Accessibility tools
Service tools
Language selector
Navigation path
Additional tools
Topic: Evidence-based practices
This page features all EPIC content on the topic of evidence-based policy. Disseminating ‘what works’ for children and their families can help foster child wellbeing, and evidence-based practices can help secure improvements in areas as diverse as childcare, parenting, and child welfare.
Overview of this page
EPIC News items
EPIC news items highlight interesting developments in policy, research and practice regarding children and their families. The items presented below focus on the topic area of evidence-based practices.
The promise of early childhood education and care for social mobility, 2014
The evidence on the impact of early childhood education and care (ECEC) for children has grown over the past years, with longitudinal studies showing its long-term benefits, and the high cost of not dealing with inequality from an early age. The European Commission has emphasized the importance of ‘Investing in Children’ to break the ‘cycle of disadvantage’, partly by setting up the Social Investment Package, and as part of that, the European Platform for Investing in Children, which recently published a policy brief on the importance of ECEC and its relation to access to higher education as a means of favouring social mobility.
Eurochild compendium on family and parenting support, 2012
Eurochild has recently published a compilation of inspiring practices in the area of early childhood intervention in family and parenting support in light of the financial strain facing childhood and family services in Europe. The authors have collected practices which have delivered positive impacts for children and families, and have developed 12 case studies based on five years of exchange across European Union Member States. They formulate three core recommendations: parenting support should be part of a broader strategy to tackle the causes of poverty; family and parenting support services should be empowering and based on child-rights approaches; finally, the report emphasizes the importance of adopting a balanced and critical perspective on evidence rather than a focus on specific methodologies.
EPIC Policy Briefs
EPIC policy brief on parenting support
This policy brief reviews the variety of initiatives related to parenting which have been introduced by different European Members States to improve children’s chances in life through childcare and parental leave arrangements. These initiatives are considered unique in the way that they aim at empowering parents, who, as a result, can use their own resources more efficiently to improve the lives of their dependants. Typically, these involve employment policies to help employed parents reconcile their work and family life, services to help parents-to-be prepare for childbirth, and assistance to financially disadvantaged families, helping them provide for their children.
The economic crisis and its widespread effects have increased poverty and social exclusion risks, notably through cuts in public spending leading to underinvestment in child-focused policies. However, authorities increasingly realize that the austerity measures affecting the expenditure on early intervention and preventive policies may result in greater public spending in the future. As a result, new initiatives have been launched, focusing on implementing cost-effective measures to improve childcare services, education, and health care, and designed to help tackle unemployment and housing issues. All these elements are crucial for improving the well-being of children and families, as well as for promoting stability.
EPIC policy brief on special needs education
The aim of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education is to promote quality special educational needs (SEN) education, to identify key factors that hinder or support positive experiences, and to help share information with policy makers. A strong political consensus has emerged in Europe on the importance of inclusive education, and ensuring children with SEN (about 15 million in Europe) are included within mainstream education. Many Member States have made good progress in developing coherent, localised and inclusive early intervention strategies, which provide for consultation with affected families. However, mutual learning and the sharing of best practices on the provision of support for children with SEN are lacking at the European level. There are a number of evidence-based promising practices relating to special needs education listed on the European Platform for Investing in Children’s website, such as ‘Helping Autism Sufferers Live and Work’, ‘STOP4-7’ and ‘Incredible Years’.
EPIC Policy brief on demography and inequality
Education, migration, and family structure are just a few of the factors which effect financial and social inequality in the EU. Children are particularly susceptible to the risk of poverty in Europe, due to the knock-on economic and social effects of population aging, labour supply and demand, and earnings inequality. The predicted fall in the GDP growth rate is also likely to have a negative impact on living standards, and would affect those not-in-employment most, a group which includes children, depending on their parental income.
Most parents in Europe combine a variety of methods to reconcile their working lives with childcare duties, and their arrangements are related to their preferences, the age of their children, and the labour market opportunities to which they have access. These arrangements include formal childcare settings such as nurseries, preschools or registered child minders; informal arrangements where care is most often provided by grandparents or unregistered nannies, and parental leave arrangements.
