The Labour government, ousted in the general election nine months ago, took a more centralized approach to social policy. Where it did not itself initiate new policies - like the significant success of the introducing Sure Start children’s centres in every disadvantaged community in the country – it often encouraged local authorities to pursue new ideas.

In other areas the results have been less promising, witness the scrapping of several high profile initiatives such as the agency Connexions that gave career and other advice to young people.

But, more positively, some parts of the UK have been experimenting with the implementation of evidence-based programs, as recommended by the recently published Allen Review into Early Intervention. [See: Launch of the Allen Review on Early Intervention for Children].

An interesting case study is the UK approach to social and emotional regulation. There has been considerable interest in this area reinforced by Joe Durlak’s systematic review. [See: The other side of the school report card].

Birmingham and Northern Ireland, notably, have concentrated on the careful implementation of Mark Greenberg’s PATHS program. Early results from this work are as yet unpublished but promising.

By contrast, the Westminster government developed its own hybrid program, SEAL or Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning, that was implemented in about 90 per cent of England’s primary schools and 70 per cent of secondary schools.

A quasi-experimental evaluation by Neil Humphrey and colleagues at the University of Manchester of 41 schools has revealed poor results.

The research team came across schools that implemented SEAL with great enthusiasm, mirroring Prevention Action editor Michael Little’s experience. [See: In Bristol I Find the True Seal]

On the whole, however, the commitment to SEAL was variable. The team report their subjective impression of “many schools taking a somewhat superficial approach to implementation, ‘box-ticking’, that failed to sustain initial activity”. They add that the “whole school approach demanded by most social and emotional regulation programs was generally lacking”.

Not surprisingly, outcome results are also poor. The Manchester team’s analysis of pupil level outcome data failed to detect impact on student’s social and emotional skills, mental health or behavior.

Humphrey and colleagues conclude that “successful programs have certain latent characteristics that SEAL, in its current form, lacks, including a high level of structure and consistency in program delivery, careful monitoring to ensure fidelity of implementation and an appropriate level of human and financial resources”.