Great - so now we know what works.Er, no. Sorry. If you read all 255 pages of this review, and I wouldn't recommend it to the amateur, you'll no doubt come up with the same consideration as our experts here. That there's a big weakness in the evidence base, and consequently the review "can contribute little to determining which programmes provide value for money".
Oh. Shame. What did they have to do to find that out? They followed the usual National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) process - scouring databases for studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomised control trials and all that malarkey. They then graded them on their methodological soundness as well as extracting data on specific programmes. Some 14 reviews and 120 primary studies were eventually included - the vast majority from the US. Drug and alcohol action teams were contacted to try to get evaluation reports of current practice in English schools, but none met the strict NICE criteria.
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