Inside Europe’s largest local authority politicians and practitioners are embarking on a strategy that is not only attempting to secure a “brighter future” for all 250,000 children living inside the 100 square mile Birmingham city limits, but – uniquely in the UK – is also designed to make a contribution to prevention science.
The Social Development Research Group – affiliated to the School of Social Work at the University of Washington in Seattle – was founded by David Hawkins and its current Director Richard Catalano.
Created by the Washington state government in 1983, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy conducts practical, non-partisan research for the state government.
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.
Common Language is a shared way of thinking people can apply when considering how to improve the well-being of an individual child or group of children. It is sometimes described as an "operating system".
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.
Public health approaches seek to prevent impairments to health and development by changing the behavior or exposure to risks of a specified population.
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 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.
Nurse Family Partnership is a home visiting early intervention program for first-time low-income mothers and their families.
A combination of an experimental evaluation – or randomised controlled trial – replicated in several locations and with sustained effects beyond the period of the intervention is generally viewed as a necessary precondition for a program to be designated as ‘proven’.
Triple P is a parenting program designed to improve outcomes for children up to the age of 16. Developed over 25 years at the University of Queensland in Australia, it includes public health-style preventative strategies with the potential to reach all children and their families, as well as offering early interventions and treatments for children with specified problems.
A school-based, universal prevention program with information and activities for use with parents.
Judy Hutchings is Director of Incredible Years Wales, which has developed out of the research program she established there in 1995.
social marketing
The UK National Social Marketing Centre defines social marketing as "the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques to achieve specific behavioral goals relevant to a social good". Their definition is based on one framed in the mid 1990s by Alan Andreason at Georgetown University in the US.