Going Home? is designed to help professionals responsible for looking after children, who have been separated from their families, to manage the ch...
Friday July 30th 2010
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 Gathering good quality information about the type and level of impairment to a child's development is an increasingly necessary aspect of assessing... |
 There are many ways of generating management information for children's services, but few are tailored to the specific requirements of agencies and... |
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 Prediction is a word relatively seldom used in the language of children's services professionals. But faced with a difficult situation, it can help... |
 Evaluation is an essential aspect of the development and expansion services to improve outcomes for children in need. Accustomed to having evaluati... |
 In the middle of the 19th century, Dr John Snow is reputed to have wrenched the handle from a street pump in central London, forcing people in the... |
 Paperwork is an assessment tool suitable for use by health, education, social care, youth justice and police professionals working with children in... |
 Structure Culture and Outcomes: A Dartington Practice Tool (1999) Roger Bullock, Michael Little, Mary Ryan, Jo Tunnard (1999) ... |
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July 07 2010
Key journal articles in the field of child development are brought together in a new book edited by Unit Director Michael Little and Barbara Maughan, from the Institute of Psychiatry, London.
Published by Ashgate as part of its Library of Essays in Child Welfare and Development, Child Development shows how understanding of the causes and consequences of impairments to children's health and development has been transformed in recent years.
A range of issues are covered, including the relative contribution of genetics and the environment, the way in which the brain re-wires itself at critical points in a child's development and the interplay between environmental influences and the individual characteristics of the child.
Other books in the series look at the law and child development, children's services in the developing world, defining and classifying children in need, children in state care and effective interventions for children in need.
Reference
Maughan, B. and Little, M (2010) Child Development, Aldershot, Ashgate
See the publishers website for further details or to purchase a copy of the book.
July 07 2010
Findings from a Social Research Unit study of the needs and characteristics of separated children seeking asylum in Ireland are now published in the April edition of the Child Care in Practice Journal.
The first empirical work of its kind in Ireland, the study established that such children are very far from being a homogenous group.
They face a multitude of risks and, although some experience significantly poor outcomes as a result, others thrive in their new environment and excel once properly settled.
In ‘The circumstances and needs of separated children seeking asylum in Ireland' Ali Abunimah and Sarah Blower describe how they were able to distinguish distinct patterns of need reflecting different types of experience and difficulty, which in turn require different types of service response.
Reference:
Blower, L. & Abunimah, A, (2010) The Circumstances and Needs of Separated Children Seeking Asylum in Ireland, Child Care in Practice, volume 16, number 2. PP 129-146.
July 07 2010
A new book edited by Unit Director Michael Little and Barbara Maughan, from the Institute of Psychiatry, London, sets out the current state of knowledge on 'what works, for whom, when and why' when it comes to preventing and addressing child development problems.
Published by Ashgate as part of its Library of Essays in Child Welfare and Development, Effective Interventions for Children in Need brings together key journal articles by leading intervention scientists from around the world on subjects including the effectiveness of universal and targeted programmes, the relationship between need and services, and long-term outcomes of interventions.
Other books in the series look at child development, the law and child development, children's services in the developing world, children in state care, and defining and classifying children in need.
References
Little, M and Maughan, B., (2010) Effective Interventions for Children in Need, Aldershot, Ashgate
See publishers website for further details.
April 22 2010
The concept of social exclusion offers helpful insights into child well-being and the shape of children's services but these could be exploited more fully, says Unit researcher Nick Axford in an article published in the new edition of the British Journal of Social Work.
He explores how far a focus on social exclusion changes the way in which services seek to define vulnerable children and help them. He considers seven emphases commonly associated with a social exclusion perspective. He concludes that many of the perceived benefits of the concept of social exclusion in terms of service orientation actually sit as well if not better within pre-existing frameworks based on poverty, risk and protective factors and need.
An early version of the article, 'Is social exclusion a useful concept in children's services?' will be available for download on our publications page. Follow this link to see the journal British Journal of Social Work.
Reference: Axford, N. (2010) ‘Is social exclusion a useful concept in children’s services?’, British Journal of Social Work 40 (3), 737-754.
