QUARTERLY BRIEFING no 10
april 2002

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 60 participating local authorities and voluntary child care organisations.

Our mission is to support these agencies and the wider child care community in their determination to become more research minded as they strive to improve the lives of vulnerable children and families.

during the last 3 months

NIFTY ( Neat Informative F easible T imely Y ours) evaluation - helping with single service evaluations

This new development group (seven Partner agencies supported by the National Children's Bureau) has had two of their six planned meetings to develop their skills in single service evaluations. The evaluation topics are: (1) expanding the role of an existing Leaving Care service [run by NCH] to include Personal Advisors - Coventry, (2) the Child and Adolescent Support Service - Dudley, (3) the Children's Rights Service, commissioned via QP monies - Lancashire, (4) a new team to address the increasing number of looked after children - Leicester City, (5) Family Support as reconfigured following a Best Value review - Medway, (6) the work of a Family Centre - Southampton, and (7) a new adolescent resource base - West Berkshire. The second meeting concentrated on refining the evaluation questions, the range of available evaluation methods and the external information sources to support them.

after a lull.

Quality Protects Research Briefing 5
Adoption and Permanence for Children who Cannot Live Safely with Birth parents or Realtives

One hundred copies of the fifth Briefing have now been mailed by the Department of Health to all local authorities in England, and research in practice provides a similar quantity for its Partner and Member voluntary organisations. Written by June Thoburn, it reviews the available research and details key practical steps that policy makers and practitioners can take, and often must, in order to provide children with a family-for-life.

highlighting workforce development needs: submission to the Victoria Climbié Inquiry

Our Phase II submission focused on the challenges of knowledge acquisition. We highlighted:

• the dearth of good research on Black and Minority Ethnic children and families - including those coming into the country
  
• the need for greater commitment to developing this knowledge base
  
• the need to improve the status of researchers in the field and to promote suitable methodologies.

We argued that building an informed and thoughtful workforce is a vital component of a safer service. The strategic challenge is to shift the focus from 'how can we teach (or control) people?' to 'how can we help people learn?' Click here to view the full submission.

Making a Difference: Gender, race, religion
- symposium on 15 May 2002

Full details of this topical symposium for Partner agencies are now available on our website - click here and look in 'What's New'. Jabeer Butt (Race Equality Unit), Nasreen Ali (Centre for Research in Primary Care, University of Leeds) and Sara Scott (Barnardo's) will give keynote presentations, and Partner Agency practice sessions will be led by Birmingham, Lambeth, Leicester City and Wiltshire, alongside a website tutorial from research in practice. A few places are still available.

website continues to expand, so does support to use it

Look, for example, at the Register of Researchers , which now offers a greater range of searching methods. You can search by researcher (over 130 in the database), their chosen topics and methods, their key publications and current research studies - either by drop-down lists or free text search. If you are in a Member or Partner agency you should find the help you need on this unique, practice-focused, database. All these agencies have been sent a PC-based slide show with presentation notes, which they can use for in-house training to support understanding of how to use the website and how it can help staff locate the best research and policy information on the web. On May 21st, in Partnership with Hertfordshire Children, Schools and Families, we will run a 'What's on the Web' workshop - hands-on practice at accessing research information, alongside a demonstration and instruction in more effective Web searching.

in the next 3 months.

more research reviews for practitioners

A new review, on Problem Parental Drug Use and its Impact on Children is out for peer review by practitioners and researchers. To be published in June (on paper and on our website), it will review the most useful and robust research from Britain and abroad, and point to some useful service interventions. Bulk copies will be provided for all Member and Partner agencies; copies for others can be purchased from our Dartington office.

more Quality Protects Research Briefings

The Briefing on Youth Offending will be published to co-incide with the launch in July of good practice guidance on reducing offending by Looked After children. We expect to publish the seventh Briefing, on Disabled Children , by the summer, too. Drafts of Leaving Care , Physical Health of Young People, and Race and Ethnicity are also out for peer review.

another 1,000 training and development days on offer September 2002 onwards

Our Learning Events Programme for 2002-2003 will be sent to all Partner agencies next month. It offers five Research Messages Workshops, four Research Use Workshops, two Symposia - on raising educational achievement and on the links between research and the Victoria Climbié Inquiry recommendations, and four Modules (linked change and development days). The primary audience for the workshops and symposia is front-line staff and planners, while modules will be of most benefit to strategic managers and knowledge promoters.

new staff, new work, more services

The Sheffield team have completed their recruitment of management staff with the appointment of Colleen Eccles as Development Manager, Andrea Wigfield as Research Fellow (p/t) and Laura Lashmar as Communications Assistant (p/t). They will enhance several strands of work including the quality of Learning Events, the support provided to Link Officers and the evaluation of the impact of the research in practice approach within and between agencies in our network.

developing and sharing our knowledge

will contribute to the national SSRG conference on 22/24 April and to the London Region Service Heads QP residential on 25/26 April.

Support Officers' annual meeting

Support Officers and other colleagues from our Member agencies will have their first research update residential seminar in Dartington on 22/23rd May, where material will include a family support research review, and the research on and assumptions behind services for disabled parents.

join as a Member agency now!

As you will have noticed, services to our Member agencies are increasing all the time. As a Member, your agency will be among the first to gain direct benefit from the intensive work that Partner agencies are doing to deliver new materials and tools - such as the REAL Support for Evidence Based Practice Action Pack due in October 2002. Membership costs little and delivers a regular supply of reliable and tested materials - as well as opportunities to learn and to network with others similarly committed to making best use of the available research. We will provide hands-on support to embed the research in practice initiative into your wider agency strategy, for example by helping to plan and present a launch seminar, as we did in Merton last month. research in practice Director, Celia Atherton, will be at the ADSS Spring Seminar in Torquay and there, as elsewhere, will be happy to discuss in more detail how Membership can help your agency deliver on your key objectives and targets. Or contact our Development Officer, Sal Lodge, email: sal@rip.org.uk

tell us

If you have other comments or suggestions, please contact Celia Atherton in Dartington, or one of the directors on the Management Board: Rob Hutchinson (Portsmouth), Julie Jones - Chair (Westminster), Bernard Walker (Wigan), Jo Williams (Cheshire) or Penny Thompson (Sheffield).

for more information about joining the research in practice network or any other matter please contact:

Celia Atherton at research in practice
Blacklers, Park Road
Dartington, Totnes TQ9 6EQ
tel: 01803 867692  email: celia@rip.org.uk

or research in practice
Children and Families Research Group
Elmfield
University of Sheffield S10 2TU
tel: 0114 222 6484  email: c.eccles@sheffield.ac.uk