Programme launched to promote evidence-based parenting interventions

York, Merton, Stockport and Wirral are the four pilot areas for the scheme. Foundations and YEF will work with these local areas and their family hubs over the next two years to show the impact of local evidence leadership on evidence use and implementation as part of a family hub approach.

Funding will be given for specific parenting interventions in the areas which demonstrate a positive impact on children. These include programmes which address the early risks which are associated with serious youth violence.

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Gail Gibbons, head of change for children's services and health at the Youth Endowment Fund, told CYP Now: “The aim of the whole programme is to support local authorities to really understand evidence and which parenting interventions work for parents. They will then embed and trial that intervention in their area in a sustainable way.

"What we sometimes find is that different services sometimes purchase different interventions for children where there is no or very limited evidence on whether it actually works. Part of our mission, and part of Foundations' mission, is to find out what does work, and then support areas to actually use that information in how they commission their services for children.”

Foundations’ assistant director of local development Ben Lewing said: "We know what works to support parents, with many well-evidenced parenting interventions available in the UK, yet these are not widely used.

"Local evidence leadership could hold the key to navigating between complex local evidence systems and the challenges to implementing interventions in local contexts. Our Changemakers programme champions this local evidence leadership, helping embed evidence-based programs in local areas."

Foundations was formed from the merger of the Early Intervention Foundation and What Works for Children's Social Care.

The programme was launched by Lewing at the YEF’s conference on engaging with parents of children at risk of violence.

Today @Ben_Lewing is at the @YouthEndowFund conference with big news on how we are working to close the stubborn gap between what we know works to support children & families and making this support available on the ground 👇

Parenting is one of the most important influences on… pic.twitter.com/beBhVdnzTu

— Foundations (@FoundationsWW) March 21, 2024

Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, gave a keynote speech at the event where she called for “statutory duty for early help and more consistent thresholds for social care interventions".

Helen Hayes, shadow minister for children and early years, also gave a keynote address where she said “the government has been failing families for 14 long years” as she expressed a need to work to “end profiteering”.

Yesterday Action for Children published the findings of a review which highlight that a lack of a UK-wide strategy to tackle child criminal exploitation and support children affected by it is resulting in “serious and preventable harm” to young people.