March 31 2010
The latest edition of the Journal of Children’s Services appears as impending cuts to frontline services loom on the horizon and in the midst of media excitement and public nervousness about the forthcoming UK general election.
In it, UK MPs Graham Allen and Iain Duncan Smith, from opposing parties, appeal for an apolitical approach to prevention and early intervention to sustain and develop recent small gains. Amongst other proposals they argue for a National Policy Assessment Centre for Early Intervention and a financial instrument ‘to raise money against the massive savings accrued by effective early intervention’.
Carolyn Webster-Stratton and Jamila Reid describe an experiment to adapt the evidence-based Incredible Years parenting progamme for families in the child welfare system. June Thoburn cautions about the need also to learn more about the impact of what she calls ‘services as usual’ and not to assume that manualised programmes like Incredible Years mould have all the answers.
Editors Michael Little and Nick Axford tie the articles together by arguing that ‘most innovation involves addition but there is also a spirit of innovation to be built on “subtraction”. If services must be withdrawn, they might be withdrawn in a sufficiently intelligent way that we find out more about their impact on child outcomes.’ Only this, they suggest, will protect recent gains in developing and implementing evidence-based services and permit continued investment in this area.
Follow this link to access the journal online.
March 15 2010
Inconsistent and frequently inadequate measurement means that we too often we do not know what services children and families actually receive, says Unit researcher Nick Axford in an article soon to be published in the journal Child & Family Social Work.
In 'What's in a "service"?' he outlines the ingredients before analysing the strengths and weaknesses of how services have been measured for research, policy and practice purposes.
The task is critically important, he argues, not least because otherwise it is very difficult to evaluate what are increasingly referred to as ‘services as usual’ in controlled trials, and to distinguish them from the alternative content of evidence-based programmes.
His article concludes by outlining potential applications of a more nuanced and consistent approach to measuring children's services.
An early version of the article will be available for download on our publications page. Follow this link to see the journal Child & Family Social Work.
December 03 2009
The question of whether a study tour can do more than stimulate, refresh or entertain its students by changing the way they work when they get back home is the subject of a forthcoming Unit journal article.
The European Journal of Social Work is publishing an account of the results of two Unit trips to the US during 2005 that enabled participants from the UK and Ireland to see model prevention and early intervention programmes in action and to meet their developers.
On the basis of interviews 30-36 months later, the article considers how far the experience changed participants’ thinking and led to innovations in services and service planning inside their organizations. It also identifies factors that helped or hindered the process. The article sheds light on how to get proven programmes adopted and implemented well, the challenges of cross-national policy transfer, and methods for promoting research utilisation.
See: Axford N, Jonas M, Berry V, Green V and Morpeth L (in press) "Can study tours help promote evidence-based practice in children's services?" European Journal of Social Work.
April 30 2009
The effect on children’s development of catastrophe, disease, war and poverty and the astonishing resilience that enables some to endure the worst terrors are the focus of a new collection of papers co-edited by Unit researcher Dwan Kaoukji.
The effect on children’s development of catastrophe, disease, war and poverty and the astonishing resilience that enables some to endure the worst terrors are the focus of a new collection of papers co-edited by Social Research Unit researcher Dwan Kaoukji. Published in November, the book reviews children’s services in the global South and brings together latest reliable evidence. A contribution to the Ashgate Library of Essays in Child Welfare and Development, the international selection discusses the risks to child well-being and the interventions and aspects of good practice. Dwan Kaoukji’s partner is the project has been Najat M’jid, the director of BAYTI in Morocco, a non-profit organisation dedicated to housing street children and preventing the illegal migration of children to Europe.
Both authors have had experience working in the developing world. Dwan has been at the Unit since 2006 and is writing a Phd on the processes that connect international NGOs with local communities working with children in the global South.
The book is available for purchase on our website.
November 16 2009
Much in the Research Unit evidence archive resonates with this week’s promise by PM Gordon Brown to make a formal apology to all children who were shipped between the UK and Australia, Canada and other former colonies in the post war period.
The separation of children from their families and the significance of return and home featured in many Unit studies during the 1980s and 1990s. And the forced migration of children to Canada in the colonial period between 1867-1917 is the focus of a meticulous study by founder trustee Roy Parker, published last year.
