Proven programs at zero net cost; more science, less ideology; standards of evidence for all – if Prevention Action was a political party on the verge of forming the next UK government, this is what it would be promising voters.
A practitioner who delivers prevention interventions.
A multidisciplinary field devoted to the scientific study of the theory, research and practice related to the prevention of social, physical and mental health problems. It typically draws on etiology, epidemiology and intervention.
Total Place is an initiative of the UK Treasury to identify ways of making public services more efficient. It is charged with establishing a “new relationship with Government" by encouraging local government to take a fresh look at all the public money spent in a neighborhood, town or city and to ask whether better outcomes could be achieved were it to be spent differently.
An operating system describes a method to help communities, agencies or local authorities choose effective prevention, early intervention and treatment models.
In the context of children’s services, outcomes are the impact of activities – generally speaking a service or set of services – on children’s development. They often refer to reductions in developmental impairment but may be positive or negative.
Established in 1963 at Kings College, Cambridge, UK, Dartington Social Research Unit has a long track record of applying evidence to government legislation in the areas of education, youth justice, child welfare and child protection.
The Incredible Years is an early intervention program that aims to improve family interaction and prevent early and persistent antisocial behavior in children aged three to 12.
Public health approaches seek to prevent impairments to health and development by changing the behavior or exposure to risks of a specified population.
Poverty refers to poor living standards owing to deficient resources.
Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) have been at the cornerstone of UK Government's drive to tackle child poverty and social exclusion through better prevention and early intervention.
The pros and cons of early years programs – where to start!
Resources may be scarce and policy makers might have to make difficult decisions about what to buy. But a more rational strategy that invests early for later benefits would make sometimes nitpicking and frequently complicated comparisons between the value of one "flagship" prevention program and another irrelevant.
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test measures verbal ability or scholastic aptitude of children aged two years and upwards.
effect size
An effect size is calculated to indicate the impact of a program in standard units. The use of standard units means that scores can be compared across a number of different evaluations or programs.
poverty
Poverty refers to poor living standards owing to deficient resources.
Intention to Treat
Intention to Treat is a term used in experimental evaluation to indicate that analysis of the results will include all cases randomly allocated to the intervention group, whether or not they receive the intervention.
Head Start
Part of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, Head Start was a pioneer in early years prevention programs. It is also the most used, having served more than 20 million preschool children since it was introduced in 1965.
High/Scope Perry Preschool project
Developed by the Division of Special Services of the Ypsilanti School District, Michigan, between 1962 and 1967, the High/Scope or Perry Preschool program provides one or two years of part-day educational services and home visits for low-income three- and four-year-old children.
Abecedarian
The Abecedarian program provides high quality pre-school and educational childcare for children from birth to five years from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Child-Parent Center
Child-Parent Center (CPC) is an early childhood prevention program established in Chicago in the late 1960s, and brought to notice by the Chicago Longitudinal Study, a prospective quasi-experimental evaluation of children born in 1979 or 1980, some of whom – the experiment group – attended CPC between 1985 or 1986.
Learning the moral of the Sure Start story
Nick Axford explains the differences between English and Welsh approaches to implementing and evaluating Sure Start – and considers the lessons for the future.
Judy Hutchings
Judy Hutchings is Director of Incredible Years Wales, which has developed out of the research program she established there in 1995.
poverty
Poverty refers to poor living standards owing to deficient resources.
Incredible Years
The Incredible Years is an early intervention program that aims to improve family interaction and prevent early and persistent antisocial behavior in children aged three to 12.
social exclusion
Social exclusion refers to the involuntary detachment of an individual from mainstream society, usually as a result of the long-term accumulation of multidimensional disadvantage.
Sure Start
Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) have been at the cornerstone of UK Government's drive to tackle child poverty and social exclusion through better prevention and early intervention.
randomized controlled trials
Sometimes referred to as experimental evaluations, randomized controlled trials or RCTs randomly allocate potential beneficiaries of an intervention to a program or treatment group (who receive the intervention) or a control group (who do not). Outcomes for the two groups are then compared.
How to be sure the song remains the same
Why is promoting fidelity in the implementation of evidence-based prevention programs like singing an Irish ballad? The policy co-ordinator at Penn State’s Prevention Research Center, Brian Bumbarger, explains the connection between the oral tradition and effective practice.
outcomes
In the context of children’s services, outcomes are the impact of activities – generally speaking a service or set of services – on children’s development. They often refer to reductions in developmental impairment but may be positive or negative.
fidelity
Fidelity refers to faithfulness to the original design of a program. When implementing evidence-based programs in new sites, practitioners often adapt programs.
How Wales gave Sure Start a convincing beginning
Judy Hutchings, prime mover behind the successful implementation and evaluation of Sure Start in Wales, gives a step-by-step account of how to do right what others across the UK border did wrong.
conduct problems
Conduct problems denote a cluster of behavioral difficulties such as non-compliance, aggressive behavior and the violation of the rules of family and society. Children suffering these problems are becoming increasingly common in Western society.
outcomes
In the context of children’s services, outcomes are the impact of activities – generally speaking a service or set of services – on children’s development. They often refer to reductions in developmental impairment but may be positive or negative.
Incredible Years
The Incredible Years is an early intervention program that aims to improve family interaction and prevent early and persistent antisocial behavior in children aged three to 12.
Sure Start
Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) have been at the cornerstone of UK Government's drive to tackle child poverty and social exclusion through better prevention and early intervention.
fidelity
Fidelity refers to faithfulness to the original design of a program. When implementing evidence-based programs in new sites, practitioners often adapt programs.
Blueprints emerge from Columbine wreckage
Ten years on from the Columbine high school massacre, there is a much better understanding of how teenagers end up violent and aggressive, and how to prevent this happening. Del Elliott, founder of Blueprints - a database of proven violence prevention programs - visits the UK this week to reflect on the good that has come out of such tragedy.
DARE
DARE - or Drug Abuse Resistance Education - is an education program that aims to prevent young people using drugs, turning to violence or joining gangs. Young people on the program are given classes in school by local police officers about the dangers of drugs over a ten week period. However, rigorous evaluation has shown that it does not work.
Scared Straight
Scared Straight takes children thought to be at risk of delinquency to prisons to observe life there first-hand and to meet adult inmates. This is meant to deter young people from following a similar path. However, a systematic review by the Cochrane Collaboration showed that not only does it fail to deter crime, but actually leads to more offending.
outcomes
In the context of children’s services, outcomes are the impact of activities – generally speaking a service or set of services – on children’s development. They often refer to reductions in developmental impairment but may be positive or negative.
rights
Rights refer to powers or liberties to which one is justly entitled, those things to which one has a just claim.
internal validity
Internal validity refers to questions regarding the validity of a single study.
public health
Public health approaches seek to prevent impairments to health and development by changing the behavior or exposure to risks of a specified population.