Government Social Research
Welcome to the June GSR bulletin.
Please use the links below to navigate to sections of interest to you.
Visit the Homepage and Research news pages for more recent items.
Rebecca
Hutten, a PRO at the Department for Work and Pensions, and GSR member for
the past 15 and a half years, is leaving the Civil Service in June, to take
up an academic consultancy at Sheffield University in the field of mental
health. In future, she can be contacted at: hutten@btinternet.com
We wish her every success.
George
Clark recently retired as Head of Social Research at the Department for
Work and Pensions (DWP) after 30 years in government. In From
non-PC to PC: the world of government social research he talks about
how the profession has both grown and changed, and the new challenges it
faces.
Iain Noble, SRO in DfES, gave a paper (The mixed message: consistency in answers to an ethnicity question) in May to the prestigious annual conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in Anaheim, California. The paper looked at young people's consistency in their answers to the harmonised ethnicity question in repeated interviews over time. It also compared their answers to those of their parents about them and to data about them on official records. Among the findings are that, while overall consistency over time is high, it is much lower for those describing themselves at the first interview as 'Mixed' or 'Other'. In addition, a significant number of those recorded as 'Black Caribbean' on official records, opt for another description when interviewed face to face.
The data for this paper came from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) which Iain manages for DfES. An updated version of the paper will be available through DfES in the near future while further details of the LSYPE can be found at the ESDS website
Whitehall
and Westminster World Civil Service Awards: Call for entries: deadline
27 July - New categories for this year include Diversity, Financial Management
and Public Value. The nominations process is now open and you can complete
your nominations easily and conveniently online. These awards have quickly
established themselves as a premier opportunity to promote and celebrate
good work and achievement across the civil service. Please identify work
in your area that can be entered.
Time is running out to apply for a place on this prestigious post graduate
qualification: Government
Social Research Masters degree - "essential that researchers understand
both the policy context and how current analytical thinking and techniques
can be applied. This qualification is expressly designed to help them to
do that, whilst adding to government’s collective expertise”
Sue Duncan. Deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July.
Academy of Social Sciences: Jo Campling Memorial Prize: deadline 31 July
2007 - To mark the contribution of the late Jo Campling to the furthering
of the social sciences, the prize is aimed at capacity building for the
social science community through inviting scholars who are still developing
their careers to contribute an 8000 word essay on a topic of their choice
fitting to the scope of the journal 21st Century Society. Papers should
be emailed to acssjournal@ioe.ac.uk
Welsh Assembly Government publish report on ‘Working together’ - joint meeting between Scottish Executive, Office of the Chief Researcher and Welsh Assembly Government, Office of the Chief Social Research Officer; Cathays Park, Cardiff, April 2007
2 GSRU reports launched at the Joint Analytical Heads of Profession meeting on 30 April 2007 were the top downloads from GSRweb in May. The reports look at how evidence is viewed and used by policy makers, and the different structures in which analysts work to provide it.
Scottish Executive publish the next issue of the Children,
Young People and Social Care Analytical Newsletter at the end of June -
quarterly newsletter targeted primarily at Scottish Executive staff, but
also available to external partners and stakeholders. It focuses on Scotland,
but also includes UK and international items of particular significance.
Covers analytical publications (research, stats and economics), other key
reports recently published, top news, and events, relating to a wide range
of policy areas such as child protection, youth justice, early years, parenting,
and youth work.
If you would like your name to be added to the distribution list, please
email the editor, marie-amelie.viatte@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.
National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) announce call for the second round of nodes. Closing date is 24 July 2007
Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, begin user consultation for ESRC-commissioned UK Household Longitudinal Survey
The Welsh Assembly Government are developing a quality assurance framework for WAG social research, to set out the key stages of the research process and who is required to provide “input” at each stage. Crucially, it will also highlight where “sign-off” is required and who is responsible for quality assuring specific outputs. For details contact Beverley.morgan@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education, University of London publishes the results of the second sweep of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
Mathematica publish semimonthly update. Contents include -
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) publish Doing justice: analysing ’risk and need’ assessments in youth justice practice
e-Research Coordinating Committee, Department of Education, Science and Training [Australia] publish An Australian e-research strategy and implementation framework: final report
Mathematica publish semimonthly update - contents include: What Works Clearinghouse Beginning reading and dropout reviews released
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) www.scie.org.uk - aims to improve the experience of people who use social care by developing and promoting knowledge about good practice in the sector. Resources include:
Practice guides
Race equality discussion papers
Reports
Research briefings
Research resources
Resource guides
Systematic maps
Visit the Bulletin Archive to view the contents
of previous Bulletins.
Copy deadline for next Bulletin is noon 16 July 2007