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Cordis Pulse: September 2019

September 2019

A number of resources this month focus on the impact of experiencing multiple disadvantage. For instance: Alcohol Change UK and the effect of alcohol on intimate partner violence; the Health Foundation on allostatic load, the Lancet Public Health on adverse childhood experiences; Public Health Wales and the WHO on wellbeing; and NICE on coexisting mental illness and substance misuse. This emphasis on multiple need mirrors a lot of our current work, e.g. evaluations of Making Every Adult Matter and of Fulfilling Lives programmes; and research on prevalence of adverse childhood experiences. We agree that it is important to have an ongoing focus on multiple challenges: not only because of the particularly poor outcomes experienced by this group, but also because of the challenges for providers in ensuring services are delivered in a joined-up and impactful way. Finally, a number of these reports examine resilience as well as risk. We welcome this as it ensures a focus on people’s strengths and avoids deficit models of delivery.

Whole system approaches to domestic abuse

September 2019

This literature review looks at research, evaluations and guidance to identify recommendations for designing and delivering a whole system approach to domestic abuse. This includes principles for good practice, what works, what the main challenges are and how best to overcome them. In this review, we report and distil the key findings on whole system approaches to responding to domestic abuse. We focus particularly on whole system approaches as they apply to criminal justice agencies, but the findings may also be relevant to other sectors and agencies that are seeking to improve the whole system response. Research in this area is relatively established in the domain of health and social care, but lacking in the domain of criminal justice. We therefore also integrate guidance about multi-agency working from criminal justice sources into the review.

Cordis Pulse: August 2019

August 2019

It’s been a bumper month for interesting reports: three in particular to highlight were:

• The Youth Justice Board’s (YJB) disproportionality tools outlines the extent to which BAME children are over-represented in each stage of the youth justice system.
• The Howard League for Penal Reform report on the criminalisation of children in residential care shows that some children’s homes are excessively calling the police, but efforts to reduce criminalisation are beginning to have some impact.
• The Children’s Society research on responding to children who are criminally exploited show that 14-17 year-olds are the most likely to be exploited by criminal gangs, and professionals are struggling to keep up with the scale of the problem.

Cordis Bright has recently worked with Central Government Departments, Multi-Agency Boards, Police and Crime Commissioners, Local Authority Children’s Services and Voluntary and Community Sector organisations on their responses to Serious Youth Violence and Gangs, Modern Slavery, Trafficking and Exploitation, evaluated programmes, innovations and initiatives designed to improve responses to these issues, and worked with Youth Offending Team Boards to review their work on disproportionality. Based on this experience we agree with the call from these reports for a more joined-up approach and improved sharing of information between statutory and non-statutory agencies to better support children and young people involved, or at risk of involvement, with the criminal justice system.

You can download the full version of the Pulse below.

Enablers of evidence based practice

August 2019

This report outlines the enablers of implementing evidence-based practice (EBP) in a health and social care context, and outlines some frameworks that support the implementation of EBP. This is based on our review of health and social care contexts in the UK, the USA and Australia, which explored the implementation of new innovations based on research, as well as the incorporation of research in day-to-day practice, for example, social workers learning new techniques to engage children.

It forms part of a series of literature reviews about 'what works'.

Cordis Pulse: July 2019

July 2019

This month we were pleased to see the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs report into homelessness and drug misuse. This report found that there is increased risk of problematic drug use associated with people who experience homelessness. There is a higher rate of drug-related deaths, infections among people who inject drugs, and multiple morbidities. People who experience homelessness and use substances have particularly complex circumstances and additional risks which require intensive long-term support. An integrated health, social care, and community care approach to the recovery and housing needs of people who are homeless would provide the optimal model of service delivery. This must include a focus on safe, stable housing and evidence-based harm reduction initiatives.

Our work on two major nationally important evaluations, concerning supporting people with lived experience of homelessness, substance misuse, mental health issues and offending concurs with the findings of this report. These evaluations are: (1) the national evaluation of the Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) approach, and (2) the longitudinal evaluation of the Big Lottery Fund’s Blackpool Fulfilling Lives programme.

In these evaluations we have taken innovative, bespoke, participatory and co-productive approaches working with people with lived experience to design, conduct, analyse and disseminate findings. This month we have released a blog and podcast which covers elements of this approach. We’d recommend both to our reader.

Download the Pulse below.

Cordis Briefing July 2019

July 2019

July's briefing covered

Co-production with Experts by Experience

July 2019

In Episode 3 of the Cordis Podcast, Will Cafferky explores the subject of working on evaluations in co-production with Experts by Experience. Through a series of interviews with Cordis Bright staff and people with lived experience of multiple disadvantage, we look to define these key terms, and understand how they have featured in our national evaluation of the 'Making Every Adult Matter' Approach.

You can listen to the Podcast on Soundcloud here.

You may also like to read out blog on this topic.

Co-production and working with Experts by Experience

July 2019

Cordis Bright has recently been involved in designing and conducting research alongside an Expert by Experience (EbyE) research group, to co-produce an evaluation of the Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) Approach. This blog outlines the key lessons learned and is designed to be a helpful tool for co-producing research with people with lived experience.

Court diversion & deferred prosecution

July 2019

Court diversion and deferred prosecution schemes can be a valuable tool for achieving a range of outcomes: reducing reoffending rates, reducing costs to the criminal justice system, and improving wider outcomes for offenders. In this review we profile 20 different diversion and deferred prosecution schemes and assess their effectiveness in relation to achieving these three overarching outcomes. We also outline the policy context surrounding deferred prosecution and identify consistent themes regarding successful implementation.

Cordis Pulse: June 2019

June 2019

If Benjamin Franklin was right and nothing in this world is certain except death and taxes, he might also have added that a third certainty is that they will be unequal.

In this month’s Pulse, the report from the Office for National Statistics which looks at the relationship between how well off you are and how likely you are to die as the result of a preventable condition makes a simple point: The poorer you are the more likely you are to die before your time. This has always been so, but this inequality was improving between 2001 and 2010, but has got worse again between 2011 and 2017.

The NHS England Learning Disability Mortality Programme action from learning report looking at premature deaths by people with a learning disability further highlights the nature of inequality. Since 2015 eleven people with a learning disability died primarily as the result of constipation - a both highly preventable and treatable condition in the wider population.

There are no simple answers to the inequality of early deaths by any part of the population but it is true that the poorest and most vulnerable people have a far greater reliance on support from publicly funded services. Reducing spend which results in a reduction in provision rather than a greater efficiency means that this pattern of inequality is unlikely to change anytime soon.

It has been strange, almost surreal, to watch debates between experienced politicians vying to be the next Prime Minister where there appears to be collusion in the denial of the relationship between the levelling of tax and the amount of money available to fund public services.

Read more by downloading the Pulse below.