Introduction: what are experiments, and why are they important?

Michael Sanders, David Westlake and Vanessa Hirneis

A chapter in Experimental Methods and Children's Social Care, 2025, pp 1-5 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This introduction to Experimental Methods and Children's Social Care: The Contribution of Randomised Controlled Trials, edited by Michael Sanders, David Westlake and Vanessa Hirneis, explains why robust evidence is crucial for guiding policy and practice in children's social care, where complexity and limited resources demand causal insights. Although randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have transformed healthcare and education, their application in social care remains limited. The book's introduction explores why RCTs can help answer critical questions about intervention effectiveness, acknowledges the challenges of applying experimental methods in complex, sensitive contexts, and emphasises that these barriers can be overcome. By clarifying the value of experimental evidence, it sets the stage for subsequent chapters, encouraging researchers, practitioners and policymakers to engage with RCTs. Ultimately, this introduction advocates for using experimental approaches to generate actionable findings, improve outcomes for children and families, and ensure that scarce resources are directed towards genuinely effective interventions.

Keywords: Children's social care; Randomised controlled trials (RCTs); Evidence-based policy.; Complexity; Ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035327140
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