{"id":672,"date":"2017-01-24T13:29:38","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T13:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/centre-for-trials-research\/?p=672"},"modified":"2022-04-13T13:59:11","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T13:59:11","slug":"introducing-intervention-programmes-in-the-uk-a-meeting-with-mps-policy-makers-and-academics-in-westminster-part-1-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/centre-for-trials-research\/introducing-intervention-programmes-in-the-uk-a-meeting-with-mps-policy-makers-and-academics-in-westminster-part-1-of-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Intervention Programmes in the UK: A Meeting With MPs, Policy Makers and Academics in Westminster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Presenting to MPs and academics in Westminster<\/h2>\n

\"MikeLast week I presented at the first of a series of three round table discussions about introducing supportive early intervention programmes into the UK from another setting. The series was set up by the Foundation Years Information and Research<\/a>,\u00a0a collaboration of academics, policy makers and professionals that aims to promote the importance of early life experiences for later health, development and wellbeing. Along with other members of the Building Blocks trial team – Julia Sanders and Kerry Hood – we travelled to Portcullis, Westminster, for the meeting chaired by Karen Buck, MP.<\/p>\n

Evaluating the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP)<\/h2>\n

This first meeting was set around our own experiences of evaluating the Family Nurse Partnership in the Building Blocks trial<\/a>. This US derived home visiting scheme was introduced to England in 2006 and, at different times, to other countries around the world and so is a fantastic case-study around which to set the series. I was delighted that our steering committee chair Professor Ann Louise Kinmonth took the lead in setting out the broader evaluation context and that together we developed the meeting programme. Professor David Olds who developed the programme in the US joined us virtually by pre-recorded interview to provide a wonderful description of how it was originated and developed in the US. Both Ailsa Swarbrick (FNP National Unit Director) and Louise Morpeth (CEO, Dartington Social Research Unit) completed the panel to talk about how they have tackled the challenge of responding to the results of our trial, published in The Lancet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Response to\u00a0study results<\/h2>\n

Our trial results did not provide substantive support for the short-term impact of the programme, surprising many people, and disappointing many who currently provide it to client families in England. In the UK, we have a large number of families (in this case, of first-time teenage mothers) facing real challenges in trying to raise happy and healthy children and in providing the best start in life for their children. In such situations it is right to ask serious questions about what has happened:<\/p>\n