As part of the What Works: Sharing Knowledge, Improving Children’s Futures initiative of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), Minister Roderic O’Gorman TD launched the What Works Ireland Evidence Hub on 31 May 2023.1

What Works Ireland Evidence Hub

The What Works Ireland Evidence Hub is an online tool that enables users to search for prevention and early intervention (PEI) programmes that have been evaluated and found to improve one or more of a set of specified outcomes in children and young people.

The target audience for the hub includes service commissioners, policymakers, practitioners,
and evaluators.

The DCEDIY worked with What Works for Early Intervention and Children’s Social Care (WWEICSC),2 based in the United Kingdom (UK), to develop the hub. Assessment for inclusion on the hub is based on the existing Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) Guidebook3,4,5 in the UK, which provides details of PEI programmes that have been evaluated and show some evidence of improving outcomes for children and young people.

Table 1: The strength of evidence rating

Note there is no Level 1 as such. The evidence rating is not a rating of the scale of impact but of the degree to which a programme has been shown to have a positive, causal impact on specific child outcomes.

Rather than simply providing a description of each programme, the hub offers the user an assessment of the associated evidence base, along with other critical information on how the programme works and is delivered. Some of the hub's key features are a searchable database, evidence rating, cost rating, and a project summary.

• Searchable database: The database can be searched using keywords or filters, including the age of the target group; the nature of the outcomes achieved; delivery setting (school, home, early years, etc.); classification (universal, selective or indicated); and delivery model (group, individual, home visit, online or app); and prior implementation in Ireland.
• Evidence rating: Each programme has an evidence rating. This is based on an assessment of the nature and quality of the evaluation evidence for the programme and the outcomes achieved. Table 1 presents a broad overview of the ratings applied.
• Cost rating: Programmes have also been allocated a cost rating which reflects the estimated unit cost of delivery. There are five levels, which range from a value of less than €125 per unit to a cost of more than €2,375 per unit.
• Project summary: A summary of key information is provided for each project. This includes who the programme is for; how and where it is delivered; implementation requirements; how it works (its theory of change); its intended outcomes; and more information on published evaluations.

Selected programmes

The Irish hub contains information on over 100 PEI programmes included in the EIF Guidebook,4 as well as an additional five programmes being delivered in Ireland. At the time of the launch, 56 of the database’s 123 programmes were or had been implemented in Ireland. The five programmes added as part of the Irish launch are:

• Changing Lives Initiative is a community-based multicomponent intervention aimed at children (aged 3–7 years) who experience behaviours consistent with a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This is being delivered by Clondalkin Behavioural Initiative CLG/Archways in Dublin.
• Fear-Less Triple P is an indicated parenting programme for parents of children (aged 6–14 years) who are experiencing anxiety. The programme is delivered by Triple P UK and Ireland.
• Preparing for Life is a selective parenting programme for expectant parents living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods or communities. It is delivered in Ireland by the Northside Partnership in Dublin.
• Family Talk is an indicated programme for children aged 5–18 years who have a parent with a mental health diagnosis and/or are in contact with mental health services. The lead organisation in Ireland is the Centre for Mental Health and Community Research, Department of Psychology and the Social Sciences Institute at Maynooth University.
• MindOut is a universal school-based programme for children aged 15–18 years.
  The Health Promotion Research Centre at the University of Galway and the Health Service Executive (HSE) are the leads on MindOut.

The evidence base for Preparing for Life, Family Talk and MindOut includes evaluations carried out in the Irish context.

Concluding comment

The launch of the What Works Ireland Evidence Hub indicates a commitment to a more evidence-based approach to work in the prevention sector in Ireland. It offers commissioners and policymakers the opportunity to prioritise funding for programmes that have been proven to work in Ireland and elsewhere. Among the outcomes considered for young people on the hub is substance use; the hub could therefore offer an opportunity for programmes with substance use prevention at their core to be considered for inclusion.

1    The DCEDIY Evidence Hub can be found at: https://whatworks.gov.ie/hub-search/

2    For further information on the WWEICSC, visit: https://wweicsc.org.uk/

3    For further information on the EIF, visit: https://www.eif.org.uk/

4    For further information on the EIF Guidebook, which is an online searchable database of PEI programmes, visit: https://guidebook.eif.org.uk/

5    For more details on the evidence rating system, visit: https://guidebook.eif.org.uk/eif-evidence-standards