research report

Intensive family support: the evidence

Paper that brings together the Action for Children evidence base on intensive family support services. It is collated under a number of themes:

- keeping children safe
- keeping young people safety at home/out of care
- keeping children out of custody
- keeping children healthy
- improving children's relationships
- savings to the state and communities
- improving educational attainment
- reducing anti-social behaviour
- housing stability

'Don't make assumptions': children's and young people's views of the child protection system and messages for change

Research commissioned by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and carried out by a team from the University of East Anglia, it documents children and young people’s views of the child protection system and considers how these views might contribute to improving responses to abuse and neglect.

It aimed to gather the views of children and young people living with their parents, who all had a child protection plan in place. The research comes during a period when the child protection system in England is being reviewed.

Understanding society: early findings from the first wave of the UK's household longitudinal study

Representing a step-change in the ambition of social scientific research, this is the early findings of a longitudinal social survey, which will provide a unique and enduring window on British society in the 21st century.

It will allow researchers, policy-makers and the general public to learn about patterns of family life; people’s experiences of work and education; their health and their attitudes to key 21st century challenges, such as climate change and community cohesion, on a scale hitherto impossible.

"Trying to get by": consulting with children and young people on child poverty

To help ensure the 2011 strategy takes the perspectives of children and young people with direct experience of poverty into account, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to convene the discussion groups reported on here.

This report is based on consultation events held with children and young people in five locations across England.

Scotland: a safe place for child traffickers?

This scoping study on the extent and nature of child trafficking in Scotland was commissioned by Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People (SCCYP).

The purpose of the study was to provide the Commissioner with an understanding of child trafficking which would allow his office to make recommendations for policy, practice and legislative change and to use the results to raise awareness, among professionals and key stakeholders, of child trafficking.

Community consultation on poverty and ethnicity in Scotland

This study explores participants' experiences of poverty, their coping strategies and views on potential solutions. It involved interviews with 32 participants from four ethnic backgrounds (white Scottish, East European, Gypsy/Travellers and Chinese) in two Scottish regions: Fife and Highland. Stakeholders from the public and voluntary sectors were also consulted. Report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in April 2011.

Loneliness compendium: examples from research and practice

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT)'s action research programme 'Neighbourhood Approaches to Loneliness' looks at how a neighbourhood as a whole can support those who live with loneliness. This paper defines loneliness; explores how lonely people can be identified and engaged and outlines research and projects that could inform the Approaches to Loneliness programme.