Family intervention projects: a classic case of policy-based evidence
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David Gregg (June 2010)
The Family Intervention Project (FIP) became a flagship policy in New Labour's anti-social behaviour strategy. In this briefing David Gregg discusses critically the attitude of the New Labour government to the academic evaluations of the FIPs; he argues the government failed to take seriously the clear messages that evaluators were offering about the efficacy of FIPs and the impact the policy was having on families with significant mental health problems and other social vulnerabilities. Instead, he argues, the government had already decided on the policy and distorted the evidence base provided by successive evaluations in press briefings and other public pronouncements to justify an ongoing expansion of the FIP programme. This briefing is the fourth in the Centre's Evidence based policy series which aims to offer critical and innovative perspectives on the scope, purpose and context of criminological research funded and published by the UK government. |