Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services (C4EO):Early Intervention

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C4EO theme:Early Intervention

Introduction
Publications
Presentations
Events
Local
practice Interactive
data

Introduction

Early intervention and prevention for vulnerable children, young people and families, poses one of the greatest challenges for local services and society at large. Identifying local, national and international knowledge of ‘what works’ in early intervention and prevention, and supporting its use has the potential to transform life chances and ensure resources are spent wisely.

‘Grasping the nettle: early intervention for children, families and communities’ demonstrates the challenges and opportunities in supporting children, families and communities through early intervention, based on effective local, national and international practice. The most striking message is that early intervention clearly works – when it is an appropriate intervention, applied well, following timely identification of a problem; and the earlier the better to secure maximum impact and greatest long term sustainability (both as early in the child’s life as possible or as soon as possible after a need becomes apparent).

‘Grasping the nettle’ is based on the joint call for evidence of effective local practice by C4EO and ADCS (the Association of Directors of Children's Services) at the start of the year which led to over 100 submissions, and a number of these are summarised in the publication. In parallel, C4EO commissioned a rapid review of international experience, from the Wave Trust, to build a solid base of evidence.

By teasing out and distilling the key messages from this wealth of evidence of ‘what works’, including research findings, this practice guide aims to support local authorities and their partners in improving the quality of life chances for the children, families and communities that they serve. This work has been led by an Expert Group of senior leaders and academics, chaired by Kim Bromley-Derry, past President of ADCS and Acting Chief Executive of Newham.

Theme Advisory Groups (TAGs)

The work on this theme is shaped and guided by a Theme Advisory Group. Click here for more information about theme advisory groups and the membership for this theme.

Publications

This paper summarises local practice validated as excellent or deemed promising in response to the joint call for effective practice from ADCS and C4EO. It highlights the early messages from an analysis of these initial case studies.

Grasping the nettle

WAVE Trust International Early Intervention desk study

International experience of early intervention for children, young people and their families (888Kb PDF file, 129 pages)

Disclaimer:International Experience of Early Intervention for Children, Young People and their Families

C4EO commissioned the WAVE Trust to complete this rapid desk study to contribute to the evidence base for our Grasping the Nettle report. Any opinions and recommendations in the WAVE Trust report are those of WAVE not C4EO.

Wave Trust website

Early Intervention – Early messages from effective local practice ‘call for evidence’ (57Kb PDF file, 7 pages)

Early Intervention – Desk study (283Kb PDF file, 21 pages) - This report focuses on early intervention and prevention, in the context of integrated services.