Table 3.

Social return on investment (SROI) of public health interventions: childhood and adolescence

Reference	Public health topic	Country	Population	Aim of Intervention	Crude SROI ratio for assessed time horizon	Quality score
Barnardo’s 2012 [33]	General health and well-being	England	Families with young children who need additional support/have behavioural needs	Numerous aims to improve the health and well-being of children and their families through services such as ‘Stay and Play’, ‘Family Support Workers’, ‘Tiny Toes’ and the ‘Triple P Parenting Programme’.	Stay and Play £2/£1 invested Family Support Workers £4.50/£1 invested Tiny Toes £3.50/£1 invested Triple P £2.50/£1 invested	10
Chance 2013 [34]	General health and well-being	England	Disadvantaged two year olds accessing childcare and their immediate families	To improve outcomes for children and narrow the gap in educational achievement between them and other children.	£8.40/£1 invested	9
Lakhotia 2019 [35]	General health and well-being	New Zealand	Families with children aged 3–8 years	Improving parental capabilities to promote emotional and social competence in children and to prevent, reduce and treat conduct problems.	NZ$3.75:NZ$1 invested	11
New Economics Foundation 2009a [36]	General health and well-being	Wales	Young people and children (from about 5 to 14) and their families	Preventative early intervention service for young people and children (from about 5 to 14) and their families, where there are recently emerging emotional, behavioural or mental health issues.	£7.60/£1 invested	9
New Economics Foundation 2009c [37]	General health and well-being	England	Children and families in the local area	Provides short-term, focussed and flexible support for children, young people and families in crisis.	£9.20/£1 invested	9
New Economics Foundation 2010 [38]	General health and well-being	England	Vulnerable families	To work with the most vulnerable families to treat the cause and effects of multiple issues, such as domestic violence and anti-social behaviour.	£4.28/£1 invested	10
Action on Addiction 2014 [39]	Substance misuse	England	Children and young people aged 8–17 years	Supports children and young people aged 8–17 who are experiencing the effects of substance misuse within the family. Programme offers a ‘whole family approach’.	£2.76/£1 invested	7
Bradly and Bolas 2013 [40]	Substance misuse	England	Individuals aged 16–19 years	To deliver a psycho-social intervention alongside harm reduction work.	£3.91/£1 invested	10
Hackett, Jung and Mulvale 2017 [41]	Substance misuse	Canada	Individuals aged 13–19 years	Provides treatment to young people between the ages of 13–19 who face addiction issues, as well as behavioural and psycho-social challenges.	£7/£1 invested	9
New Economics Foundation 2009b [42]	Mental well-being	England	Children in the local area	To provide universal services to children in the area.	£4.60/£1 invested	10
Winrow and Tudor Edwards 2018 [43]	Mental well-being	Wales	Primary school age children	Delivers music sessions in two schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods based on the El Sistema method - aims to improve educational and well-being outcomes for children who face socio-economic challenges	£6.69/£1 invested	9
Bradly 2011 [44]	Sexual health	England	Adolescents	To support the delivery of sexual health services for young people in community settings that they would typically access e.g. school, youth services.	£8.75/£1 invested	11
Children Our Ultimate Investment 2010 [45]	Sexual health	England	At-risk young people referred to the programme by their school	To provide at-risk young people of both sexes with real life experience of mentoring and caring for a small child by enrolling in a 15–20 week course for one afternoon a week where the teenager is paired with a child in a nursery.	£5.52/£1 invested	8
Hoskisson 2012 [46]	Employment	Australia	Young offenders	To create meaningful employment opportunities and offer education, training and workplace mentoring for young offenders.	£2.33/£1 invested	9
Butler and Leathem 2014 [47]	Physical activity	England	Young people aged 10–19 years	To increase the range of sporting opportunity, to ensure that local delivery reflects needs, multigenerational and build evidence base to show sport as an instrument of social change.	£4.21/£1 invested	9
Ward and Thurston 2009 [48]	Anti-social behaviour	England	Young people aged 11–16 years	Remotivate young people aged 11–16 years who were disaffected and/or displaying antisocial behaviour.	£3.70/£1 invested	9