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.

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.

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 examines the effectiveness of drug education in Scottish Schools. The research consisted of a literature review, a survey of schools, classroom observations and qualitative research with young people and was commissioned in response to the School Drug Safety Team’s recommendation for research into the outcomes and process of educating young people on drug related issues. Research was conducted between February 2004 and July 2005.

This pamphlet on commissioning research brings together papers from two Research in Practice seminars. Its central message is that research commissioned by child care agencies, including service evaluations, can bring clarity to children and family work provided certain considerations are borne in mind when planning and conducting studies and using the results. They include holding a sharp focus on the questions to be explored, choosing sympathetic, responsive researchers and having the skills to manage the contract.

This paper was written in response to the Hearts and Minds Agenda Group recommendation that research is conducted into the experiences of children of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) parents. This paper presents a review of the findings from eight papers identified by experts in the field and an internal literature search. It should be noted that these identified papers were predominantly focused on lesbian and gay parenting and not on parents identifying as bisexual or transgender.

This report provides findings from the third wave of a qualitative longitudinal study, which began in 2003, following a sample of lone mothers who elected to move into employment supported by tax credits following a period of unemployment in receipt of Income Support (or in a few cases Jobseeker's Allowance). The main aim of the research was to explore how lone mothers and their children manage and adapt to employment over time.

Policy document that sets out the Scottish Government's action plan for building on existing work to improve mental wellbeing in Scotland up until 2011 by identifying strategic priorities for action and putting in place the infrastructure support and coordination necessary to facilitate implementation and support delivery. The government is committed making sure adequate services are in plance and to working through social policy and health improvement activity to reduce the burden of mental health problems and mental illness and to promote good mental wellbeing.

This review focuses on one particular aspect of parenting and family life. It is about children living in families where a parent has mental health problems. The aim of this review is to identify – from a range of publications – sources and messages that might help practitioners and managers improve their understanding of the circumstances of children and families living with parental mental health problems, and find responses that have the potential for achieving positive change.