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Children's services agencies in England are increasingly expected to work together to plan needsled interventions in their locality. Such planning requires good information on local need and service take‐up, yet this is often lacking. Connecting data from single agency, multi‐agency and community studies in one district shows how the severity of need overlaps with different service and administrative categories. The findings point to the value of such mapping exercises, while the pattern that emerges highlights the importance of planning provision for all children and of linking intervention to thresholds of severity of need. The approach will have relevance to other care groups.

The need for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to support evidence‐based services to improve outcomes for children is increasingly recognised by researchers and policy‐makers. However, this brings a pressing requirement to build research capacity for conducting RCTs and to address the concerns of practitioners who may be suspicious about the method. This article reviews a variety of texts on the subject, ranging from analyses of the historical and political context of RCTs, to concise introductions of the key methodological and practical issues, to more in‐depth discussions of complex designs and statistics. The article seeks to help readers navigate these resources by focusing on seven questions that seem particularly salient for those considering whether and how to commission, undertake, participate in or use results from RCTs.