From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
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Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, is pleased to announce an Open Call for Submissions for inclusion in the forthcoming What Works Ireland Evidence Hub.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is currently working with the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) and the Centre for Effective Services to develop the What Works Ireland Evidence Hub. The Evidence Hub is a project under the What Works Initiative, which supports the use of evidence in early intervention and prevention policy and practice for children and young people. The What Works Ireland Evidence Hub will support policy makers, service commissioners and providers across a range of policy and service areas in their decision making about services for children and young people.
The Evidence Hub is based on the existing EIF Guidebook, which provides details on prevention and early intervention programmes that have been evaluated and show some evidence of improving outcomes for children and young people.
Submissions are now sought from providers of prevention and early intervention programmes used in Ireland, who wish to have their programmes included in the What Works Ireland Evidence Hub. The Open Call for Submissions runs until 8 November 2022.
Once submissions have been received, the Early Intervention Foundation will select and assess 10 prevention and early intervention programmes used in Ireland that have evidence of positive impacts on outcomes for children and young people.
An online workshop will be held on 19 October 2022 to help build awareness and understanding of the Evidence Hub and to explain more about the submission process.
Minister O’Gorman said:
“I am really delighted to launch the Open Call for submissions for the What Works Ireland Evidence Hub.
"The Evidence Hub will contain information on over 100 prevention and early intervention programmes based on evidence of their impact from Ireland and elsewhere. The Evidence Hub will strengthen our understanding of prevention and early intervention initiatives in Ireland.
"This is a very welcome initiative for all those working with children and young people in Ireland. It will harness the learning from prevention and early intervention initiatives and research, and inform planning, delivery, evaluation and continuous improvements. It will be of huge benefit as we seek to improve the lives of our children and young people in Ireland.”
What Works, funded under Dormant Accounts, is an initiative designed by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), which aims to maximise the impact of prevention and early intervention to improve outcomes for children and young people living in Ireland. There are four working strands under What Works, namely data, evidence, learning and development, and quality.
The What Works Ireland Evidence Hub is based on the existing EIF Guidebook, which provides details on prevention and early intervention programmes that have been evaluated and show some evidence of improving outcomes for children and young people.
For each programme the Guidebook provides:
The What Works Ireland Evidence Hub will contain information on over 100 prevention and early intervention programmes that are already included on the EIF Guidebook, in addition to 10 programmes assessed based on evidence of their impact in Ireland. Evidence of impact can include preliminary evidence or more significant, robust studies.
This accessible, easy to use online tool will be available on the What Works website, where it can be used by policy makers and service commissioners across all sectors and services relevant to the lives of children and young people.
The Evidence Hub falls under the Evidence Strand of What Works. The aim of this strand is to harness the learning from prevention and early intervention initiatives and research, and actively support the use of this learning as a source and resource to inform planning, delivery, evaluation and continuous improvements.
The department has contracted the Centre for Effective Services to support the project.
The inclusion of a programme within the Guidebook is not an endorsement of the programme by either the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth or the Early Intervention Foundation.