The third Evaluation Guide in the EIU Evaluation series, it outlines three broad types of evaluation design; observational/descriptive, before and after, and comparative. It briefly discusses research methods for each of these designs and give examples from the drugs field.
Scottish Ministers issued for consultation 23 proposals for the reform of children’s services and invited all those with an interest to let us know what they thought.
This report represents the plan implemented by the Scottish Government in order to reduce the bureaucracy that gets in the way of ensuring children are protected. Children must have their needs met and, where necessary, action must be taken to protect others from children’s behaviour.
This report summarises the final evaluation report of the Working for Families Fund (WFF) programme from 2004-08. It was carried out by the Employment Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh, for the Scottish Government over this period.
Over the four years the budget for WFF was £50 million, a total of 25,508 clients were registered, 53% of all clients (13,594) achieved 'hard' outcomes, such as employment, and a further 13% (3,283) achieved other significant outcomes.
This literature review is one of a series of projects jointly commissioned by DCSF and DH to improve the evidence base on recognition, effective intervention and inter-agency working in child abuse and explores the concept of ‘neglect’ as it applies to adolescents.
The review draws together information from research in other countries on this topic, and also considers a range of other relevant UK and international literature. It considers the practice, policy and research implications of the literature, and has also informed other products of this project.
A research report identifying interventions that appeared to make the most differences in terms of both the educational experience and the educational outcomes of the looked after children and young people participating in the pilot projects.
The report was produced by Strathclyde University and published by the Scottish Government.
One year ago the Scottish Government launched Scotland’s first drugs strategy since devolution. Central to the strategy was a new approach to tackling problem drug use based firmly on the concept of recovery. The action set out in the strategy reflects that tackling drug use requires action across a broad range of areas. This progress report takes the same approach.
Conference report which provides an overview of key research findings presented by the main speakers at the conference.
In addition, it summarises the discussions of the three parallel workshops, in which participants were asked to identify three current opportunities for getting research into practice more effectively, and three barriers which may prevent research influencing practice.
This report summarises the findings of the Final Evaluation of the Working for Families Fund (WFF). WFF, which operated from 2004-08, invested in initiatives to remove childcare barriers and improve the employability of disadvantaged parents who have barriers to participating in the labour market, specifically to help them move towards, into, or continue in employment, education or training. The programme was administered by 20 local authorities (which covered 79% of Scotland’s population), operating through around 226 locally based public, private and third-sector projects.
Evidence-based policy and practice increasingly demands the use of research as a key tool to improve practice. However, little research can be directly applied to practice, many practitioners aren't equipped to digest research and appropriate support systems are lacking. What is needed is a better understanding of the relationship between social care research and the work of social care practitioners, including what organisational structures are needed to enable the use of research.