Parker’s Uprooted considers the plight of some 80,000 British children – many under the age of ten – who were shipped from Britain to Canada by Poor Law authorities and voluntary bodies during the years following Confederation.
He examines the motives and methods of the people involved in both countries, why the policy ended, the effects on the children involved and their fate. He also explores the economic, political, social, medical, legal, administrative and religious aspects of the story.
He concludes with a review of evidence from more recent survivors of child migration, discussing the lifelong effects of their experiences with the help of modern psychological insights.
Such survivor testimony has provided a moving accompaniment to the Australian soul-baring that prompted this week’s UK announcement.
British Children's Secretary Ed Balls said the child migrant policy was "a stain on our society".
"The apology is symbolically very important," he told Sky News television. "I think it is important that we say to the children who are now adults and older people and to their offspring that this is something that we look back on in shame."
Uprooted can be purchased online from the Unit's Publications Page.
July 29 2009
Shortcomings in the quality and usefulness of needs assessments in children's services are discussed in a Research Unit article just published in Child & Family Social Work.
The article analyses 83 such reports conducted between 1999 and 2007 in two local authorities in England (one urban, one rural) and concludes that the picture is mixed at best. Even the better studies fall short of anything that can be relied upon as a robust basis for planning services.
Numerous small-scale qualitative studies try to ascertain what service users feel they need, but there are too few large-scale quantitative surveys using standardised measures with representative samples of children and families.
The authors identify the necessary features of roadworthy assessments and end with recommendations for how local authorities can make better use of those that make the grade.
Axford N, Green V, Kalsbeek A, Morpeth L and Palmer C (2009) ‘Measuring children’s needs: how are we doing?’, Child & Family Social Work 14 (3), 243-254.
August 02 2009
Need, rights, poverty, quality of life, social exclusion… by which reckoning should society define and measure children’s well-being?
In an essay just published in Child & Family Social Work, Unit researcher Nick Axford argues that while all five concepts inform policy objectives in western developed countries, the important differences between them are seldom articulated.
He explores the similarities and differences and uses data from a Unit community survey of an inner-London housing estate to discuss how closely the five are related. The overlap is less than one might expect: for example, 39% of the children were 'in need' and 42% had their rights violated but only 20% fell into both categories.
The article concludes that each of the five offers a unique perspective on child well-being, which in turn influences the orientation of services. For instance, needs-led services are more likely to focus on addressing impairment to health and development, whereas a quality of life angle will emphasise the potential for enriching children's lives.
The risk is that the variation may encourage policy makers to devise and enact policy initiatives that are inherently contradictory.
Axford, N. (2009) ‘Child well-being through different lenses: why concept matters’, Child & Family Social Work 14 (3), 372-383.
July 06 2009
The Unit has had an article accepted in the latest edition of the Research Ethics Review journal, the official publication of the Association of Research Ethics Committees.
The paper, written by Vashti Berry, describes the ethical difficulties facing researchers investigating family violence and its effects on children. It will be published in the 2009 edition, Volume 5, Issue 3.
It provides a case study from a project the Social Research Unit undertook in Dublin, ROI, to illustrate the problems surrounding decisions of informed consent, confidentiality and disclosure, distress and danger, and questioning children directly about their experiences of family violence.
The advice of the ethics committee and the solutions agreed by the research team are shared. The paper argues that greater reporting of ethical protocols and procedures by researchers would further debate in this field and that there is an urgent need for an agreed set of guidelines for ethical social research.
April 30 2009
‘Needs-led' is a mantra in children's services, but theorists still argue about what ‘need’ means and what value it has to science. A fresh appraisal of the state of play regarding the theory and definition of children’s needs and approaches to designing services is just published.
Nick Axford's addition to the Ashgate Library of Essays in Child Welfare and Development is a collection of 24 previously published articles from peer-reviewed journals. It sets about analysing the literature in order to help policy makers, managers, practitioners and researchers identify and serve children in their care.
There are contributions from key figures in the UK needs debate including Michael Rutter, Robert Goodman, Ian Gough and Roy Parker.