QUARTERLY BRIEFING issue 11 july 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 childcare 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
Quality Protects Research Briefing 6: Meeting the needs of disabled children.
Copies of the sixth Briefing have now been published and will be distributed by the Department of Health to all local authorities in England.
research in practice also distributes this briefing to its Partner and Member voluntary organisations. This issue is written by Tricia Sloper, Professor of Children's Healthcare in the Social Policy Research Unit, University of York. She reviews the available research and sets out "what helps" in terms of family support, short-term breaks and domiciliary services, play and leisure services and consulting children and families. This publication is also available in full on our website.
new research review for practitioners
A new review, Parental drug misuse - a review of impact and intervention studies, by Jo Tunnard is now available. It reviews the most useful and robust research from Britain and abroad, and points to some useful service interventions. Bulk copies will be provided for all Member and Partner agencies and copies for others can be purchased from our Dartington office.
Developing and sharing our knowledge: opportunities for networking, hearing about research, good practice and service developments......
Making a Difference:
Gender, race, religion - symposium on 15 May 2002
A report of our recent symposium held in Birmingham on 15 May 2002 for Partner agencies is now available on our website. This symposium set out to explore different aspects of diversity in relation to gender, ethnicity, race and religion and to consider the practice and policy implications for social care staff working with children and families from current research findings.
Salman Sayyid from Salford University focused on current theoretical perspectives related to diversity in Britain today; Sara Scott, Principal Research Officer with Barnardo's, explored what is known about gender inequalities and the implications for services for children in need and their families; Jabeer Butt, Deputy Director of the REU (formerly Race Equality Unit), presented an overview of research messages related to services that are sensitive to ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious needs.
first Support Officers' annual meeting
We successfully held our first Annual Support Officers Meeting at Dartington this year. We were keen to offer a stimulating and enjoyable programme to underpin the commitment of Members and new Members to developing the contribution of research to planning and delivering services.
Mike Fisher from the Social Care Institute for Excellence explained SCIE's role in developing knowledge and practice in social care. Derek Gardiner from the Department of Health discussed the use of evidence in the Children's Services Framework. Michele Wates (disabled parent, writer and researcher) examined assumptions about disabled parents and research and Jo Tunnard presented a research review of effective family support interventions. There was plenty of opportunity to discuss the role of Support Officers - our link with Member agencies - and how
research in practice can support that role.
Directors' Policy Forum
Directors and Service Heads from our Partner and Member agencies met at their annual seminar on 2/3 July to hear latest research findings, and place them within the national policy context and the drive to improve the workforce knowledge base. The forum offered a wide range of speakers concentrating on outcomes and on making them work for children.
Tony Newman from Barnardo's reviewed some recent research about promoting children's resilience, and we were presented with some messages from research about shaping the future and using a strategic approach for knowledge use.
Councillors and Trustees Annual Seminar in Sheffield.
Councillors and Trustees from our Partner and Member agencies met on two hot days in July. The very full programmefocused on Parents and Parenting, presented by both academics and practitioners. The first day set the context with the work of the National Family and Parenting Institute and then offered policy and practice messages from the National Evaluation of the Youth Justice Board's Parenting Programme as well as hearing about good practice projects in Cambridgeshire for Family Support Services. Day two began with the contribution SCIE makes to research on parenting and issues around drug and alcohol misuse and the effectiveness of parenting and support programmes. Descriptions of good practice projects were then heard, focusing on a parenting group in Macclesfield based on Webster Stratton.
We continue to develop and improve our Website and to develop support for its use.
Our new Webguide and Newsposter about the Website have been published and distributed to all Partner and Member agencies. We hope these will both support and encourage the use of the website amongst agency staff at all levels.
The website itself offers new and updated useful information, particularly in the Reading Room where the research reviews have been updated, and in the evidencebank which now offers a much greater range of reviews. You can now see the last research review by Jo Tunnard; Parental problem drinking and its impact on children, fully referenced and in full text on the website. You will also find our new research messages from the workshop run by Nina Biehal and John Whiteside: Preventing accommodation away from home: support services for adolescents. We are now collecting selected exercises from our workshop programme for trainers and teams to use as they wish. You will find these on the website in Development Materials.
In Partnership with Hertfordshire Children, Schools and Families,
research in practice ran a 'What's on the Web' workshop for Partner agencies in May. In future it will be designed for specified levels of skill in using the Internet.
We are currently improving and standardising our website use and trend data collection and collation. Some of these results will be published and sent out to all Link and Support Officers.
in the next 3 months.
New Learning Events Programme now out
Our new Learning Events Programme for 2002/03 has been sent to all Link Officers. This year we are offering Partner agencies an even wider range of learning events: Workshops, Modules and two Symposia. The deadline for guaranteed places was 12 July. Available places will still be on offer after that date. Sarah Cook started as our new full time Events Secretary giving our events team a full compliment of staff. Sarah will be responsible for co-ordinating the administration of the Learning Events Programme and will be the first point of call for all enquiries from Link Officers relating to bookings. Sarah can be contacted at our Sheffield office on 0114 2226482 or email her on s.f.cook@sheffield.ac.uk.
Join as a Member Agency now!
We are currently recruiting more Members to our network. A letter was sent to all Directors and Children and Families Service Heads who are not currently Members or Partners, inviting them to join
research in practice and detailing the benefits of Membership. We continue to respond to an increasing number of enquiries about Membership.
Sal Lodge, Development Officer for
research in practice at Dartington will be happy to answer enquiries about Membership or send you further information. You can contact her by e mail sal@rip.org.uk or on 01803 867692.
Link Officer Pack
We are now developing a Briefing Pack for new Link Officers, in consultation with a group of Link Officers, in order to improve communications and continuity between
research in practice and participating agencies. The pack will address both the administrative aspect of the role of Link Officer and the developmental role we hope Link Officers will take in partnership with
research in practice. We hope this will make the Link Officer's role easier and more manageable.
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: rip@sheffield.ac.uk
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