Negotiations are under way with the Open University and the Peninsula Medical School to develop our Ph.D training into a new doctoral programme to be available from 2010. The Unit has been provided its doctoral students with a taught curriculum for some years. The emphasis is on the application of research to policy and practice.
This year's annual lecture took place in London, at the Commonwealth Club. Guest speakers included Professor Delbert S. Elliott.
The lecture and reception was open to people from across the UK with an interest in evidence based prevention. The audience included leading academics and policy makers.
The event was free of charge and as hosted at The Commonwealth Club, 25 Northumberland Avenue, London. WC2N 5AP. The nearest tube station is Embankment.
A seminar was held for head teachers, education welfare staff, and local policy makers to discuss the effects of investing in evidence based programmes among schools in the city of Birmingham. Birmingham is the largest local authority in Europe with a population of 1 million people of which 250,000 are under 18. The city launched an ambitious 5 year strategy for children last year which gives high priority to implementing evidence based programmes and focuses activity on six outcomes (social literacy, emotional wellbeing, behaviour, physical health, job skills and literacy/numeracy). The city is investing 41m in prevention and early intervention activity on an ‘invest to save’ basis. Heavily influenced by the work of Steve Aos from the Washington Institute for Public Policy, the city has assembled a portfolio of prevention and early intervention activity. The PATHS programme is being rolled out and evaluated in 20 schools in the city.
The Social Research Unit offers a curriculum for the training of research students to supplement orthodox university programmes leading to a PhD qualification. The research curriculum is part of the Common Language project and mirrors another training programme in development designed for practitioners working with children in need. Both courses share the conceptual framework that underpins the Common Language work.
Professor Delbert Elliott, director of the Center for the Study of Prevention and Violence and Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado in the United States presented at the Peninsula Medical School.
Other events
SRU Annual Lecture 2010
June 17 2010
The Social Research Unit is delighted to announce this years Annual Lecture, Better outcomes for less money: techniques for childrens policymakers to make good choices in times of scarcity, to be given by Steve Aos on Thursday, June 17, 2010.
The event, which is free, will open with a reception at 5pm at the Commonwealth Club (25 Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5AP) followed by the lecture from 6-8pm in the Commonwealth Club's auditorium.
Steve Aos is the Assistant Director of the pioneering Washington State Institute for Public Policy, the non-partisan research arm of the Washington State legislature in the United States.
As knowledge about evidence-based public policies accumulates and as the economics of the options are better understood public policy makers can increasingly have access to information that will promote better outcomes at less total cost. In the next decade, flexible governments will find ways to take advantage of this growing body of evidence. In his lecture, Aos will describe the strategy Washington State is taking to achieve these goals.
As space is limited, please reserve your free place as soon as possible by sending an email to lecture2010@dartington.org.uk or phoning Kay Turner on 01803 762400. We very much hope that you will join us for what will be an important and engaging learning opportunity at a time when such knowledge has never been more relevant.
Center for Social Policy Spring Seminar 2010
March 23 2010
The next seminar will be held at Dartington Hall and the topic will be evaluating the work of Robert Owen Communities for learning disabled people and the development of Urban Village Schools, as discussed by James Wetz (fellow) in a recent book.
The first day will host a debate around the current social context in today's urban schools. The second day will host a presentation on the work of ROC - supporting people with learning disabilities. Full programme attached below.
Center for Social Policy Fellows Meeting
December 2 2009
Fellow speakers include, Canon Melvyn Matthews, Professor Mervyn Murch, Professor Bill Jordan, and Professor Douglas Hooper, Dr Liz Burns, and Dr Chris Clulow. Along with guest discussants; Professor Ludwig Salgo, from Jurisprudence and Social Pedagogy, Wilhelm Goethe Universitat, Frankfurt. The meeting will be held in the Duke's Room at Dartington Hall, Dartington. A PDF flyer of the programme is available for download below. For more information, or to RSVP for the event, contact Julian Addy at 01803-762400.
Center for Social Policy summer seminar
June 18 2009
The Center For Social Policy completed its summer seminar series. Topics covered the prediction of risk and the role of serious case reviews.
This is especially pertinent in the light of the Baby P case and associated inquiries. Contributors included Gillian Downham and Richard Lingham who have just published a study of mental health serious case reviews and Louise Brown from the University of Bath who has recently published a paper on prediction in social care.
how to book
How to book by Phone
To book for events by phone; contact Kay Turner, Office Manager at +44-1803-762400.
How to book an event online
Click on the event title and you will find a registration for for each event.
Latest news
'Which?' reports are famous for ranking computers, refrigerators, cameras and other consumer goods according to their quality and value for money ('Consumer Report' is the US-equivalent).
