All our trials soon described

How to get evidence-based programmes successfully embedded in children’s services systems is the theme of a Unit presentation later this month in York, UK.

The paper at the fourth annual conference on randomised controlled trials (RCTs) draws on our work in Birmingham, where the city council has funded the evaluation of three evidence-based programmes: the PATHS social-emotional learning curriculum and the Incredible Years and Triple-P parenting programmes.

We will be describing methods for adapting and evaluating the programmes, focusing on steps taken to ensure that they work in real-world settings and that the evaluations generate results of use to local policy makers.

The trial designs have been adapted to make them more manageable (and fundable), and the programmes have been adapted to make them ‘system ready’. A parallel programme of work is designed to make the system more ‘programme ready’.