research centres

Building community capacity

This Key Issue no.6, from Research in Practice for Adults is aimed at social care practitioners and managers. It explains what we mean by social capital and its importance as part of social care transformation. It brings together some of the key learning from the Building Community Capacity project, part of the Think Local Act Personal Partnership, and gives examples of best practice from across the country in supporting strong communities. Report published in April 2012.

Young people, and gun and knife crime: a review of the evidence

This is the outcome of an extensive review of evidence about the effectiveness of interventions designed to tackle children and young people's involvement in gun and knife crime. It discusses predicting who is most likely to be involved in violent crime, the impact of where children and young people live on their involvement, how young people's relationships, perceptions and choices affect involvement, anti-gun and anti-knife interventions, and youth offending and youth violence research, ending with conclusions.

Older people’s attitudes to automatic awards of Pension Credit

This research looks at older people’s attitudes to the principle of automating parts of the Pension Credit awards process. Three key advantages to automation are highlighted: its capacity to raise awareness of entitlement, its ability to reduce perceptions of stigma, and its convenience. Although the study also reveals concerns about automation, such as privacy, these were rarely felt to be insurmountable and the advantages were generally thought to outweigh them.

Qualitative evaluation of the Jobseeker Mandatory Activity (JMA)

This report presents the findings of a qualitative evaluation of the Jobseeker Mandatory Activity (JMA) pilot. The JMA provided extra support to help Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) claimants back into the labour market.

The focus was on those aged 25 years or more that had been claiming benefits for six months. The intervention comprised a three-day work-focused course delivered by external providers followed by three Jobcentre Plus personal adviser interviews. The pilot was tested in ten areas over a two-year period with the first customers entering provision in April 2006.