At the Social Research Unit's annual lecture, held in London on 17th June, Steve Aos described how he and his team at the Washington State Institute of Public Policy produce 'Which?' style reports for State policy makers on programmes designed to improve outcomes for children.
The method has three steps: find out which programmes work, work out their costs and benefits, and develop portfolios of potential investments. The focus is on programmes that have been evaluated in real-world settings by randomised controlled trial or other rigorous comparison group designs. Benefits are calculated in terms of gains not just for programme recipients but also for taxpayers and wider society.
The Institute has conducted this work in numerous policy areas, including crime reduction, education, substance abuse, mental health and teen pregnancy. So, an early education programme might cost $7,700 per young person but yield $19,500 in benefits from increased earnings and reduced crime (amongst other things) the equivalent of over $2.50 benefits per dollar of cost. The higher the cost-benefit ratio the higher the programme is ranked.
The Institute conducts a risk analysis to check what the chances are of an investment not breaking even. But selecting programmes is the easy bit: doing them is harder. Aos also explained to the London audience how Washington State tries to get evidence-based programmes built into mainstream practice. “If we are going to realise some of the financial benefits we anticipate from our model we need to get the right people to the right programmes. The right people means the high risk populations, those who are candidates for expensive interventions like custody.
"There is a parallel focus on quality assurance with a strong attention to fidelity, and providers that fail to implement adequate systems to support quality implementation risk having their funding withdrawn." There was huge interest in Aos’s presentation, including leading representatives from government, academia and practice.
There was also considerable support for the work of the Social Research Unit and a collective of local government agencies to attempt a translation of the Washington model for use in the UK.
Follow link below to download a copy of the slideshow.
The Social Research Unit invites you to the 2010 Annual Lecture, Better outcomes for less money: techniques for children's policymakers to make good choices in times of scarcity, to be given by Steve Aos on Thursday, June 17, 2010.
The event, which is free, will open with a reception at 5.00pm at the Commonwealth Club (25 Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5AP) followed by the lecture from 6-8pm in the Commonwealth Club's auditorium.
As space is limited, please reserve your free place as soon as possible by sending an email to lecture2010@dartington.org.uk or by phoning Kay Turner on 01803 762400.
Steve Aos is the Assistant Director of the pioneering Washington State Institute for Public Policy, the non-partisan research arm of the Washington State legislature in the United States.
Non-partisan predictions indicate that the UK is likely to face the deepest public spending cuts since the 1970s, putting unprecedented pressure on public services and the decision makers whose job it is to allocate scarce resources. As knowledge about evidence-based public policies accumulates -- and as the economics of the options are better understood -- public policy makers can increasingly use information that will promote better outcomes at less total cost. In the next decade, flexible governments will find ways to take advantage of this growing body of evidence. In his lecture, Aos will describe the strategy Washington State is taking to achieve these goals, with lessons for UK policy makers.
Steve Aos has 34 years of experience conducting cost-benefit analyses and communicating the results to policymakers in a wide range of public policy areas, as well as in the private sector. His current work focuses on identifying and evaluating the costs and benefits of programmes and policies that reduce crime, improve educational outcomes from kindergarten through secondary school, reduce child abuse and neglect, improve mental health, and reduce substance abuse. He also has many years of experience in energy economics and regulatory policy.
The Social Research Unit is an independent charity that works to improve the health and development of children through high quality research into the potential causes of impairment in children's lives and the value of children's services, development work that applies high quality evidence to policies and practices, and dissemination that communicates learning about preventing and responding more effectively.
We very much hope that you will join us for what will be an important and engaging learning opportunity.
One of the Unit’s close colleagues in North Africa, Najat M’jid, who runs the Casablanca-based charity Bayti (‘my house’) is in London, this week to launch a new collection of key articles about children’s services in the global South.
Najat founded Bayti in 1993 to improve the condition of working children in Casablanca. Among the first organisations of its kind in her country, it provides a refuge and temporary accommodation for young children, as well as apartments for adolescents and help with social reintegration and rehabilitation.
The collection of research insights she has co-edited with Unit researcher Dwan Kaoukji locates her experience in the wider context of activity from Sudan to El Salvador, and deals with the effects of catastrophe, disease, war and poverty on children's development. They will be talking about they found, this Wednesday evening, at a reception at the Commonwealth Club.
Dwan Kaoukji’s involvement with the Unit arose out of its connections with the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. Her doctoral study-in-progress, of role of NGOs as innovators, is related to her links with another of the Unit’s collaborators, the social justice charity ChildHope.
Najat M’jid’s UNESCO-funded work in Morocco brought her a nomination for the Chevalier de La Legion d’Honneur in France. For more about their book, which is published in the UK by Ashgate, visit this link.