research and evaluation

Scottish Government report from the National Review of Guidance, providing 10 standards to develop personal support in Scottish schools. The standard for personal support provides a framework for building positive relationships and enabling pupils and parents to access support, and describes what must be in place in schools to ensure that all children progress in their learning and personal and social development.

This report seeks to uncover the difficulties and fears people experience in being paid for their contribution to services and those of the organisations who pay them. By revealing the issues and seeking to have them addressed, it will help in laying the foundations for proper and principled user involvement.

IRISS Podcast - Interview with Neil Lunt, a researcher and a lecturer from the University of York which is currently evaluating the initiative taken by Children First and Glasgow School Social Work to develop a practitioner research programme as part of the study he undertook a literature review on practitioner research and social services.

This report notes that there is an incomplete picture of family life in Britain. The scale of the contribution that the UK's 14 million grandparents are making is not fully known. This interim report uses new British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey data to begin to build a more comprehensive picture of Britain's grandparent population; looking at how it has changed over the last decade, and what financial implications becoming a grandparent might involve.

This report begins by asking why there should be investment in promotion and prevention. It then summarises what is known and gives examples of study findings on wellbeing, early intervention,, depression, suicide and workplace health promotion. Ongoing and future evaluations are noted and the need for more European assessments emphasised.

This is a practical guide to evaluating participation work in children's services. It covers evaluation planning; involving children and young people; ethics; methods; analysis; presenting findings; dissemination. There is an extensive list of further resources that cover the topics discussed in more depth, as well as details of several participation-related evaluation tools.

The National Drug Evidence Centre (NDEC, formerly Drug Misuse Research Unit) has long established expertise in drug misuse prevalence work, evaluative and outcomes research, the use of epidemiological indicators, and information in evidence based policy making. Senior staff are involved in national policy initiatives and in provision of advice regarding health care and criminal justice responses. NDEC is one of the leading units in the country engaged in research in the area of drug misuse.

Communication is a two-way process. Effective communication can improve the quality of life for a person with dementia. However, experts highlight that people with dementia lack the opportunity to talk and express their feelings about the quality of their own life and services they receive.

This research set out to investigate the parenting beliefs and practices of fathers from 29 'ordinary' two-parent families living in non-affluent neighbourhoods from four ethnic groups: White British, Black African, Black Caribbean and Pakistani.

On 11 March 2009, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation hosted a symposium on Basic income, social justice and freedom, jointly organised with the University of York's School of Politics, Economics and Philosophy. Based on themes from the work of eminent political philosopher Philippe Van Parijs, it discussed his argument for the introduction of a basic income paid unconditionally, without work requirements or means tests.