Our history in a nutshell

The Social Research Unit was founded at King’s College Cambridge in 1963 by the distinguished King’s scholar, Royston Lambert. 

It moved to Dartington in 1968 when he became headmaster of Dartington Hall School. He was accompanied in the move by a small group of researchers who continued to study how children’s services influenced the well-being of disadvantaged children.
 
Over four decades, the Social Research Unit has investigated children in the youth justice, social care, education, child protection and mental health systems. Much of the early work was undertaken for UK Government with the goal of improving national legislation and policy.
 
The closure of residential centres for delinquent youth, limits on the number of children placed in secure settings, and the provision for better access between children in state care and their parents are among the legislative impacts of the Unit’s work. Child protection policy, framework legislation in 1989 and 2004 and a national recommitment to prevention also bear the hallmarks of studies undertaken at Dartington.
 
During the 1990s, reflecting the limited impact of legislation on day-to-day practice, greater efforts were made to apply evidence to what happens in communities and large children’s services systems. A method known as Common Language was developed to promote innovation that might lead to improved child outcomes, supported by local ownership of ideas and a robust evidence base.
 
An increasingly international outlook resulted in the opening of offices in Spain and the United States, where close ties are retained. The Centre for Social Policy was established to create a context in which retired academics, policy makers and practitioners could continue their work, and the Unit also helped to set up the independent dissemination and research centres Research in Practice and Policy Research Bureau.
 
The Unit became became an independent charity in 2003.
 
Over the years, the Unit has benefited from close ties with the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Chicago, Exeter and with the Peninsula Medical School.There have been four directors. Royston Lambert was succeeded in turn by by Spencer Millham and Roger Bullock, all three of whom were part of the founding team. Michael Little is the present Director.