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On Estimating the Fiscal Benefits of Early Intervention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Leon Feinstein ,
Haroon Chowdry  and
Kirsten Asmussen
Leon Feinstein*
Affiliation:
Office of the Children's Commissioner
Haroon Chowdry*
Affiliation:
Office of the Children's Commissioner
Kirsten Asmussen
Affiliation:
Early Intervention Foundation
*
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected];
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Abstract

In this paper we explain some of the difficulties of providing forecasts of the financial benefits of early intervention programmes, focussing on those delivered during the early childhood period. We highlight the diversity of early intervention, and the complexity and multiplicity of outcomes. We summarise recent work at the Early Intervention Foundation to assess the evidence on the impacts of early intervention, recognising the diversity of approaches to delivery and the importance of innovation and local practice as well as of rigorous approaches to evaluating causal effects. We also describe new ways of assessing accurately the local fiscal costs of late intervention and consider the implications of this for addressing the well-established barriers to investment in prevention. Our analysis brings to the fore gaps in the evidence from which even the most rigorous ‘gold-standard’ research is not immune. These limitations prevent the production of an accurate and realistic cost-benefit ratio or net present value for the majority of programmes as delivered in practice. We suggest some paths towards a firmer foundation of evidence and a better alignment of evidence and policy.

Keywords

noncognitive skillsearly childhoodchild developmentearly interventionprogramme evaluationrandomised controlled trialscost-benefit analysisH43H51H52H53H72H75I14I24I31I38J13J18J24
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 240 , May 2017 , pp. R15 - R29
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

We are grateful to funders, trustees and birth parents of the Early Intervention Foundation for establishing the Centre and steering the research agenda and to Carey Oppenheim, Jack Martin, Daniel Acquah and Donna Molloy for multiple comments and discussions about the work. We owe a particular debt to the many programme developers, practitioners and academics whose work we have reviewed and whose insights have taken the field forward and to the children and families who have participated in the research. We are grateful to Peter Fitzsimons, Lara Doubell, Georgia Vourloumi and Ilenia Piergallini for valuable research assistance. All errors and oversights remain our own.

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