Government Social Research
Welcome to this double issue GSR bulletin
Please use the links below to navigate to sections of interest to you.
Visit Research news and the homepage for more details of the following stories and more recent items.
- deadline for submission 30 September 2006
A full and entertaining programme of information and activity is promised
for this year's GSR conference. Details on the conference website at www.gsrconference2006.com/
. Still some delegate places available - check with your line manager that
funding is available, then see the booking details on the website.
GSR Recruitment and Objective Assessment training course -
an essential course for those involved in recruiting to, and promoting staff
within, the Government Social Research service. New dates in October and
November 2006 have been announced. Read
full details of the courses and book
online.
Welsh Assembly Government researchers' awayday 18 July
- report
Welsh Assembly Government is to carry out a review of the
equalities evidence base to support the Assembly Government's strategic
objectives and statutory obligations. They are looking for a Senior Research
Officer to join OCSRO on a 12 month secondment basis to work on the project.
The deadline for responses is 18 September and they hope to have someone
in post by October. A copy of the letter and the person specification is
available from WAG's Chief Social Research Officer - Angela
Evans.
Department for Constitutional Affairs has launched its
2006 research funding programme. This year's programme focuses on reviews
of existing evidence, and they are primarily inviting proposals with methodologies
focusing on systematic literature reviews. The closing date for proposals
is 17 October 2006. Click
here for more details.
Acas are researching the impacts of the 2003 Sexual Orientation
and Religion or Belief employment equality legislation. For further details
please contact Ben Savage at Acas.
Home Office announce a new study to examine whether a special
unit or other supporting infrastructure is needed to support policy evaluation.
The successful contractor will be announced shortly and the study should
report this financial year. For further details contact Robin Elliott-Marshall
at the Home Office on 020 7035 3423.
Department for Transport publish
Transport Technology & Standards 2006/07 Choice & Public Transport Research - contains information about planned research being undertaken through the Transport Technology and Standards programme.
The
Rail Group Evidence and Research Strategy 2006 - summarises research
activities within the Rail Group. It outlines the evidence needs that
are being met and those which need addressing.
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) launch Social
Care Research Capacity Consultation - aims to develop resources and structures
for research that is intended to improve social care services, policies
and practices. This is a UK wide consultation on behalf of government
stakeholders. Use the following link to find out more about this exercise
and to complete the on line questionnaire or access a pdf version of the
questionnaire http://www.scie.org.uk/scrc/index.asp
and return the completed document by free post to SCIE.
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has published
its ‘Delivery
Plan’ 2006 which updates its priorities for the next three years.
Its sets 7 ‘strategic objectives’ with detailed decisions under
each of them: Seizing opportunities in research; Creating opportunities
in research; Strengthening capacity - people and disciplines; Providing
capacity in data and ensuring methods development; Engagement with stakeholders
and the public; International benchmarking of performance; Maximising international
presence and opportunities.
Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) - a firm decision has now been made to integrate the Survey of English Housing and the English House Condition Survey from April 2008. It is proposed that the survey will comprise interviews with around 20k households a year with a follow up physical inspection of around 8k of these properties. Further development work on the design of the new household questionnaire will be ongoing throughout 2006/07 and 2007/08 with a view to developing an interview of manageable length that collects all the high priority information of the two existing surveys. Further information at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/about/Consultations/english_house.asp
Researchers migrate to search engines - report in Library and Information Update, September 2006 Vol 5 (9)
Academic journals publishing too much poor-quality research - report in Library and Information Update, September 2006 Vol 5 (9)
Beyond the work ethic and new principles for welfare - argues that more empirical evidence in the social sciences by itself is not enough. Says that we need good social research to inform and transform the policy context but we also need to bypass certain academic dispositions like our much-vaunted commitment to objectivity and value free research, without giving up on the intellectual values they embody.
Judgments during information seeking: emerging themes from an exploratory study into the concept of enough information - reports on ongoing doctoral research into how, in an information-rich environment, workers assess they have enough information to complete the task at hand. While human information behaviour researchers are beginning to explore the concept of enough information, the subtleties that shape this assessment remain under-researched.
Crime statistics: user perspectives (Report no.30) - calls for changes in arrangements for crime statistics. It makes a number of recommendations which the Statistics Commission will now be pursuing with the Home Office and others. Click for more details.
Welsh Assembly Government publish the results of its first ever Assembly Government wide Stakeholder Survey . The aim of the survey was to provide information that would help officials in the Assembly Government further improve the way they involve and engage with their stakeholders in delivering improved public services. Ipsos MORI were commissioned by the Office of the Chief Social Research Officer to undertake the survey.
Department of Health publish Evaluation of Your Health, Your Care, Your Say - one of the largest and most ambitious public engagement exercises ever mounted in the UK. The evaluation study aimed to come to conclusions about the extent to which the methodology chosen and the delivery of YHYCYS met the objectives set, and draw out learning for future public engagement activity.
ESRC project `Exploring
Online Methods in a Virtual Training Environment' completed at University
of Leicester - training portal which aims to enhance understanding of both
the theoretical and practical aspects of online research methods including
web-based questionnaires and virtual synchronous and asynchronous interviews.
It also covers ethical issues of online research and includes good practice
case studies.
Scottish Executive have published the following research:
Choose life - two year evaluation of a 10 year strategy and action plan which aims to reduce the suicide rate in Scotland by 20%.
Evaluation of post school psychological services (PSPS) in Scotland
What do we measure and why?: an evaluation of CitiStat in the Scottish public sector
A literature review of the social economic and environmental impact of architecture and design
Welsh Assembly Government publish Beyond boundaries: citizen-centred local services for Wales (the Beecham Report) which reinforces the importance of evidence based policy making.
Mathematica publish "semimonthly" updates - contents include: Disease management: has implementation outpaced evidence?; Teacher training: new report examines passport to teaching.
Defra publish Influencing behaviours - key outputs from the 2005-06 cross-cutting research programme on Pro-Environmental Behaviour Change. The findings have also been incorporated into ten practical guides for policy-makers and practitioners and key messages from all projects have been summarised into a one-page A3 ‘poster’. All the outputs are now available at:
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/government/task-forces/behaviour-change.htm#Research
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/government/task-forces/behaviour-change.htm
Intute - UK - "... a free online
service providing access to the very best web resources for education and
research. The service is created by a network of UK universities and partners.
Subject specialists select and evaluate the websites in our database and
write high quality descriptions of the resources. The database contains
113315 records." [website]
Includes portals to : Science and Technology; Arts and Humanities; Social
Sciences (see below); Health and Life Sciences
Intute: Social Sciences
- includes links to:
Economics - Education - Environmental Sciences - Government Policy - Human
Geography - Politics - Psychology - Research Tools and Methods - Social
Welfare - Sociology - Statistics and Data - Women's Studies
Visit the Bulletin
Archive to view the contents of previous Bulletins.
See the updated External
events page for news of opportunities in 2006.
Copy deadline for next Bulletin is 11 October 2006