This month we were interested to see the evaluation undertaken for Public Health Wales in relation to the routine enquiry into Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The report presents some useful statistics about the profile of ACEs across the pilot areas. Combined with our research for a local authority in Wales it demonstrates how increasing number of ACEs can correlate with increasing need.

Our research suggests that this relationship is relatively weak, and there are exceptions: there are families with high numbers of ACEs but low current disadvantage, and families with high current disadvantage but low numbers of ACEs. We think more research is needed here. In particular, we need to understand how individuals experiencing risks as children can build resilience so that their children are less likely to experience poor outcomes.

Read more about new research and policy published this month by downloading the Pulse below.