September 23rd 2013

Established 2007; One of the three Prevention and Early Intervention Programme

Initiatives; “We were set up with the objective of testing innovative

ways of delivering services and early interventions for children and young people, including the wider family and community settings”. (DCYA, 2011)

Funding partnership between DCYA and The AP; Strategy and services designed on identified need; Seven evidence-informed interventions identified following three

years of consultation; Developed a coherent, community informed, integrated response

to children's needs.

Two year early years service (2-4 year olds);

Doodle Den literacy for 5-6 year old children;

Early Intervention Speech and Language (3 – 6 year olds) ;

Healthy Schools Programme (4 -12 year olds);

Mate-Tricks Pro-Social Behaviour Programme (9 – 10 year olds);

Community Safety Initiative;

Restorative Practice.

3 Randomised Controlled Trials

Quasi-Experimental Study

Healthy School’s

Programme – (TCD)

3 Process Evaluations

Retrospective Impact Study

Speech & Language Therapy

Early Years: targeted parent supports, improved home learning environment and parent confidence; children better at managing conflict;

Doodle Den: improved reading and comprehension; school attendance, family reading, library use;

SLT: shorter interventions required; improved attendance; greater involvement of parents and practitioners:

Mate-Tricks: instinct isn't enough;

Healthy Schools Programme: building a whole-school approach, rather than ‘add on’ activities is slow and takes considerable change management;

Community Safety: developing trust between residents and statutory services requires leadership;

Restorative Practice Programme: found a 43% reduction in disputes with greatest gains made in the workplace with significant improvement in people’s ability to manage conflict with greatest gains made in interagency work and between neighbours.

Parental involvement significantly improves children’s outcomes but is really difficulty to do;

Most practitioners need support in engaging parents;

Families in disadvantaged communities have complex and multiple needs but need ‘scaffolding’ to effectively utilise services which can support them;

Delivering evidence based programmes takes on-going support and capacity building.

Manualised approach – based on research and best practice;

All programmes underpinned by a logic model i.e. where do we want to get to and how can we best make the journey?

All programmes include interventions with:◦The child;◦The parent;◦The family.

Delivered by existing local providers; Rigorous evaluation.

CDI will share their learning and experiences to date regarding programmes and processes in order to inform future policy and practice;

CDI has been included in the Government’s Area Based Response to Child Poverty Initiative. The Initiative aims to break the cycle of child poverty and to improve the outcomes for children and young people;

Offer programme supports to groups delivering CDI programmes.