quarterly briefing 4 issue 4 april 2000
This briefing sheet aims to keep you up-to-date with the latest achievements and plans at
research in practice and among its 56 member agencies. Together we are working to improve the relevance and use of research in the development of more effective services for vulnerable children and their families.
during the last three months.
website offers more
Our Guide to on-line resources is now live - with direct links to key sites and pages. If you want to find the DH Quality Protects pages we take you there directly: no more fruitless and frustrating searching. You can access a carefully chosen set of policy and research sites. We are also the web publishers of the full text of the new John Rowntree Foundation research report on Fathers and Family Centres. This version allows you to use the methodology to evaluate relevance to your work and to adopt it for your own evaluations. And the fully referenced version of the first Quality Protects Research Briefing on education is available too (see below). At the same time, we are developing a new, more comprehensive, website, building on what we offer already and widening the focus as a learning and resource zone.
Quality Protects Research Briefings
We are spearheading the production of a series of Research Briefings to give practical help to front-line workers delivering improved services within the Quality Protects initiative. A partnership with the Department of Health and Making Research Count will deliver 100 of each of six Research Briefings to every local authority in England over the next year. The first, on the subobjectives relating to education, was written by our Research Manager, Rosemary Hunt, and will be launched
at the ADSS Spring Seminar. Each QPRB contains a short overview of the research evidence on the objective or sub-objective, identifies services and practices that offer greater prospects for successful outcomes and points to what can be done.
helping your key staff to network
Local authorities bemoan the lack of easy opportunities to discuss issues of common concern and to learn from each other. Our new Link Officer email discussion group may help by providing the necessary fast connection to realize these aims. Over two thirds of our 56 Link Officers (second or third tier officers) use email and they are now part of a network that enables them, at a click, to send out a query, start or join a discussion or respond with tips. The first search for help concerned good practice in meeting QP education objectives. We will also collate examples of the good practice identified and circulate them around the country at the same time.
support for the use of evidence across agencies
Our annual strategy seminar took place on 28 March, focusing on evidencebased work to improve educational outcomes for children in need, especially those in public care. Member agency staff with strategic responsibility came with a similarly placed partner from their Education department. Keynote presentations from Tim Brighouse, Birmingham's Chief Education Officer; Felicity Fletcher-Campbell, Principal Research Officer at the National Foundation for Educational Research, and Margaret Manning, Psychologist with Bournemouth SSD were supported by a set of presentations of current work by local authorities. A central message from the day was the value of trying out new ideas, but only where a framework of monitoring and review was already in place.
workshop places going, nearly gone
This year's workshops, for front-line managers are proving as popular as ever - to date, over 1,000 places having been allocated for a programme running to the end of December. We intend to build on this enthusiasm and over-subscription by translating some of the materials into distance learning resources available on our website and by building on the established format to help new learning become better embedded in agencies.
new membership opportunities
Many local authorities and the larger voluntary organisations want to join current member agencies in our joint endeavour to use research effectively. Because the membership quota is full, we have been forced to turn people away: openings for new members will not arise until September 2001. In the meantime it has been decided to offer a limited number of Associate Membership (AM) places. Associate Members will have access to the complete range of our materials: audiotapes, paper research overviews, newsposters as well as more comprehensive access to our website than non-members, relieving AMs of the need to check on what is becoming available. Associate Members will also receive copies of most materials mailed over the last three years. The enrolment cost is currently £2,500 a year. If you are interested, please contact the director, Celia Atherton at Dartington.
helping staff become research minded
We are collaborating with the University of Southampton on a DH commissioned production of a website to support staff wishing to develop their ability to make good use of research. With limited opportunities to go to training courses, and evidence that short, one-off events do not have lasting effects, an on-line, open access, learning resource is likely to be of great value to agencies and individuals alike. The site should be live by the summer.
in the next three months.
ADSS Spring Seminar
Celia Atherton will co-lead a parallel workshop on Evidence Based Work with David Johnstone and Tony Hunter at the ADSS Spring Seminar on 12 April. Together they will outline the challenges and prospects facing the ADSS and individual directors if they are to seize the opportunity to set the agenda for evidence based activity within and on behalf of their agencies. The workshop will be participative in style - creating the chance for all members of the Association to determine the direction that ADSS should take on this increasingly important topic.
Directors' Policy Forum 15 and 16 June
This annual seminar enables directors to reflect on and debate the critical current and potential policy developments in the children and families field. Speakers include Rob Smith, Director of the Pupil Support & Inclusion Group at the DfEE; Mary McLeod, Chief Executive of the new National Family and Parenting Institute; Dennis Simpson from the Audit Commission; and David Quinton, who is writing the overview of the DH 'Parenting Support' research programme. The seminar will also see the launch of a newly commissioned overview of research on the impact of domestic violence on children. plus.
website launch
Our redesigned and expanded website will be launched on 15 June. It will include a number of new features, including the ability for viewers to make their own contributions to book reviews, research reviews, examples of good, evaluated practice - and to buy recommended texts on-line.
Elected Members' Seminar 10 and 11 July
The theme of this year's seminar, taking place in Sheffield, is child and adolescent mental health. It includes a research overview of the issues from Peter Wilson, director of YoungMinds; presentations from service groups, including young people; an exploration via the Looking After Children materials of the needs and services for children in public care with mental health needs; and consideration of the impact of the media's presentation of these issues.
ADSS Research Conference
Jo Cooke, our Associate Director, will give a keynote presentation at the ADSS conference in Manchester on 12/13 June, outlining the main provision and gaps in research concerning services to children and their families.
have your say
If you have comments or suggestions, please contact Celia Atherton, the director, in Dartington, or one of the directors on the management Board: Julie Jones - Chair (Westminster), Ray Jones (Wiltshire), Richard Jones (St Helens), or Penny Thompson (Sheffield).
For more information
about anything in this Quarterly Briefing or any other
research in practice matter please contact
Celia Atherton at
research in practice,
Warren House, Warren Lane,
Dartington, Totnes TQ9 6EG
Tel: 01803 867692
email: celia@rip.org.uk
Jo Cooke at
research in practice,
Children and Families Research
Group, Elmfield, University of
Sheffield S10 2TU,
Tel: 0114 222 6484
email: j.m.cooke@sheffield.ac.uk
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