Good parent-worker dynamic vital for impact

This year's theme is "How Evidence is Changing our Town", which made me think about what and how we are delivering services on the ground.

Over the past four years, the Blackpool Better Start partnership has developed a place-based approach by bringing together statutory organisations (police, health services, local authority) with a lead national voluntary sector organisation (NSPCC), to work together in a different way. They have worked with some of the best brains in the world to enhance their thinking. One such academic is Professor Frank Oberklaid, Melbourne Centre for Community Child Health, who has been developing thinking around evidence-informed practice. This is not just about using and delivering evidence-based programmes but also using evidence-based processes and drawing upon service users' and professionals' values and beliefs to understand what goals are important and what interventions and programmes are acceptable to families as well as how effective they may be.