Once you have randomised your list, you are ready to start your trial.

The process of planning and implementing a trial will vary depending on what you’re doing. Complex trials testing out multi-part interventions can last for years (a recent evaluation of the Family Nurse Partnership programme was published 12 years after the first parents were recruited). But for trials involving changes to communications the process is much simpler and usually only requires small tweaks to existing processes. See below for a practical example.

Conducting your trial: a letter intervention

The diagram below gives an example of the process for a local authority testing out two versions of a two-year-old offer letter. In this trial the local authority uses Excel’s mailmerge function, but you could adapt this depending on the specific processes in your local authority.

Authors

Louise Bazalgette

Louise Bazalgette

Louise Bazalgette

Deputy Director, fairer start mission

Louise works as part of a multi-disciplinary innovation team focused on narrowing the outcome gap for disadvantaged children.

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Dave Wilson

Dave Wilson

Dave Wilson

Advisor

Dave is an Advisor in the Education team at the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) with a focus on early years projects.

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Fionnuala O’Reilly

Fionnuala O’Reilly

Fionnuala O’Reilly

Lead Behavioural Scientist, fairer start mission

Fionnuala is the lead behavioural scientist in the fairer start mission and is currently seconded from the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) until March 2023.

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