King's College London

Little information exists about the cost effectiveness of different parenting interventions. This programme of work is collecting data to provide evidence in the UK context to help commissioners make decisions about the most efficient and economical programmes given the needs of their populations. 

The economics component of the NAPR programme is being carried out by researchers at the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science 

The research has five broad aims: 

1. To assess the cost-effectiveness of different parenting interventions evaluated by NAPR, in the Helping Children Achieve (HCA) and Study of Adolescents’ Experiences (SAFE) trials.
2. Review existing research on parenting programmes for information that will help develop the UK evidence base. This includes identifying service use patterns, costs and cost-effectiveness. The findings may feed into later modelling work.
3. Use theCommissioningToolkit to develop a database, to estimate the costs of each programme, and explore the extent to which costs vary systematically with the programme characteristics. 
4. Consider ways in which the above UK-based information can help commissioners take decisions about the most suitable suite of programmes given the needs of their population and their resource constraints.
5. Feed into other aspects of the NAPR research programme where this might help develop evidence on the economics of parenting programmes. This includes exploring the cost and cost-effectiveness of parenting programmes for children in foster care or with high needs, assessing the extent to which a cost-effectiveness analysis can be added to existing follow-up studies, and modelling the longer-term outcomes and costs of parenting programmes for the UK based on this improved information base.