POLICY AND PRACTICE The Birmingham experience


Are evidence-based programmes worth the investment?


PUPILS IN BIRMINGHAM WILL PROBABLY be a little happier, smarter, and less badly behaved as a result of the Brighter Futures strategy introduced by the City Council in 2007. It focuses on prevention and early intervention strategies, with the aim of improving outcomes for the city’s children and young people. Currently, several programmes are being piloted and, if they prove successful, decisions will be made on whether they will be rolled out across Birmingham. The Brighter Futures strategy is unusual in two ways: fi rst, for the collaborative way it was written; and, second, for its approach to evidence. The most senior staff in children’s services gave up fi ve days to work co- operatively to draft the strategy, and they were heavily infl uenced by evidence about “what works”. Birmingham had great data on children.


A reliable picture of the wellbeing of all children aged 0 to 16 had been assembled through a questionnaire administered to large, representative samples of children from across the city. The wellbeing data shaped the strategy, including the outcomes the city would achieve, the activities that would secure these outcomes, and the necessary investments.


Although only tested and effective


Birmingham City Council’s Brighter Futures strategy led to unprecedented investment in evidence-based early intervention and prevention. Louise Morpeth and Michael Little explain more


10 Better: Evidence-based Education winter 2012


programmes and practices made it onto the menu of activities, there was concern that the programmes might not work in Birmingham. As a result, every programme on the menu was to be rigorously evaluated in context. Initially, these were the Incredible Years parenting programme, Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS), Triple P parenting programme, and Family Nurse Partnership (FNP). The case for investing in this menu was compelling. Drawing on economic analysis from the Washington State Institute and other reliable sources, the city committed £42 million over fi ve years on the expectation that it would secure £101 million in savings over 15 years.


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