The Blueprints conference puts together program originators with the people who replicate those programs. Many of these relationships are long standing, characterized by an intimacy borne of finding collective solutions to common problems.

At the heart of a model or promising program is logic: clear target groups, fidelity in implementation and rigorous evaluation.

But the programs are for real children and real families, and it’s striking how people who know each other well are also prepared to share anecdotes about “their cases”.

In some respects, these conversations differ little from ordinary practitioner discussions. The words are much the same, it’s just that the discourse has a different function. In social work offices, school staff rooms and youth justice manager meetings around the world, much the same language is being used to make the case against evidence based programs. Here it describes the tough realities of promoting them.