Government Social Research
Welcome to the July 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.
Magenta Book
GSRU is currently undertaking a review of the Magenta
Book and would really appreciate your feedback, even if you are a first
time user. This brief, anonymous survey will take less than five minutes
and will help us shape Magenta Book into the future. If you do not see a
popup window for the survey, please follow the link:
GSR people
Lesley Duff
On
the Head
of Profession page you'll see some new names, including that of Dr Lesley
Duff, who became the Head of National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA)
Research, Analysis and Information in March 2007 and is working with the
team and with the support of the GSRU, to set up and develop the new function.
The NPIA is a new agency that aims to support policing to improve and deliver
better services to the public. The Research, Analysis and Information unit
is a team of social researchers, statisticians, analysts and library staff
that provide information, assessed intelligence and research-based knowledge
about policing needed for strategic and operational decision making. After
completing a Psychology degree at London University, Lesley trained as a
nurse and worked with people with spinal injuries. An interest in quality
of life and its improvement led her to complete a masters degree in Social
Anthropology and a PhD in public health from the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine. Lesley worked in a research and development role
in the Royal College of Nursing’s quality improvement programme for 10 years
before joining the Home Office (HO). Lesley’s first HO post was setting
up a programme of research for the National Asylum Support Service within
the Immigration and Nationality Department, as an outpost of the Immigration
Research and Statistics Service. She continued to work on immigration issues
until moving to a Programme Director role in 2005, managing research on
policing and organised crime within the Crime Reduction and Community Safety
Group of the Home Office.
Jane Barrett
Jane Barrett has been appointed as Head of Social Research at Food Standards
Agency.following a Whitehall-wide competition. Jane joins from DWP on 16
July to develop a social research capability in FSA, working to Derrick
Jones.
Mary Hickman
Mary Hickman retired as HMRC’s HOP on 21 June 2007 after working in Social
Research at HMRC for the last seven years. Mary had a great send off in
the Theodore Bullfrog pub, near Charing Cross which was attended by her
family, friends and many colleagues from throughout her successful career.
Although retiring from full time GSR employment Mary plans to build a portfolio
career in social research and project management consultancy in between
various travelling expeditions across the world. Mary began as a government
researcher in Office for National Statistics (ONS), working on the International
Passenger Survey and the General Household Survey (GHS). She then spent
six years commissioning and managing research at the Health Education Authority
(HEA), a special Health Authority funded by Department of Health. Here she
worked on the WHO sponsored Health Behaviour of School-Aged Children survey
which ran in over 30 countries and the Health in England survey which looked
at Health Promotion issues alongside the Health Survey for England. She
joined the Inland Revenue, as it was, in 2000 and had responsibility for
Customer Experience surveys that measure Departmental PSA targets and Staff
surveys before becoming HMRC’s HOP. Mary has been an asset to both HMRC
and GSR and a pleasure to work with. We would like to wish her every success
in the future. Jude Heller
Ceri Hughes
Ceri Hughes, on career break from WAG GSR to work on community projects
in Ecuador, posts his latest blog
update
Food Standards Agency publish:
Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) publish:
Department for Transport publish:
OECD
OECD have announced that they are to work with the European Commission,
the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the United Nations, the UN Development
Programme and the World Bank, to develop a new approach to measuring how
societies are changing, by using high quality, reliable statistics to assess
progress in a range of areas affecting citizens’ quality of life.
These would go beyond conventional economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP). Key indicators to assess progress would look at such factors as health, education and the environment, as well as economic factors such as employment, productivity and purchasing power.
Among various ideas under study, the OECD is thinking of creating an Internet site based on Web 2.0 “wiki” technologies for the presentation and discussion of international, national and local initiatives aimed at developing indicators of societal progress. By making indicators accessible to citizens all over the world through dynamic graphics and other analytical tools, this initiative would aim to stimulate discussion based on solid and comparable statistical information about what progress actually means.
The second OECD World Forum debated a wide variety of issues, from ageing populations to new technology and from climate change to immigration. Many of the papers presented are available at the Forum website.
ESRC
ESRC
publish Social Sciences (Issue 66)
Contents include:
ONS Methodology Directorate publish Spring 2007 issue of the 3 Moons Newsletter
Joseph Rowntree Foundation publish:
Policy Press publish:
Mathematica publish:
Statistics Commission publish:
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) publish:
Understanding Population Trends and Processes (UPTAP) publish:
Audit Commission publish:
"A consolidated library of medical and societal Information ... a significant collaborative undertaking by the research community ... to build the world's most comprehensive library of summarized reference material in the areas of human medicine, social and demographic research ..." (website)
There is a free, one hour web demonstration on Wednesday, 1 August at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, which is 4 p.m. BST, which will also incorporate a brief introduction to SRS, "the world’s most comprehensive and robust tool for conducting and managing systematic reviews" (website).
Questions and discussion during the presentation are encouraged. If you or a colleague are interested, email Nancy Barnes nbarnes@trialstat.com
Visit the Bulletin Archive to view the contents
of previous Bulletins.
There will be no Bulletin in August. Copy deadline for next Bulletin is
noon 10 September 2007