RCTs in the real world!

The challenges of conducting randomised controlled trials in the real world was the topic of a talk given by the Social Research Unit's Nick Axford at an ESRC-sponsored event held at the University of Bedfordshire on the 23rd and 24th of February, 2011.

Nick drew on the Unit's three trials of parenting and social emotional learning prorgammes in Birmingham to describe how obstacles to implementing the programmes under scrutiny were overcome and to outline some of methodological difficulties encountered. He also highlighted opportunities for conducting RCTs in children's services, particularly since there are many creative ideas for new services but few that have been tested rigorously.
 
He encouraged delegates who are serious about innovation to use the roadmap to developing 'system ready evidence-based programmes' that can be viewed in the recently published Allen Review.