The DATIS Difference: Trauma-Informed Practice to Edge-of-Care Families

Act for Change (AFC) was founded in 2007 and has operated for 18 years. We are a small charity based in South East London, currently employing four members of staff, all paid above the London Living Wage. We serve children, young people and families experiencing trauma, abuse, emotional distress and systemic disadvantage — primarily across the London Boroughs of Bexley and Waltham Forest, and increasingly through a growing national network of practitioners and partner organisations.

Our total income in the year ended October 2025 was £215,221. Despite our size, the reach and impact of our methodology extends beyond what our staffing numbers suggest, because our approach is built on training, certifying and supporting others to deliver, not on scaling our own headcount.

What makes AFC distinctive is rare and hard-won: we are one of a small minority of charities holding direct statutory-threshold practice - edge-of-care, Child Protection, Child in Need, Reducing Parental Conflict, alongside trauma-informed therapeutic support. That position anchors our DATIS methodology in live frontline evidence.

The results speak to its strength. Across our documented cases, 90% of participants report improved emotional wellbeing and 75% reduced family conflict, alongside a 100% contract delivery rate and zero safeguarding incidents. Our validated 14:1 cost-avoidance represents direct savings to the public purse.

Through DATIS and the AFC Early Help Network launching in 2026 that practice now reaches far beyond our four staff.