research report

Raised expectations: parental experiences of short breaks

Report that provides a snapshot of the experiences of parents of disabled children in order to highlight examples of good practice and identify possible areas of concern.

Findings do not cover a representative sample, so cannot reflect the progress of the short breaks programme as a whole, but provide real life examples of the way that impact can be made on the ground.

The influence of parents, places and poverty on educational attitudes and aspirations

Report that aims to better understand the relationship between young people’s aspirations and how they are formed.

It examines the nature of aspirations; explores how parental circumstances and attitudes, school, and opportunity structures come together to shape aspirations in deprived urban areas; and argues that the approach to intervention should be reconsidered.

Social housing and social exclusion 2000-2011

Report that assesses how much social housing tenants could be described as "socially excluded‟ in 2000, and whether and if so, how and by how much this had changed by 2011.

It explores how much any change in the social exclusion of social housing residents can be attributed to housing and regeneration policies, and how much to other factors, including broader housing and social exclusion policy, and economic and social change.

A review of the youth justice system in Northern Ireland

Review that was launched in 2010 by the Minister of Justice, David Ford, in furtherance of the Hillsborough Castle Agreement. Undertaken by an independent team of three people, its terms of reference were to critically assess the current arrangements for responding to youth crime and make recommendations for how these might be improved within the wider context of, among other things, international obligations, best practice and financially uncertain future.

Not a one way street : research into older people’s experiences of support based on mutuality and reciprocity : interim report

This paper outlines interim findings from an action research project called 'Not a one-way street', which is part of the Better Life programme. The project focuses on the various ways in which older people with high support needs take up active roles within different support arrangements based on 'mutuality and reciprocity'. This paper explores alternative approaches to planning, funding and providing long term care for older people with high support needs.

Interim report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in October 2011.

A study of recommendations arising from serious case reviews 2009-2010

Study that presents a critical, thematic analysis of recommendations from 33 of the serious case reviews (cases of child death or serious injury through abuse or neglect) completed in 2009-2010.

The central aim of the study was to consider what part recommendations can play in aiding agencies and individuals "to learn lessons to improve the way in which they work both individually and collectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children" (HM Government 2010:246).

Risky business?

Paper that sets important issues relating to positive risk-taking in adult social care in a legal context; considers how current care provision impacts on the human rights of service users; and analyses the extent to which the present regulatory and commissioning frameworks stifle or encourage risk-taking in adult social care.