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Rapid review on safeguarding to inform the Healthy Child Programme 5 to 19
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Publisher:
- Public Health England
- Publication year:
- 2018
- Pagination:
- 106
- Place of publication:
- London
This rapid review updates the evidence in relation to safeguarding guidance in the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) for 5 to 19 year-olds in England. The HCP Programme sets out the good practice framework for prevention early intervention services and recommends how health, education and wider service work together to promote children and young people’s health and wellbeing. The review synthesises relevant systematic review level evidence, supplemented with some primary impact evaluations, about ‘what works’ in the areas of child abuse and neglect, child sexual abuse and exploitation, intimate partner violence (IPV), female genital mutilation (FGM) and gang violence. In line with the remit of the HCP for 5 to 19 year-olds, the focus is on prevention and early intervention. The review also highlights key messages on identifying families in need of additional support, the effective implementation of interventions, workforce skills and training, and economic aspects of safeguarding. An overview of the key findings an appendices document which provides technical information on the searches and data tables are also available. (Edited publisher abstract)
The best start at home: what works to improve the quality of parent-child interactions from conception to age 5 years? A rapid review of interventions
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Publisher:
- Early Intervention Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2015
- Pagination:
- 128
- Place of publication:
- London
This new report reviews interventions that enhance parent-child interaction with a view to improving three important outcomes: attachment and parental sensitivity; social and emotional development; and language and communication. The report, written by researchers at the Dartington Social Research Unit, University of Warwick and Coventry University, is a first examination of the evidence. It is based mainly on the published evidence found through a rapid review of peer reviewed literature. The programmes reviewed include: media-based programmes; self-administered programmes; home visiting programmes; individually delivered programmes; programmes involving live demonstration; group-based programmes; group-based programmes with adjunctive components; and multicomponent programmes. The focus of the review is on prevention and early intervention but not treatment. It identifies a range of interventions available or potentially available in the UK and describes the key methods of working in order to help commissioners and others to understand what works, for whom, and when, in terms of improving parent-child interactions and associated outcomes. (Edited publisher abstract)
Engaging parents in parenting programs: lessons from research and practice
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 34(10), October 2012, pp.2061-2071.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Evidence-based parenting programmes, such as the Incredible Years BASIC program, have been shown to work when researched rigorously, and often repeatedly, by experimental studies. However, when evidence-based parenting programmes are implemented in real-world settings they often fail to produce the results shown in efficacy trials. One reason for this treatment failure concerns difficulties in engaging parents. The aim of this paper is to examine why it can be difficult to engage parents in parenting programmes. It identifies lessons from a review of literature on engaging parents in parenting programmes and presents a case study of the implementation of the Incredible Years BASIC program in the context of a randomised controlled trial. It examines the challenges encountered and efforts to overcome them. It finds that engagement problems arose from the referral process, staff capacity and perceptions. Improving the recruitment process can increase enrolment and initial attendance. In addition, efforts are also needed to get parents to complete the course. Key recommendations include: a clear recruitment process; good communication and liaison with stakeholders; incentives for recruitment and retention; active and creative outreach work; investment in building relationships with parents; making programmes easily accessible; and having realistic expectations.
Can study tours help promote evidence-based practice in children's services?
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Journal article citation:
- European Journal of Social Work, 13(4), December 2010, pp.523-543.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
Study tours are a form of experiential learning, involving learning from direct experience. This article describes and appraises two 5-day study tours through which participants from Ireland and the United Kingdom visited evidence-based programmes for children and young people in the United States. Brief qualitative evaluations were undertaken immediately after both study tours with positive results, and the research reported in this article aimed to establish the enduring impact of the study tours by interviewing participants by telephone 30-36 months later. The survey focused on what participants recalled about the components of the study tour, how the tours had changed their thinking, the impact in terms of actions and factors that affected the impact, and the value added by the study tours over and above other means of learning about evidence and evidence-based services. Participants who were interviewed reported that the study tours had been a rich educational experience that helped them to integrate methods and concepts into their thinking about children's services.
Measuring children's needs: how are we doing?
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Child and Family Social Work, 14(3), August 2009, pp.243-254.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Children's services in England and Wales are legally required to determine the nature and extent of children's needs in their areas as a precursor to providing needs-led services. However, few needs assessments are ever published. This article analyses 83 such reports conducted between 1999 and 2007 in two local authorities in England (one urban, one rural), focusing on their quality and usefulness. It makes recommendations for improving practice in this important area, both in terms of the type of needs assessment required and how best to produce and use them.
