New publication from the ECHILD team – Intensive home visiting for adolescent mothers in the Family Nurse Partnership in England 2010–2019: a population-based data linkage cohort study

A new study published in BMJ Public Health by the ECHILD team evaluates the effectiveness of an early intervention for first time teenage mothers called the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) in England. This study uses administrative data from health (Hospital Episode Statistics), education and children’s social care (National Pupil Database), and is the largest evaluation of the FNP in the UK to date.

The study found no evidence of an association between FNP and indicators of child maltreatment, which supports findings from previous evaluations of FNP, except for an increased rate of unplanned admissions for maltreatment/injury-related diagnoses up to age 2 years for children born to FNP mothers. There was weak evidence that children born to FNP mothers were more likely to achieve a good level of development, an indicator of school readiness, at age 5 years. FNP mothers were less likely to have a subsequent delivery within 18 months of their index birth.

This study demonstrates the value of linked health and education data. More research is needed to understand which elements of intensive interventions for teenage mothers are most effective, for whom and when. Such evidence could help inform decisions about whether it is better to commission highly intensive services for a small portion of the target population or to extend and enhance universal services to better support all adolescent mothers.

The full paper is available for free at the BMJ Public Health here.