workers provide bespoke cost-effective packages of care to vulnerable families and those experiencing often complex difficulties where children may be at risk of entering care.
Under the Multi-Disciplinary Family Assessment Service, professionals work alongside families in their own homes over an eight week period to introduce new ways of communicating and managing problems. An evidence-based report is produced after eight weeks with recommendations and conclusions.
The Multi-Disciplinary Family Restoration Service uses a multi-disciplinary approach to families where children are at risk of entering care.
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Family Support
Family support workers provide focused support to families with complex needs in a bid to improve parenting capacity, adult capacity for employment and educational attendance of children, as well as decreasing negative behaviours.
WillisPalmer has experienced family support workers who can work with families experiencing difficulties and help them to change behaviour and improve communication and their parenting to keep families together.
We provide our evidence-based, cost-effective, time-limited, bespoke packages of care for families experiencing difficulties - our Multi-Disciplinary Family Assessment service (MFA) uses the expertise of family support workers, particularly when children may be at risk and need 24 hour monitoring.
WillisPalmer also provides a genuinely Multi-disciplinary Family Restoration Service to work with families to prevent children going into care.
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Residential Homes
WillisPalmer provides a range of services to residential children's homes.
Our experienced and highly skilled expert social workers and psychologists carry out audits and provide consultancy and advice to residential homes regarding service improvement. We can provide experts to carry out assessments of need of children and young people.
Our psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists can also provide therapy services for children and young people undertaking play or art therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or Life Story Work. In fact, we offer a range of therapy services to children and young people.
As an independent organisation with 16 years experience, WillisPalmer also carries out Regulation 44 independent visits to ensure residential homes meet Ofsted requirements.
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Education & Well-being
WillisPalmer works with schools providing safeguarding advice, consultancy and help with children’s behavioural and emotional problems. We can also help educators access a broad range of training on issues from child protection to understanding complex behaviour.
WillisPalmer provides safeguarding surgeries - an opportunity for safeguarding leads and/or class teachers to talk through safeguarding concerns with an experienced children's social worker. An expert social worker can help schools make referrals to children’s services.
WillisPalmer offers a Behavioural and Emotional welfare surgery - a comprehensive school-based mental health programme offering advice and intervention on behavioural and emotional issues presented in school children.
We also provide expert educational psychologists to undertake assessments in schools and advise on emotional and social problems or learning difficulties.
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Child Abuse Litigation
When a claim is being made against an organisation in respect of potential negligence and the way a child care case was handled, there are five critical elements where WillisPalmer can help claimant and defendant solicitors.
Our team of expert social workers can provide expert opinion on whether the care and protection provided was what could be expected for the time. 1) High quality full expert reports. 2) Preliminary Reports - to assist solicitors and the decision-making process. 3) Chronology - a fair and balanced chronology. 4) File Preparation - record preparation completed. 5) Capacity to Instruct - our psychologists can advise whether your client has capacity to instruct on a case.
WillisPalmer provides an impartial and neutral service to both defendant and claimant solicitors across the UK.
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Therapy
Therapy is an integral part of the services that WillisPalmer offers to children and families. Children and young people who have experienced abuse or neglect often benefit from participating in talking therapies - psychological treatments for mental and emotional problems such as anxiety and depression. However, when children find it difficult to articulate their experiences, feelings and emotions, they can benefit from an arts/drama/play therapy.
Families can also often benefit from therapy to tackle deep-seated problems or help them to achieve change within the family setting.
WillisPalmer offers a wide range of therapeutic interventions and assessments to children or children and families and has a range of qualified and experienced therapists to work with children and families.
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Advice & consultancy
At WillisPalmer, we believe the child's best interests should be at the heart of everything we do.
We are keen advocates of service improvement and offer a variety of services aimed at helping local authorities, independent organisations, private businesses, residential homes and schools to protect the welfare of children.
WillisPalmer provides a mentoring service for local authorities and social workers, bespoke tailored packages of consultancy and advice for a range of organisations around service improvement as well as auditing case records to provide a report on the quality of assessments. Our expert social workers and psychologists who are highly trained and have many years experience ensure that work is carried out to the highest standard.
Read MoreMake an enquiry
WillisPalmer provides a variety of psychological and social work services including assessments, expert reports and an array of therapeutic services. Our multi-disciplinary models provide intervention to support vulnerable families.
Our Training Courses
WillisPalmer has been providing training to professionals who work with children and their families for over 16 years. See our upcoming training courses below.
View allFostering Training (Form F)
Coming late spring 2021
This 3-day workshop held over Zoom is designed for social workers new to fostering assessments as well as those looking to hone their skills in assessing foster care applicants as well as high-quality Form Fs.
Improving Practice in Communicating with Children and Young People
DATES TBC – Stratford Circus Arts Centre, London
This 1 day workshop aims to increase the competence and confidence of participants in working effectively with children for different purposes and across a range of settings when their opportunity for contact is limited.
Developing Analytic Skills in Report Writing
This workshop will look at what makes analysis a different process from information gathering and focus on the skills involved. The approach will be experiential and give participants the opportunity to use video as source material in composing an analysis of what they observe.
Knowledge & Resources
Keep abreast of the latest news in the children's services sector.
Research to examine impact of online communication with children in care during pandemic
08/05/2021
An investigation into how the move to online communication in supporting children in care has affected them has been launched in a research project led by South Tyneside Council in collaboration with Gateshead-based organisation Blue Cabin.
The project, funded by the Department for Education, will examine how family time has been delivered during lockdown, and how [...]
Child protection enquiries rise by 125% in a decade
07/05/2021
The number of child protection enquiries to local authority children’s services departments has increased by 125% over the last 10 years, a parliamentary research briefing has shown.
Department for Education (DfE) data on local authority social care activity between 31 March 2010 and 2020 showed an increase in activity across a range of measures including the [...]
Cafcass launches NQSW programme
06/05/2021
A three-year course for newly qualified social workers has been launched by Cafcass and is now open for applications.
Overseen by the Cafcass Social Work Academy, the programme enables NQSWs to develop their practice in a safe environment. Led by expert social workers, the course supports NQSW’s in their journey, enhance their expertise and ensure [...]
