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.  Eight independent evaluations undertaken.

 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

 Investment has been made in evaluating evidence informed programmes, to identify what works and what doesn’t;  There is a growing body of Irish evidence and experience which informs our knowledge of what does and doesn't work to improve outcomes for children;  Shifting service delivery towards evidenced models of practice requires leadership: what do we STOP doing to create space to take on new ways of working?

 How we assess the rigour of evaluations?  How do we incrementally replace those programmes which have no evidence, or have negative findings, with those which have been demonstrated as achieving the outcomes they set out to achieve?  How do we assess the efficacy of existing services within the current resource constrictions?

CDI will share their learning and experiences to date regarding programmes and processes in order to inform future policy and practice in detail through:  Provision of Evaluation Reports and Executive Summaries;  Provision of policy papers, articles, presentations;  Meeting with our funders DCYA & AP and key stakeholders;  Presentation to specific audiences e.g. Government; professional bodies;  Presenting at seminars and training events.

In relation to Early Years Training:  All early years practitioners, teachers and related professionals should receive appropriate training in the support of speech and language development, and information regarding local service provision. We propose including a speech and language needs awareness module in all Early Years practitioner training, and developing models of multi- agency delivery to roll out more on-site speech and language therapy;  We propose that parent training is delivered as part of an integrated Early Years programme. As this has a positive effect on the home learning environment and highlights the importance for parent training programmes of an evidence-based, manualised programme that is strongly supported by a well-trained and accessible mentor.

In relation to Teacher Training  Health promotion and mechanisms to support inter-agency collaboration should be included as part of training and continuous professional development for teachers and related professionals. This will help ensure appropriate sharing of information, and aid professionals to make evidence-informed decisions;  We propose that RP training modules be included in all teacher training courses in order to build the capacity of teachers to deliver on the objectives of the School Self-Evaluation: Guidelines for Primary and Post-Primary Schools (Department of Education and Skills, 2012);  Pre-service training for professionals working with children should include mandatory modules on engaging parents.

In relation to Community Development Training:  We propose that a community engagement module be developed for delivery to both managers and front-line staff on an interagency and cross disciplinary basis for those organisations whose work requires engagement with residents, particularly in areas of disadvantage. This would include local authorities, Gardaí, probation and youth services.

In General:  Key training and supports should be provided to appropriate structures to ensure fidelity of intervention delivery, and so ensure the potential for positive outcomes;  Managers in all state funded organisations working with children should receive training in logic modelling, utilising evidence to inform planning and assessing outcomes.  CPD points to be accepted by organisations for training on the CDI programmes.