Deadline: 8-Nov-22
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) is working with the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) to develop the What Works Ireland Evidence Hub of prevention and early intervention programmes.
The What Works Ireland Evidence Hub will be an online tool designed to increase access to effective prevention and early intervention programmes by making the best evidence on what works available to policy makers, service commissioners, providers and other audiences. The DCEDIY plans to launch the What Works Ireland Evidence Hub in 2023.
The Evidence Hub is based on the existing EIF ‘Guidebook’ in the UK, which provides details of prevention and early intervention programmes that have been evaluated and show some evidence of improving outcomes for children and young people. For each programme, information is provided about:
- the specific outcomes the programme has been found to improve and the size of those improvements;
- how the programme is delivered and how it works; and,
- the conditions or resources that can improve its likelihood of being effective.
Programmes will only be considered for assessment if they are prevention or early intervention programmes which are clearly designed to improve one or more of the specified outcomes in children and young people, with at least some preliminary evidence of impact. Furthermore, they must be currently being delivered in Ireland.
Criteria
- Early intervention – Submitted programmes must be early intervention programmes, i.e., they must be preventative in nature and not qualify as ‘late intervention’, i.e., acute, statutory, essential services that are required when children and young people experience significant difficulties in life, which might have been prevented. Specifically, programmes should qualify as either primary, secondary or tertiary prevention, and fit into one of the following three categories:
- Universal: This applies to interventions that are available to all young people and families. These activities may take place alongside or as part of other universal services, including schools or family resource centres. Note: universal support is not necessarily intended for all families – programmes may specify a target age range, for example.
- Targeted-Selective: This applies to interventions that target or ‘select’ young people or families with characteristics that place them at greater risk of experiencing problems. These characteristics can include economic hardship or having single or young parents.
- Targeted-Indicated: This applies to interventions that target a smaller percentage of the population of young people or families who have a pre-identified issue or detectable markers that warn of the onset of a problem requiring more intensive support, e.g., programmes that target young people who are identified in preschool, or by parents, as having behaviour problems.
- Programmes – Services submitted to the Call must qualify as a programme, i.e., a ‘well- structured and clearly defined package of activity that is replicable, has clearly defined outcomes and costs, and the potential means to deliver the required quality of delivery either through fidelity to a manual, or through other forms of workforce support, monitoring and evaluation’. Broader practices (i.e., specific skills, techniques and strategies which are used by practitioners), on their own and outside of the context of a programme, will not be accepted.
- Designed to improve one or more of the specified outcomes in children and young people – Ultimately, submitted programmes must be designed to improve child outcomes (though the programme may seek to achieve this via mediating goals, for example, improving child outcomes via improving outcomes for the parent). For the Evidence Hub they are interested in programmes that are designed to improve outcomes for children and young people between the ages of 0 and 18 (i.e., programmes with a target population that overlaps with the 0-18 age range). Particularly, they are interested in the following child outcome categories:
- Active and healthy, physical & mental wellbeing outcomes
- Supporting mental health & wellbeing
- Preventing substance abuse
- Preventing risky sexual behaviour & teen pregnancy
- Preventing obesity and promoting healthy physical development
- Safe and protected from harm outcomes
- Preventing child maltreatment
- Preventing crime, violence and antisocial behaviour
- Achieving in all areas of learning and development outcomes
- Enhancing school achievement & future employment
- Economic security and opportunity outcomes
- Enhancing future employment
- Active and healthy, physical & mental wellbeing outcomes
- At least preliminary evidence of impact on child outcomes
For more information, visit https://whatworks.gov.ie/what-works-ireland-evidence-hub/