NetWork 15
summer 2003

which is circulated as an email attachment and as a website posting as well as on paper. We hope this three-pronged approach helps you to spread the latest news about your work with and on behalf of the research in practice network more easily - and more widely.

champions for children

The Department of Health Choice Protects team explain:

'Choice Protects is the government's review of placement services for looked after children. A Choice Protects grant of £113 million will be paid to local authorities over three years, and in 2003-4 £19.75 million has been paid to local authorities to expand and strengthen their fostering services.' For more information about Choice Protects,visit http://www.doh.gov.uk/choiceprotects:(new window) . If you would like to receive a regular emailed Choice Protects update bulletin.

'I am pleased to endorse this new series of research briefings,which has been specifically crafted for councillors.As elected members,we are deluged with material;it is often very useful, but we simply do not have time to read it all.Policy and research development around children's services is changing almost daily;it is vitally important that we are up to speed,particularly in the light of the Green Paper on children at risk which is expected soon. Tools like these briefings will help us to make the right decisions.'
Councillor Alison King, Chairman LGA Social Affairs and Health Executive.

headlined in this issue:

• what's happened in the last three months
  
• what's coming up in the next three months
  
• it 's new and it 's more NIFTY
  
• new Learning Events Programme for 2003/2004

during the last three months

After Victoria:

• Learning from experience and research
  In the light of the report of the Victoria Climbié Inquiry, Symposium delegates had an opportunity to reflect on relevant research and research-based service developments, hear from policy makers and consider better safeguards for vulnerable children. Issues covered included training and professional development, multi-agency working and culturally appropriate practice.

Raising Educational Attainment for Vulnerable Children

• Poor educational achievement is a significant contributor to the social exclusion experienced by many care leavers in later life. This symposium considered how attainment levels could be increased and educational access improved and how research might be more closely integrated into policy and practice. There were keynote speakers from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), the National Foundation for Educational Research and the Social Exclusion Unit project Children in Care.

  'Thought provoking, measured, reinforcing messages and lively speakers.'
  'All very interesting and very relevant to day-to-day working.'

SOAM in Derbyshire

• The Support Officers Annual Meeting is a chance to capitalise on the output of the research in practice network, catch up on recent developments in evidence informed practice, share new ideas and make plans. This year 's meeting offered sessions on recent service developments for children and families and in-depth treatment of specific areas such as Educational Attainment, the Climbié Inquiry, Kinship Care and Partnership Working. Delegates were also invited to give their views on the new Support Officers' Pack .

  'The Support Officers Annual Meeting helped me to go away re-enthused and much keener to link back to our key research base.'

directors meet at Warwick

• The Directors ' Policy Forum at the University of Warwick covered latest research and the implications of Government policy on asylum seeking children and families, service delivery in the wake of the Victoria Climbié Report, strategies for improving dialogue with children, identifying and measuring cross-disciplinary outcomes and using the evidence base to develop local services.

Learning Events Programme complete

This year's learning events programme came to an end in June. Its two symposia,three modules, four research messages workshops and five research support workshops all addressed a practical aspect of evidence based practice, squaring national issues with relevant research and the realities of promoting research and evidence-based initiatives in small front-line teams. The new programme for October 2003 to June 2004 takes into account the year's feedback: areas of satisfaction have been consolidated, improvements made where necessary and new subject areas added. Suggestions are always welcome.
Please contact Colleen Eccles, Development Manager,on 0114 222 6484 or
c.eccles@sheffield.ac.uk

a full team at research in practice

• Tim Hollinshead has been appointed to provide maternity cover for Sheffield office Communications Assistant, Laura Lashmar. Tim will be in the role until Laura 's return in February 2004. Piers Colombini has been appointed as Website Manager in the Dartington office.

no passwords needed for www.rip.org.uk

• As a result of our new partnership arrangement with SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence), there has been a substantial increase in traffic. The deal is also freeing resources for developing the range of services provided to Partner and Member agencies.

help for Support Officers

• Following the success of the Link Officer Pack we have produced one to help Support Officers carry out their role. It was introduced at the Support Officers' Annual Meeting and is available from our website.

during the coming three months

new Conference for Member agencies

• We will soon be sending out details of a new event for our Member agencies. This will be a conference on Early Years and Early Interventions, to be held in Birmingham at the end of November. We will offer five places to each and encourage a selection of participants from local agencies working in partnership across Health, Education and the Voluntary Sector.

Child Protection -everybody's business

• We have produced the seventh in a series of audiotapes (now also on CD). It reviews current research knowledge on Child Protection, considering definitions, what we know about the children we are most concerned to protect through professional service provision, and what research suggests about the strategic context. It reviews the front-line services that appear to be most effective in preventing abuse or re-abuse. A full transcript of the CD, with selected references chosen by each of the contributors, will soon be available.
  
• Workplan and Annual Report
  The Annual Report has been re-styled this year to reflect the work of research in practicebetter. It includes contributions from staff, Link and Support Officers and others in the network. This allows us to concentrate in more detail on some key aspects of our work. The Workplan and the Annual Report will be mailed to all Partner and Member agencies at the beginning of August.

Child and adolescent mental health for children in need

• This new Quality Protects Research Briefing, will be out this quarter and distributed to all local authorities by the Department of Health. It has been written by Ian Butler, Professor of Social Work at the University of Keele and Heather Payne from the University of Wales College of Medicine.

It 's new and it 's more NIFTY (Neat, Informative, Feasible, Timely, Yours)

The new handbook - NIFTY evaluation: an introductory handbook for social care staff - will be published shortly. It is the first in a new series of practical handbooks derived from our development projects which are designed to deliver tried and tested methods for building evidence-informed practice into services for vulnerable children and their families. The NIFTY handbook is an aspect of research in practice's efforts to support better evaluation. In collaboration with the National Children's Bureau we have been helping non research specialists to embed evaluation skills into their day-to-day work. Author Catherine Shaw explains and explores the processes and outcomes of the initiative.

Following the success of the previous NIFTY project,we will start a second NIFTY project in the Autumn 2003. The project will run along the same lines. Six agencies will be able to take part and we will provide tuition,consultancy, mentoring and networking support to those wishing to develop their skills and confidence in conducting and commissioning single service evaluations. It is particularly targeted at people without research skills. This time round we will post relevant material, used during the span of the project, on our website. The project will result in the publication of a second handbook - a 'how to ' step--by-step guide to DIY evaluation.
For more information please contact Sal Lodge,
Development Officer: sal@rip.org.uk or 01803 867692

new Learning Events Programme for 2003/2004

summer diary

what is research in practice?

• our Learning Events Programme
• our website
• the networking and developmental opportunities that we co-ordinate and
• the publications and resources that we send to Partners, Members and Associates on a regular basis.

For more information please contact:
Sal Lodge
research in practice
Blacklers, Park Road
Dartington Hall
Totnes
Devon
TQ9 6EQ
Tel:01803 867692
Email: sal@rip.org.uk

or

Colleen Eccles
research in practice
Children and Families Research
Group
Elmfield Building
University of Sheffield
Sheffield
S10 2TU
Tel:0114 222 6484 Email: c.eccles@sheffield.ac.uk

For Membership enquiries please
contact sal@rip.org.uk
Tel:01803 867692

This briefing provides an update on developments in the research in practice network, a creative partnership between the Association of Directors of Social Services, The Dartington Hall Trust, the University of Sheffield and over 75 participating local authorities, voluntary childcare organisations and their local partners. Our mission is to support these agencies and the wider childcare community in their determination to become more research-minded as they strive to improve the lives of vulnerable children and their families.

research in practice is a department of The Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee and registered in England as a charity.