EPIC Policy brief on early childhood interventions and progression to higher education in Europe
The early years of childhood are crucial for the development of the cognitive and social-behavioural skills of an adult. Thus, they represent a unique challenge and opportunity to invest in children. Extensive research has shown that Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is effective in tackling the inequality which can tend to spring from different experiences during these early years, and that ECEC can help to break the cycle of disadvantage. Experts have concluded that most of the gaps in cognitive ability that partly explain discrepancies in adult outcomes already exist at the age of five, emphasizing the crucial role of early intervention, and the relatively minor role of subsequent schooling by comparison.
Practices that Work
These programmes have been informed by evidence and deliver practices that work for children and families.
Evidence-based practices
AKTION GLASKLAR (Germany, 2006 – present, Emergent Practice)
A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (ASSIST) (United Kingdom, 2001 – present, Promising Practice)
Community Mothers (Ireland, 1989, Promising Practice)
Early years (United Kingdom, 1999 - 2000, Emergent Practice)
Education Maintenance Allowance (United Kingdom, 1999 – present, Promising Practice)
European Drug Abuse Prevention Trial (EU-Dap) (Austria, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Greece, Belgium, 2003 – present, Promising Practice)
Gesunde Kitas – starke Kinder (Germany, 2008, Emergent Practice)
Home-Start (United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Hungary, Norway, France, Denmark, Ireland, 1973, Best Practice)
Incredible Years (Denmark, United Kingdom, Norway, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, 2001, Promising Practice)
Kiva Antibullying Programme (Finland, 2007 – present, Promising Practice)
Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Programme (Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, 1980 - present, Promising Practice)
North Karelia Youth Project (Finland, 1978 – present, Promising Practice)
Parents' Briefcase (France, 2008, Emergent Practice)
Prevention of Smoking in adolescents with Lower Education (The Netherlands, 2012 – present, Emergent Practice)
Programa Juego (Spain, 1992 – present, Emergent Practice)
Promoting Paternal Parental Leave (Sweden, 2002, Promising Practice)
Risk Watch (United Kingdom, 2012 – present, Emergent Practice)
School-based Alcohol Education Programme (Germany, 2012 – 2014, Emergent Practice)
Screening for language delay in toddlers (The Netherlands, 1995 – 1996, Promising Practice)
Second Step Violence Prevention Programme (Location not defined, 1992, type of practice not defined)
Smokefree Class Competition (Netherlands, Finland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, Germany, 1989, Promising Practice)
Smoke-free public places (United Kingdom, 2005 – present, Emergent Practice)
Smoking Cessation Counselling by Midwives (Netherlands, 2012, Emergent Practice)
Social Influence Decision-Making Smoking Prevention Program (The Netherlands, 2012 – present, Emergent Practice)
Social Influence Plus Boosters Smoking Prevention Program (The Netherlands, 2012 – present, Emergent Practice)
TigerKids (Germany, 2014 – present, Emergent Practice)
Triple P - Positive Parenting Programme (Germany, Switzerland, 1999, Best Practice)
Additional Resources
The additional resources found on this page come from databases and major organisations and stakeholders in the field of child and family wellbeing. This section includes links to databases and seminal reports, which are among the best research-based materials available on children and families.
Reports, Briefs and Other Publications
Innovation, Research & Evidence Based Practice (European Social Network, Brighton, 2014)
The European Social Network discusses social work’s effect on decision-making, service contracting, delivery, evaluation and audit. This paper examines the use of research methods drawn from other sectors to evaluate social policies, the translation of research and practice into a local context and how to disseminate research findings to stakeholders and policy makers. This paper defines evidence-based practices (EBPs) and highlights the stakeholders’ and the practitioners’ understanding of it before discussing the types of data that impact on obtaining good evidence. While there are countless benefits to EBP, barriers exist which may discourage policy makers and stakeholders from seeking evidence in their decision making process. This paper concludes by drawing on important points that social work and service managers might be able to incorporate into their future actions aimed at improving data, promoting commitment and realising whether or not decisions are having an impact.
