Birmingham steps out on PATHS

Our involvement in developing a prevention strategy for Birmingham  UK and evaluating a major trial of a behaviour and social skills curriculum for primary schools is in the news this week.

Mark Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University where the PATHS programme was developed, gave the keynote speech at a conference to launch the pilot project as part of the city council’s Brighter Futures initiative.

The Social Research Unit has supported Birmingham's work from the start, and is now training staff for service design and implementation of evidence based programmes, as well as setting up randomised controlled trials to estimate the impact on child outcomes.

In the case of PATHS, 30 primary schools are implementing the curriculum. Their experience, in terms of the behaviour and general well-being of children, will be compared with 30 more non-PATHS schools at the end of two years. If the results are sufficiently encouraging, the programme will be rolled out across the rest of Birmingham.

During the launch at Starbank Primary in Small Heath, Mark Greenberg, told The Birmingham Mail: ‘The idea is to help children build good friendships and self-control and to be able to use their attention well in the classroom.

‘It’s about improving their social skills, investing in them to build a healthy classroom, but it’s also about encouraging good behaviour.’

Social Research Unit director Michael Little said: ‘A whole lot of other local authorities do what Birmingham is doing. The big issue is preventing problems before they happen. The children are only four or five, but at 15, that’s the age where they might get into trouble with the police.’

The Mail also acknowledged the cost-benefit analysis: ‘Council chiefs have estimated that early intervention, costing £42 million over the next 15 years, will save more than £100 million due to children not getting into trouble and requiring more expensive services such as social care, probation and criminal justice when they get older.’
Read The Birmingham Mail story at www.birminghammail.net