About this series

The ‘International Policy Perspectives’ series highlights leading international policy institutes and partnerships that are helping governments translate evidence into practical policy and service reform. Through short case studies, it explores how different countries are strengthening evidence-informed policymaking and what lessons these approaches may offer for Australia.

Across Australia and internationally, governments are grappling with how to shift child and family services systems toward prevention and early intervention. Supporting children and families earlier, before problems escalate, can improve long-term social outcomes while reducing pressure on crisis-driven systems.

Yet, translating evidence about what works into practical policy and service reform remains a challenge. In Ireland and Northern Ireland, the Centre for Effective Services (CES) has played an important role in bridging this gap. Working closely with government departments over many years, CES has helped build a stronger evidence base for early intervention programs and ensure that evidence informs policy development and service delivery.

Building an evidence base for early intervention

Over a twelve-year period starting in 2004, services for children and young people in Ireland benefited from the Prevention and Early Intervention Initiative – an investment of over $127 million from The Atlantic Philanthropies, alongside government and other partners, aimed not only to fund programs but also to strengthen the evidence base for early intervention policy.

Across this initiative, 52 programs and services were independently evaluated, examining interventions aimed at improving different aspects of children’s lives, including child behaviour, learning, attitudes to inclusion and diversity, child health and parenting.

CES played a central role in ensuring that this extensive body of evidence gathered through evaluations could inform policy and practice. The organisation was tasked with synthesising findings from the program evaluations and translating them into accessible formats for policymakers and service providers.

The initiative involved community and voluntary sector organisations delivering evidence-based programs alongside other initiatives adapted to meet the needs of local communities. Programs were delivered across different age groups and used different methodologies to evaluate their outcomes.

From evaluations to policy insight

CES engaged with government partners and service providers over a ten-year period, launching its initial findings in 2014 in the report Ten Years of Learning – Prevention and Early Intervention Approaches in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

From 2016 to 2019, CES further consolidated the evidence through the ‘on the right track report‘ and distilled cross-cutting insights about what drives improved outcomes for children and families.

A key part of this work involved building the infrastructure needed to translate research into practice. CES produced summaries highlighting key messages for funders and service commissioners, along with infographics to communicate the strength of the evidence base.

CES also supported the archiving of all program evaluations through the Digital Repository of Ireland, helping to ensure that the evidence generated through the initiative remained accessible for future research and development.

Further investment also supported the development of tools such as the Child, Youth and Family Database, strengthening the long-term usability of evidence for policymakers and practitioners, strengthening the long term usability of evidence for policymakers and practitioners.

Reports from this work have informed subsequent policy initiatives and programs as well as philanthropic investments in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Most notably, the findings informed Ireland’s national policy framework for children and young people, the Better Outcomes, Brighter Futures, and the Early Intervention Transformation Programme (EITP) in Northern Ireland.

Insights for Australia

For Australian policymakers, the Irish experience highlights an important lesson: strengthening early intervention systems requires not only effective programs but also the evidence translation infrastructure that supports them.

While Australia has strong research and evaluation capability, it remains fragmented across states and territories. Efforts such as the Australian Centre for Evaluation (ACE) are strengthening evaluation capability within the Commonwealth but there is still no clearly established or consistent approach to synthesising other evidence on program decision and implementation and translating them into system-wide policy and commissioning decisions.

The CES experience also underscores the value of dedicated intermediaries that can connect evidence, policy and practice over time. The ACE’s newly launched Commonwealth Evaluation Library, in partnership with Australian Policy Online, works as a valuable tool across jurisdictions similar to Ireland’s Digital Repository. Making evidence accessible, relevant, and usable in practice is central to strengthening evidence-based policy in Australia and beyond, promoting effective and lasting service delivery for those most in need.

Any adaptation would also need to reflect the Australian context, including commitments under Closing the Gap, which emphasise shared decision-making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities and the central role of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) in delivering early childhood and family services. This highlights the importance of approaches that are locally grounded and responsive to community context.

In Australia, this shift towards earlier support and stronger system alignment is reflected in current reform efforts, informed by recent work by APPI and partners. These efforts point to the growing role of organisations that can connect evidence, policy and practice, and support its use in real-world decision-making.

The key lesson is clear: evidence alone is not enough. Its value depends on how it is brought together and used within policy systems. This requires a deep understanding of the authorising and operating environment, capability, relationships and intermediary functions required to translate evidence into practice.

Read more about CES’s work here: 52 evaluations, Ten years of learning for children and young people 

Lara Bate is an External Affairs Associate at the Australian Public Policy Institute. She is currently completing a Master of International Development at the Geneva Graduate Institute.