Matrix Evidence

Media fail to report crime survey data correctly (again).

Tony — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:06:24 +0000

It’s that time of year again – British Crime Survey data are released, and the media misinterpret them. This time the problem is that old chestnut ’statistical significance’. Journalists have looked at the figure for all crime, seen that the survey reports a rise of 4%, and then written their copy. A typical line, this one from the BBC is ‘ Separate figures from the British Crime Survey (BCS) – measuring people’s experiences of crime – suggest crime went up by 4%. Not wanting to single out the BBC, the Telegraph did no better, reporting that ‘the British Crime Survey showed an increase’ [in crime]. The Telegraph went one better though. Having failed to interpret the BCS data correctly, their article goes on to cast doubt on the survey data (collected via face-to-face interviews with over 40,000 people), preferring instead to rely on what we can only characterise as ‘common sense’: ‘People are not stupid. They know that it stretches credulity for official figures to suggest that 2011 was a good year for crime-fighting.’. Who needs data when we can just rely on people’s impressions?

Top marks to the Guardian on this occasion though, who correctly reported that the survey figures show ‘no statistically significant change’ in overall crime.

Is the concept of statistical significance really so difficult to grasp that it eludes the cream of British journalism?

Service User Experience in Adult Mental Health Guidance

Natasha — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:19:22 +0000

Work undertaken by The Reviews Team to support the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health in producing a national clinical guideline has been published. Read the guidance paper here. This work was part of The Reviews Team’s business strategy to provide capacity to other centres without going to tender.

Service User Experience in Adult Mental Health Guidance

Natasha — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:15:34 +0000

Work undertaken by The Reviews Team to support the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health in producing a national clinical guideline has been published. Read the guidance paper here.

Economic Evaluation Work

Natasha — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:11:23 +0000

Matrix Evidence previously wrote a paper on economics in social care for Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). SCIE have now developed this further and have published their approach to economic evaluations. In this report, Matrix Evidence are acknowledged as having worked with them to develop this approach. Read the report here.

‘Independent’ Battle of Ideas Blog

Tony — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:32:00 +0000

Throughout October and November, the Independent Online has been partnering with the Institute of Ideas Battle of Ideas festival to present a series of guest blogs from festival contributors. One of the contributors, Ben Pile, posted an intriguing article entitled Against evidence-based policy making. In it, he engages in one of those slightly annoying reductionist arguments where he rails against a position that no one apart from himself would support. However, he finally comes around to concluding something many would support, that an ‘….over-emphasis [my italics] on evidence in policy making is corrosive to a public debate about the values which inform the interpretation of evidence’. An interesting article and even more interesting set of responses can be found here

Evidence review to support a manufacturer’s submission of evidence for a Single Technology Appraisal (STA)

Natasha — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:16:13 +0000

The Reviews team have won their first piece of work from United Biosource Corporation (UBC), a large organisation that supports life science companies to develop and commercialise their products. The project will be an evidence review to support a manufacturer’s submission of evidence for a Single Technology Appraisal (STA) to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). The review is on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of pixantrone for relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL).

Violent and general reoffending Review

Natasha — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:54:24 +0000

The Reviews team has been awarded a contract to do a systematic review on the risk and protective factors associated with violent and general reoffending for the MoJ. The evidence review will contribute to the improvement and development of the Offender Assessment System (OASys).

Understanding vulnerability and resilience in individuals to the influence of Al Qa’ida violent extremism.

Natasha — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:50:22 +0000

The Home Office (Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism) has just published our report on Understanding vulnerability and resilience in individuals to the influence of Al Qa’ida violent extremism. It can be downloaded here.

This Rapid Evidence Assessment identifies the social, psychological and physical factors for vulnerability or resilience to Al Qa‘ida influenced violent extremism. In the absence of a mature empirical evidence base it explores what transferrable knowledge can be taken from the more developed literature on other types of violent activity e.g. other terrorist activity, gangs, cults, etc.

Understanding vulnerability and resilience in individuals to the influence of Al Qa’ida violent extremism

Natasha — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:32:36 +0000

School Home Support (SHS) Report

Natasha — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:02:02 +0000

School Home Support (SHS) is a national charity working with vulnerable and excluded children and families. SHS provides trained, experienced and professional workers who become paid members of the school’s pastoral care team, enabling teachers and school management teams to focus on managing core school business and delivering the curriculum. Matrix Evidence has previously worked with SHS and produced an Economic Analysis of SHS in 2007.

Increasingly commissioning will be based on the cost savings that interventions can realize. Thus, it is important to quantify the savings that SHS produces. This time Matrix Knowledge Group was commissioned to generate this evidence and to answer the following research questions:

What is the short-term economic cost savings associated with the cases of bad behaviour, truancy, and exclusion avoided by SHS?
What are the short-term annual realisable cost savings associated with avoiding the cases of bad behaviour, truancy, and exclusion through SHS interventions?

Download the report here.