Independent Evaluation of the Families First Programme in Gwynedd. Karen Wyn Jones, Judy Hutchings The Families First Programme  The Families First Programme is a new way of working in Gwynedd to improve outcomes for children, young people and families focusing on Early Intervention and Prevention.  Funded for four years between 2013 and 2017 by a Families First Welsh Government grant.  It supports vulnerable families who require short-term intensive support with their problems and aims to build their resilience.  Led by Gyda’n Gilydd, the team around the family, who co-ordinate a range of services and interventions delivered from four specifically commissioned Consortia.  The Independent Evaluation was commissioned by Gwynedd Council to establish whether the effects of the programme, including the work of the ‘Gyda'n Gilydd’ Team, are long-lasting, give families the skills to effectively manage life’s challenges and whether the right kind of services are being funded. Sample & Procedures  20 families were followed up six months after closure to the Gyda'n Gilydd service.  Family members were interviewed and provided responses to questions about the service received, their outcomes and a measure of their resilience.  Families distance travelled progress scores were also collected for a third time to see whether any changes between baseline scores and those recorded at case closure had been maintained.  The study has ethical approval. Distance Travelled  A Distance Travelled Toolkit was developed for use by the Gyda’n Gilydd Team.  This is a systematic and consistent way to collect progress data from the perspectives of individual families on the matters with which they wanted support.  This also provided baseline data for the independent evaluation.  Families make a rating of 1- 5 on each area they identified as problematic using rating scales. The points are labelled as:1 -Lots of Problems, 2 -A Few Problems, 3 -OK, 4- Going Quite Well and 5 -Going Really Well. Distance Travelled Family Unit Group Mean Scores The graph illustrates the increases in the families mean distance travelled scores at the point of being closed to Gyda’n Gilydd and again six months later when followed up as part of this evaluation. The y axis represents the distance travelled 1-5 scale. Quantitative Satisfaction Ratings How did you find the support from Gyda’n Gilydd? Ninety-five per cent of families rated the support from Gyda’n Gilydd as adequate or better and 79 per cent rated the service as excellent or good. The y axis represents the number of families. For more information, contact Karen Wyn Jones, Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention, Nantlle Building, Normal Site, Bangor University, Gwynedd, LL57 2PZ; tel: ; Thematic Analysis  Three Themes Identified: Strengthen Resilience, Families First Service Design & Recommendations for Improvements  The data is being quantified for prevalence and incidence of the themes within the data set. Some Preliminary Results