Evidence and outcomes resources: Children (ages 0-11)
Home » Resource hub »
We have sourced some helpful links for organisations working with children ages 0-11. You may find these useful in planning and carrying out your outcomes data collection, or in understanding the evidence base for your model. The advice includes:
- Existing research and evidence in your sector to help you establish what evidence already exists. This will help you understand the extent to which you need to collect outcomes data yourself, or how rigorous your methodology needs to be.
- Guidance to help you design suitable outcomes or indicators to evaluate your service or programme.
- Existing outcomes frameworks and data collection tools developed by academics or leading charities in the field. The benefit of using an existing framework or measure is that you don’t have to spend time and money developing your own, and you can be more confident in the quality. The downside is that it is not tailored to your organisation, so some outcomes or data collection tools may not be suitable for your context or the people you work with.
Please note that these resources were not identified through an exhaustive review.
Research and evidence
Resource |
Description |
| Early Years Toolkit | Summary of research for early years teaching. It assesses impact, cost and existing evidence across topics such as early literacy approaches, parental engagement and play-based learning. Education Endowment Foundation.
|
| EIF Guidebook | Information about early intervention programmes that have been evaluated and shown to improve outcomes for children and young people (EIF).
|
Guidance
Resource |
Description |
| A Toolkit for Monitoring and Evaluating Children’s Participation: A 10-step guide to monitoring and evaluating children’s participation. | A guide to help you with a participatory monitoring and evaluation process with children and other key stakeholders (Save the Children, 2014).
|
| Evaluating early help: A guide to evaluation of complex local early help systems | A guide to evaluating the complex systems (including multiple partners and programmes) involved in early help. This is most suited to experience evaluators (EIF, 2019).
|
Frameworks and data collection tools
Resource |
Description |
| 40 Developmental Assets | Framework of strengths and supports building on young people’s assets, rather than emphasizing their problems and deficiencies. There are different frameworks for different age groups: 40 Developmental Assets for Early Childhood (ages 3-5), and 40 Developmental Assets for Grades K–3 (ages 5-9) (Search Institute, 1990).
|
| EIF Maturity Matrix: Maternity and early years | A self-assessment tool for early intervention partnerships and agencies. It was developed to support local areas to take a system-wide approach to improving outcomes for children and families. There is also an EIF Maturity Matrix for Speech, language and communication in the early years (Early Intervention Foundation).
|
| CORC outcomes and experience measures | Information on how to measure children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing (Child Outcomes Research Consortium). This includes tools such as the Strengths and difficulties questionnaire, an emotional and behavioural screening questionnaire for children and young people, and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS).
|
| EIF RPC measures selector | A selection of some of the most relevant and frequently used measures that can be used to assess need and impact relating to reducing harmful conflict between parents, supporting parent couple relationships, and improving outcomes for children as a result (EIF, 2020).
|
| Ages and stages questionnaires | Developmental and social-emotional screening for children between birth and age 6 (ASQ). This is a paid for tool.
|
| WellComm speech and language toolkit | Speech and language toolkits, including screening tools and intervention support, suitable for 6 months-6 years (early years) and 6-11 years (primary). The toolkits require no speech and language expertise (GL Assessment). This is a paid for tool.
|
These webpages have been adapted from the Inspiring Impact programme, which ran from 2011 until early 2022 and supported voluntary organisations to improve their impact practice. More information about the Inspiring Impact programme.
