Early Intervention Foundation (EIF)

What Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) does

Foundations (formerly the Early Intervention Foundation / EIF) is a UK-registered charity and company limited by guarantee (company number 12136703, charity number 1188350), founded in 2013 and headquartered in Westminster, London. It operates as the official national What Works Centre for Children & Families in England, with a focused mission of generating and championing actionable evidence to improve services for children and families. Its work concentrates on four priority areas: supporting parenting, strengthening family networks, building relationships for care-experienced children, and addressing domestic abuse.

The organization's core product is the Toolkit, an evidence resource platform that consolidates Practice Guides and the Guidebook to support both national policy and local practice. Supplementary offerings include the Evidence into Practice national programme (delivered in partnership with Research in Practice to support local authorities), an Outcomes Framework & Measures Database, a Reducing Parental Conflict Hub, a portfolio of systematic reviews and publications, and various resources and projects. Underlying technology is a content-and-knowledge-translation stack rather than a software product: the platform's value rests on curated evidence synthesis, practice guidance, and structured engagement with local authority decision-makers.

Foundations operates under a government-funded, grant-revenue model as a national What Works Centre. All resources (Toolkit, Practice Guides, Guidebook, publications) are provided at no cost to users, and there is no commercial pricing or transactional revenue stream. Go-to-market is community-led, reaching local authorities, practitioners, and policymakers through direct digital access, publications, events and webinars, newsletters, and LinkedIn. The customer base consists of UK local authorities and children's services practitioners, with no disclosed commercial customers, no parent organization, no subsidiaries, and no recorded funding rounds or M&A activity.

Name

Early Intervention Foundation (EIF)

Legal name

Foundations

Website

https://eif.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Foundations (formerly EIF) is the UK national What Works Centre for Children & Families. It generates and disseminates evidence-based practice guides, toolkits, and programmes to UK local authorities and practitioners across four priority intervention areas.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Children and Family Services Research

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Community Foundations (BPAGAKAB)

Keywords

• Children family services
• Evidence-based research
• Social policy research
• Practice guidance
• Family intervention support

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Government Funding: As a UK government-funded national What Works Centre and registered charity, Foundations receives public funding to generate and disseminate evidence on what works in children and family services.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Foundations (EIF) is the national What Works Centre for Children & Families in England, generating and disseminating actionable evidence to improve outcomes for children and families. It produces and publishes evidence-based resources including a Toolkit (Practice Guides and Guidebook), an Outcomes Framework & Measures Database, systematic reviews, and runs the Evidence into Practice national programme supporting local authorities. Its work focuses on four priority areas: supporting parenting, strengthening family networks, building relationships for care-experienced children, and addressing domestic abuse.

Product overview

Foundations (EIF) operates as the national What Works Centre for Children & Families, offering a platform of evidence-based resources and programmes. The core product is the Toolkit, which comprises Practice Guides and Guidebook resources. Additional offerings include the Evidence into Practice national programme supporting local authorities, an Outcomes Framework & Measures Database, a Reducing Parental Conflict Hub, Publications covering systematic reviews and reports, and various Resources and Projects. The organisation focuses on four priority areas: supporting parenting, strengthening family networks, building relationships for care experienced children, and dealing with domestic abuse.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Toolkit A digital evidence resource combining Practice Guides and Guidebook to help ensure national policy and local practice offer effective support to children and families. Used by local authorities, practitioners, and policymakers.
• Evidence into Practice A national programme supporting local authorities to strengthen evidence-informed decision-making to improve outcomes for children and families. Delivered in partnership with Research in Practice.
• Outcomes Framework & Measures Database Database providing frameworks and measures for tracking and evaluating outcomes for children and families. Used by practitioners, commissioners, and evaluators.
• Reducing Parental Conflict Hub Dedicated resource hub providing evidence and guidance on reducing parental conflict to improve outcomes for children. Used by practitioners and local authorities.
• Publications Evidence-based reports, systematic reviews, and publications covering topics such as reunification, family networks, safeguarding, and parenting interventions. Used by practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Research in PracticecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership working for Evidence into Practice programme. Research in Practice is a partner organization that collaborates with Foundations to support local authorities in strengthening evidence-informed decision-making to improve outcomes for children and families.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• What Works Centre for Wellbeing: The What Works Centre for Wellbeing is a sister What Works Centre within the UK's network, sharing the same evidence-synthesis and dissemination operating model as Foundations. While focused on wellbeing rather than children specifically, its structure and stakeholder engagement approach are directly comparable.
• National Children's Bureau: National Children's Bureau is a leading UK charity that, like Foundations, translates research and evidence into practical resources for practitioners and policymakers working with children and families. It operates in overlapping priority areas (early intervention, family support) and serves a similar stakeholder base across England.
• Education Endowment Foundation (EEF): The EEF is another UK What Works Centre focused on education rather than children and family services broadly, but its operating model — government-funded evidence synthesis, practice guidance, and a Teaching and Learning Toolkit — is structurally identical to Foundations' Toolkit model, making it a close functional peer.
• Research in Practice: Research in Practice is a Core strategic partner of Foundations, jointly delivering the Evidence into Practice programme for local authorities. Both organisations operate as UK-based evidence-to-practice intermediaries focused on children's services and social work, sharing practitioner networks and co-developing resources — making them direct peers in mission and delivery model.
• Centre for Evidence and Implementation: The Centre for Evidence and Implementation is an evidence intermediary that synthesises research and supports implementation in children, family, and social policy contexts. It directly competes for evidence-translation mandates and shares Foundations' focus on rigorous evidence-to-practice pipelines.

Emerging players

• NESTA: NESTA is an innovation foundation that conducts applied research and experiments in social policy, including children and family services. It overlaps with Foundations on evidence-driven innovation and policy translation, though with a broader innovation-and-methods focus.

Broad incumbents

• The Children's Society: The Children's Society is a UK-wide charity supporting vulnerable children and young people, including through practice guidance and policy work. While it focuses more on direct service delivery than evidence synthesis, it operates in the same children and families domain and engages overlapping local authority partners.
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation: JRF is a major UK poverty-focused foundation producing research, evidence reviews, and policy recommendations on social issues including family disadvantage. It shares Foundations' evidence-to-policy role but operates with a much broader remit and significantly larger endowment.
• NSPCC: NSPCC is the UK's largest children's charity, operating a much broader portfolio of direct services, policy advocacy, and research, but it publishes practice guidance and influences local authority commissioning in overlapping areas such as safeguarding, domestic abuse, and care-experienced children.

Regional players

• Family Fund: Family Fund is the UK's largest grant-making charity for disabled children, providing direct financial support to families. While its grantmaking model differs from Foundations' evidence-translation work, it shares the children-and-families charitable foundation status and serves an overlapping beneficiary and stakeholder base.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-early-intervention-foundation

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Early Intervention Foundation (EIF)