The science of a good childhood: a review of Volume 2 of the Journal of Children's Services
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Children's Services, 3(4), December 2009, pp.46-58.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
This article reviews the contents of the previous year's editions of the Journal of Children's Services (Volume 2, 2007), as requested by the Journal's editorial board. It draws out some of the main messages for how high-quality scientific research can help build good childhoods in western developed countries, focusing on: the need for epidemiology to understand how to match services to needs; how research can build evidence of the impact of prevention and intervention services on child well-being; what the evidence says about how to implement proven programmes successfully; the economic case for proven programmes; the urgency of improving children's material living standards; how to help the most vulnerable children in society; and, lastly, the task of measuring child well-being.
Linking prevention science and community engagement: the case of the Ireland Disadvantaged Children and Youth Programme
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Children's Services, 3(1), September 2008, pp.40-54.
- Publisher:
- Emerald
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are acknowledged to provide the most reliable estimate of programme effectiveness, yet relatively few are undertaken in children's services. This article discusses potential remedies for improving both the knowledge base and the quality of interventions. It focuses on 'operating systems' that link prevention science and community engagement and so help communities, agencies and local authorities to choose effective prevention, early intervention and treatment models. Specifically it describes an attempt in Ireland to implement a robust programme of research into children's health and development, to rigorously design new services, evaluate their impact to the highest standard (using RCTs) and integrate the results into the policy process. The article reflects on the unforeseen challenges and offers lessons for others starting a similar enterprise.
Developing a common language in children's services through research based inter-disciplinary training
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Social Work Education (The International Journal), 25(2), March 2006, pp.161-176.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Two sources of inertia to improving services for children in need are the difficulties of getting evidence into practice and the complications of inter-agency working. Current training arrangements in social work and disparities between children's services professions as regards training requirements are contributory factors. The Common Language project is a work in progress, adopting a research-based, inter-disciplinary approach to working with social workers and other children's services professionals. It comprises core ideas and methods to complement the more specialist knowledge and skills required in each profession. Underpinned by a child development perspective and a scientific development cycle, it rests on a conceptual framework including need, threshold, service and outcome. The approach has three components (each of which includes training): (1) the implementation of practice tools; (2) the planning and development of integrated services; and (3) supporting materials, including practitioner-orientated modules and a curriculum for PhD students. Distinguishing features include research utilisation, notably a focus on inculcating research-mindedness as opposed to imparting findings, and also collaborative professional working, in particular via practical connections between different agencies, stakeholders and countries. The project is being evaluated in terms of uptake, change in professional thinking and practice and effects on child well-being. Next steps for the project relate to broader lessons for social work training emerging from research and development elsewhere.
Evaluating children's services: recent conceptual and methodological developments
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 35(1), January 2005, pp.73-88.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Considers recent innovations and challenges with respect to evaluation of children’s services interventions, setting out a method for designing and evaluating services based on research evidence gathered on individual cases and permitting revision of those services in the light of emerging results. Describes briefly different ways of identifying a discrete group of children with similar needs, outlines approaches to ensuring that intervention for them is underpinned by theory and research evidence - including the idea of ‘logic modelling’ - before discussing the importance of capturing accurately how well the intervention is implemented. Considers experimental and non-experimental methods of assessing an intervention’s effectiveness, with particular emphasis on techniques for enhancing the causal inference that can be drawn from studies and the importance of matching method and purpose. Also demonstrates how the principles and methods used in relation to evaluating services for groups can be applied in clinical work with individual cases, and identifies the benefits of this general approach to evaluation over and above the information that it provides on what works.
Using the Going Home? practice tool to disseminate research on the re-unification of families
- Authors:
- AXFORD Nick, et al
- Publisher:
- Dartington Social Research Unit
- Publication year:
- 2004
- Pagination:
- 28p.
- Place of publication:
- Totnes
The Going Home? practice tool is designed to help professionals responsible for looking after children who have been separated from their families to manage the children’s care careers more effectively and so ensure that their eventual reunification has the best chances of success. This report starts by describing the policy context in which the practice tool was developed, focusing on the problem of ‘drift’ in residential and foster care. Next is a reflection on some of the limitations of orthodox methods of research dissemination in social care and a summary of the broad approach to dissemination embodied by practice tools and the rationale for their application in children’s services in the UK. The tool itself is then described, along with the studies that underpin it. There follows an outline of how the tool was evaluated, considering in turn its use and availability, the degree to which it affected social work practice and, ultimately, its impact on children’s well-being. The final section sets out some of the lessons from the work for future exercises in scientific development work.