Significant reform of children’s services is underway. To help drive this, it’s vital that local areas are supported to implement evidence-based approaches with confidence.

In this blog, Jo Flanagan, Senior Practice Development Adviser at Foundations, reflects on promising interim findings from an evaluation of the Changemakers programme, which aims to bridge the gap between evidence and practice by promoting local evidence leadership in children’s services.

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Since 2024, four Changemakers areas – City of York Council, Merton Council, Stockport Borough Council, and Wirral Council – have explored whether embedding local evidence leadership can nurture a culture of evidence-based commissioning, design and delivery of support for children and families.

With funding from Foundations and YEF, Changemakers areas recruited dedicated ‘Local Evidence Lead’ posts (LELs), who got to work to implement selected evidence-based parenting interventions¹ from Foundations’ Guidebook. LELs acted as catalysts for change in their areas, enabling effective implementation and enhanced access to support for families. Alongside local partners, LELs supported the development of capacity and confidence in using evidence in strategic decision-making in their local authorities.

Join us on Thursday 19 March 2026 (10:30am–12:00pm) for a webinar with Foundations, YEF, DfE, Cordis Bright and Changemakers local areas. The event  will explore s national and local drivers for the delivery of evidence-based support, and how to sustain positive impacts for children and families. Sign up here.

Now, as we reach the end of the two-year project, an evaluation of Changemakers by Cordis Bright shows promising interim findings:

• The Local Evidence Lead (LEL) role has been pivotal, with flexibility to adapt the role to the local context emerging as both a strength and an essential feature of success
• LELs are effectively embedding evidence-based interventions and support, strengthening partnerships, and promoting more reflective, evidence-informed practice
• Early impacts have principally been seen in organisational culture: with improved awareness of evidence-based interventions, better coordination, and increased confidence in using evidence in decision-making. Progress has been fastest where systems were ready for change, with clear governance and strong leadership
• Adaptation and protected time are critical drivers of success and should be included as core mechanisms in the next iteration of the programme’s theory of change
• The balance between fidelity and flexibility is central: evidence-based interventions are most effective when adapted to local contexts without losing their core principles
• Foundations’ implementation support, especially through Practice Development Advisors, has been crucial in maintaining momentum and consistency
• Sustaining gains made under Changemakers will depend on embedding learning, relationships and behaviours in local governance and improvement frameworks.

Next steps: Sustainability and scalability

Our ambition now is to use the success and learning from Changemakers, about how to support local leaders effectively, to embed evidence into delivery in children’s services to secure lasting change for children and families. We are doing this in two ways:

First, through our Evidence into Practice (EIP) programme, which supports local authorities across England to strengthen evidence-informed decision-making throughout the system. Evidence into Practice builds directly on the learning fromthe Changemakers programme with nine Partner Places – reflecting a diverse mix of local authorities across England – now working with Foundations to appoint a Local Evidence Lead to drive evidence-based approaches in children’s services. Partner Places will use Foundations’ Toolkit – including the Practice Guides and our Guidebook – as well as our forthcoming Implementation Framework, to plan, deliver and sustain evidence use.

Second, we’ll use the learnings from Changemakers about how to ensure that the national drive to transform services for children and families is grounded in high-quality evidence about how best to improve outcomes, to inform our work with the Department for Education. We already know evidence-based approaches lead to better outcomes for children and families, but these approaches aren’t always used; some commonly used interventions have limited evaluation, while others with strong evidence are not widely available. The Changemakers evaluation provides insight on how creating capacity locally can start to address this gap.

Major reform calls for strong leadership on applying evidence in local systems. Foundations will support local leaders through this transformation, drawing on the lessons of Changemakers to help them deliver genuine and lasting change for children and families.

The final evaluation report and overall findings from the Changemakers programme is due to be published in September 2026, with the project wrapping up by the end of March 2026.

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1. Family Foundations (implemented by City of York Council and Stockport Borough Council), a perinatal group-based programme for couples expecting their first child, aimed at improving children’s outcomes by improving interparental relationships. Triple P Resilience (implemented by Merton and City of York Council), a support programme for children bullied by peers. Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities (EPEC) (implemented by Wirral Council), a parenting intervention for disadvantaged families with concerns about their child’s behaviour aimed at children aged 2 to 11 years old. ↩︎