to design it, get it approved, implement it, in itself takes a significant period of time.’’ Strategic Lead [LA], Wave 1 (February 2025) "If only you [DfE] would have given us that more realistic time frame in the first place, we could have dedicated some more thinking time and development time." Strategic Lead [Police], Wave 2 (February 2025) Funding uncertainty: Uncertainty around funding beyond March 2025 drove some challenges with recruitment. Stakeholders fed back that recruiting staff in permanent as well as contract roles was not possible because of the uncertainty. ‘’Recruiting people to fixed term contracts and short term funding [is] not a good and sustainable way forward…creates inconsistency. Even being extended 1 year, it’s still hard to fill a post to that time, when there’s no idea where funding comes from afterwards to maintain the role.’’ – Strategic Lead, Wave 1 Conflicting priorities: Police stakeholders felt that while they saw the strategic importance and value of this programme, they were also affected by the policing agenda from the Home Office and the competing challenges of incorporating other national initiatives (Operation Soteria16 and four action plans for Violence Against Women and Girls) in their day-to-day roles. Capacity constraints: Capacity constraints were a common concern raised by strategic stakeholders across local authority staff and partner agencies. Many highlighted the limited resources available and the pressure on frontline staff, who were already managing heavy workloads in their existing roles. For example, an Education stakeholder described the ‘massive nervousness’ in schools about taking on the FHLP role, given the additional strain it would place on their already limited capacity. Similar concerns were echoed by health 