EU kids online: national perspectives (The London School of Economics and Political Science, 2013)
EU kids Online is a multi-national thematic network with the aim to stimulate and coordinate evidence-based investigation into children's online uses, activities, risks and safety. The network, comprising organisations from 33 countries, employs multiple methods to map European children's and parents' changing experience of the internet and follows a continuous dialogue with national and international stakeholders. This comparative report summarises the internet-related experiences of children in the participating countries. For each country, the report presents the key statistics and country-specific commentary on children’s internet access and use, activities and skills, risks and harm, parental mediation and safety, and national policy implications. The country profiles also include recommendations for national policies in awareness-raising, encouraging usage and attending to emerging new forms of internet use.
Using Early Childhood Education to Bridge the Digital Divide (RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, 2014)
Early childhood education (ECE) is a powerful tool of intervention in bridging the academic gaps between children from advantaged and less-advantaged backgrounds in the United States. RAND has explored the potential effects of ECE on access to information and communication technologies, whether this helps the acquisition of academic and “soft” skills as a result and the factors which enhance or hinder the integration of ICTs into childhood education. The report outlines four key findings as well as adding five new questions to the discussion on integrating ICTs into ECE and its effective use in confronting the apparent divide between children from different social backgrounds.
Education at a Glance 2012: OECD Indicators
Since 1998, the OECD has been publishing ‘Education at a Glance’ indicators on a yearly basis. These indicators provide comprehensive information on various aspects of education systems across 34 OECD states and several G20 countries. Education at a Glance covers the resources invested in education, the impact of educational investment, access to education and school organisation. The 230 tables and 100,000 figures provided enable comparison across countries on a number of dimensions.
The EURO-PERISTAT project started in 1999 and aims to monitor and evaluate both maternal and child health in Europe during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum. Through using trustworthy and robust indicators the project team have managed to compile recommended indicators for checking and observing perinatal health. The most recent report published by the project was the 2010 European Perinatal Health Report: The Health and Care of Pregnant Women and Babies. This report collates data from over 25 European Union member states, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland and highlights the significant differences between indicators of perinatal health and care between different countries, and whether improvements in health outcomes have been achieved.
Eurostat provides information for a large range of statistics related to child benefits and family policies, as well as demographic data and labour market statistics.
INED - Interactive maps of the world population
INED is a Paris-based research institute specialising in population studies. The interactive population maps can be used to understand world demographic trends. The website allows you to view the world along thirty demographic indicators, to see animated maps showing changes for each indicator since 1950, and to compare trends between countries.
The OECD has developed an Family database with indicators for all OECD countries categorised under 4 broad headings: the structure of families, the labour market position of families, public policies for families and children, and child outcomes.
In May 2012, the OECD created a Family Support calculator, an interactive tool which outlines how wages, tax-benefit systems and other factors such as family structure affect the household income of families with children at different stages.
The Council of Europe Family Policy Database
The Council of Europe Family Policy Database offers a wealth of up-to-date and comparative data on family policies in 40 of the Council of Europe's 47 member States, including all members of the European Union.
UN POPIN - United Nations Population Information Network
The United Nations Population Information Network (POPIN) database makes national, regional and international population information available, especially from UN system websites. POPIN is a community of population institutions linked together in various networks. POPIN activities are established by and within the United Nations Population Division. It was founded in 1979 and its development was partially supported by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
World Atlas of Youth policies (UNESCO/ IIEP)
A mapping of national youth policies which has been undertaken by the International Institute for Educational Planning in collaboration with the UNESCO Youth-led Social Innovation Team. The online tool provides access to national youth policies across the globe listed by country and region.
Improving & Monitoring Protection Systems Against Child Trafficking and Exploitation - IMPACT
IMPACT is focussed on research on and strengthening of monitoring and protection systems against child trafficking and exploitation in Cyprus, Italy, Greece and Portugal. IMPACT is funded under the European Commission’s Prevention of and Fight Against Crime Programme and implemented in partnership between CARDET (Cyprus), CESIS (Portugal), Defence for Children (Italy) and KMOP (Greece). The IMPACT project analyses how and to which degree child welfare and protection systems are effective to reduce the risk of trafficking and exploitation, as well as its capacity to protect child victims and children at risk. IMPACT also assesses the extent to which of national laws, policies and practices address the needs and rights of children as required by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and other international and regional standards.
Popular links
