Early Intervention Good Practice across the UK

1
Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children
and Young Peoples Services Early
InterventionGood Practice across the
UK Michelle Kennedy Child Poverty Sector
Specialist
2
The Good News

• Growing focus on policies which promote child
  well-being and early intervention , aiming to
  alleviate or prevent impact of poverty on
  children and families.
• Big emphasis on early years 0-3
• Lots of research , money and attention
• Lots of good practice - growing body of evidence
  including cost effectiveness

3
But be a little wary...

• Child poverty is about family income and
  resources so policy still needs to focus on
  employment and cash transfers as well as reducing
  barriers
• A principal goal of child poverty strategies is
  to break the link between families poor
  resources and adverse child outcomes (Williams
  Shanks Danziger, 2011)

4
Early intervention some tips about what works

• Before you start ....( or even when you want to
  review what youve already got)
• How does your EI strategy or work link to child
  poverty?
• Are your programmes clearly specified ?
• Have you got good evaluation built in ?
• Can you evidence impact?
• How integrated and sustained will your programme
  be?
• How cost effective is the programme

5
A few case studies

• The Community Mums and Dads Project Reading
  West Berkshire
• Evidence-based home visiting programme, designed
  around the University of Bristol Childhood
  Development Programme.
• Aimed at improving mental health of hard to
  reach mothers and children under the age of 6.
  Delivered by local mums and dads as volunteers
  and referrals come from professionals. -
• Outcomes include..
• Improved parental mental health.
• - Healthier family lifestyles.
• - Children better behaved and better school
  attendance.
• Better family communications.
• -34 families benefiting from the programme
  during the period January to June 2010 did so at
  a cost of 961 per family.

6

• Incredible Years Poole et al
• Three interlocking training programmes for
  parents, children and teachers. The parenting
  programmes span the age range of 0-12 years. The
  child and teacher programmes span the age range
  of 38 years. Developed by Webster-Stratton.
• Outcomes include
• -Increased parental positive affect (e.g. praise
  and reduced criticism and negative commands.)
• -Increased effective parental limit-setting.
• -Replacing spanking and harsh discipline with
  non-violent discipline techniques.
• -Increased monitoring of children.
• -Reductions in parental depression.
• Typical costs Basic 3 day train the trainer IY
  Basic Infant Toddler programme costs _at_450
  (Wales) plus additional 1 day courses _at_175 for
  IY School Age, Advance, School Readiness and
  Supervision. Training also provided by Archways
  in Republic of Ireland.

7
Building Bridges-Family Action

• Improving the safety, health and wellbeing of
  children through improving the physical and
  mental health of mothers, fathers and carers.
• Works with parents/families (works holistically
  in family home with parents and children)
• Outcomes include
• Reduction of 22 per cent in the number of parents
  with clinically significant problems.
• Significant reduction in the number of children
  on the child protection register and in the
  number of adults on the Care Programme Approach.
• Contributed to halving the number of vulnerable
  families with health needs.
• 40 families can be supported over the course of
  one year at a cost of 3,500 per family
  (2009/10).
• Estimated Savings to DWP/local authority over two
  years are 158,400Estimated
• Savings to the NHS over two years are 67,200.

8
UK Resilience Programme (UKRP) Hertfordshire

• UKRP is an evidenced based proactive programme
  (18 lessons) that can reduce depression and
  anxiety and improve behaviour. It is a cognitive
  behavioural therapy programme developed to help
  students achieve better outcomes by assessing a
  situation based on evidence and accuracy.
• Aimed at Children aged 11-13 (delivered by
  teachers in schools) -
• Outcomes include
• Significant positive impact on pupils depression
  and anxiety.
• Improvements in school in attendance and
  behaviour data, numbers attending school
  counsellor drop-in sessions,
• improved attitude to learning aligned to a sense
  of confidence and self esteem
• Hertfordshire LA invested heavily in the initial
  set-up and development of programme as a pilot
  and as a result now offers places at the 7-day
  UKRP at a cost of 250 per person per day.

9
Strengthening Families- Tower Hamlets

• The Strengthening Families Programmes (SFP10-14)
  designed to increase resilience and reduce risk
  factors for alcohol and substance misuse,
  depression, violence and aggression, delinquency
  and school failure in high risk children and
  their substance misusing parents
• Developed as part of Parenting Early
  Intervention Pathfinder Programme in Tower
  Hamlets
• Aimed at parents and young people (spans multiple
  age groups)
• SFSC in TH specifically designed to be suitable
  for people from a broad range of different ethnic
  and cultural backgrounds, with course materials
  available in a range of community languages
  spoken in Tower Hamlets, including Bengali and
  Somali.
• Part of the course specifically geared towards
  parental engagement and community involvement,
  which added value to the project when considering
  the long-term impact on parents personal
  progression and community growth
• Outcomes include
• Improved parental mental well-being, parenting
  behaviour, parental efficacy and satisfaction-
• Decrease in permanent exclusion of pupils from
  school
• During the project, a unit cost to run a PEIP
  SFSC course in Tower Hamlets was 7,863.
• http//www.c4eo.org.uk/themes/earlyintervention/vl
  pdetails.aspx?lpeid383

10
The Helping Families Programme, Southwark,
Camden, Ealing and Maidenhead

• The Helping Families Programme (HFP) is targeted
  specifically at the small but significant number
  of families with multiple problems
• Programme is organised into core practice
  modules and intervention modules
• Evidence-based strategies and techniques, derived
  from cognitive, behavioural, social learning,
  relational, attachment and systems theories to
  develop individualised implementation plans
• Outcomes include
• Reduced frequency and severity of child conduct
  problems.
• Improvement in parents reports of their ability
  to monitor, regulate and control their emotions.
• Reduction in parents negative beliefs.
• Improvement in parenting behaviours and access
  to universal parenting resources e.g. parenting
  programmes.
• Improved school attendance.
• Total cost is approximately 1,642 per family to
  receive the HFP with improved outcomes across
  family life
• http//www.c4eo.org.uk/themes/earlyintervention/vl
  pdetails.aspx?lpeid417
• .

11
Want to know more?

• 'Grasping the nettle C4EO report key messages
  from sectors wealth of evidence of 'what works',
  including research findings, practice guide
• Evidence based practice C4EO website
• Graham Allen -Early Intervention the next steps
  Published January 2011
• Centre for Social Justice report Early
  Intervention Good Parents, Great Kids, Better
  Citizens Graham Allen, Iain Duncan Smith
• Nottingham City Council
• http//www.earlyinterventionresources.co.uk/

12
(No Transcript)