Evidence and Impact: Special Report

Over the past decade, the government has spent hundreds of millions of pounds establishing a network of What Works Centres aimed at generating an evidence base to identify the most effective interventions with children, young people and families.

The investment reflects a growing recognition that policy makers increasingly value the role of evidence in social policy, ranging from education, early years, children’s social care, policing and homelessness.

What Works Centres including the Early Intervention Foundation and other sector bodies like the Centre for Youth Impact are developing new approaches to measuring the quality of services and creating frameworks that can then be used by the sector at large.

Meanwhile, the role that children and families play in defining good impact is also growing.

This newfound commitment to expanding the evidence base has also been driven by local authority commissioners and grant providers who want to see that their resources are being spent in the most effective ways and having a tangible impact on improving the outcomes for children, young people and families.

These evidence-based approaches are now being used and refined by a range of providers and practitioners in the statutory and voluntary sectors, as they search to deliver the improved outcomes they seek for vulnerable children.

CYP Now’s special report on evidence and impact gets the contributions of experts on the latest policy and research in the field, and highlights the work of four projects that are using innovative approaches to evidence gathering to boost their impact.

Click on the links below for more:

Policy context

Research evidence:

• Measure Once, Cut Twice: Using Data for Continuous Improvement and Impact Evaluation in Education Programs
  By Sarah Williams, research and learning officer, The Centre for Youth Impact
• Fostering Effective Early Learning
  By Tom McBride, director of evidence, Early Intervention Foundation
• How can we help young people with a social worker to thrive in education?
  By Michael Sanders, executive director, What Works for Children’s Social Care

Practice examples:

• Chance UK’s use of rapid cycle design and testing
• Research shapes guide to help children navigate asylum
• Local partnership develops early learning toolkit
• Approach better aligns children’s needs and outcomes