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Bulletin: August/September 2007

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Welcome to this double issue GSR bulletin.

Please use the links below to navigate to sections of interest to you.

On this page:

• GSR news
• GSR people
• Continuing professional development
• GSR research outputs
• Other reports
• Website of the month

Visit the Homepage and Research news pages for more recent items.

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GSR News

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Treasury Permanent Secretary Nick Macpherson has announced a new Head of the Government Social Research service. Professor Paul Wiles will take on the role alongside his current responsibilities as Director of Research, Development and Statistics and Chief Scientific Advisor at the Home Office. GSR’s professional support team (GSRU - the Government Social Research Unit) will remain in the Treasury, working alongside its sister unit supporting the Government Economic Service. GSRU will be headed by its current deputy director Teresa Williams. These changes take effect from October when Sue Duncan will leave her current post as Chief Government Social Researcher, with her next move to be announced in due course.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have commissioned a Methodological review of research with the large business population. The aim of the review is to help HMRC improve the way it carries out research with this customer group. In particular, information is required to answer the question:
How can we maximise participation from large businesses in research, while minimising the burden we place on them?
A number of information requirements have been identified, which include:

• Defining and sampling the large business population
• Methods of contacting businesses
• How to maximise response
• Quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection
• Confidentiality and disclosure
• How to make better use of existing data
• Quantitative analysis
• Disseminating outputs
• Feasibility of developing a longitudinal study of large businesses

This project is intended to be the first stage of a wider cross-government initiative. An external advisory group has been appointed, which includes representatives from ONS, DWP, HSE and BERR. Final outputs are expected in March 2008.
If you would like further information about this project or think you should be involved and/ or have relevant information to provide, please contact: katherine.fox@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

Magenta Book - thanks to all who took part in the survey on use of the Magenta Book. GSRU are evaluating the very helpful responses and will feed them into the ongoing review.

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GSR people

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Stella Mascarenhas-Keyes

Stella Mascarenhas-Keyes, Senior Research Officer, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) is the first government social researcher to be awarded a contract under the ESRC Knowledge Transfer Scheme. This scheme enables government staff to be seconded to universities to undertake policy relevant research and the ESRC pays half the costs. Stella's year long research is funded by DIUS, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the ESRC, and is undertaken under secondment to the Centre for Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship at de Montfort University. Stella will be looking at the contribution of British ehnic minorities to enterprise. For more information contact Stella on stella.mascarenhas-keyes@dius.gsi.gov.uk

Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), Office of the Chief Social Research Officer (OCSRO) is creating a new Senior Principal Research Officer post to oversee the growing amount of cross-cutting research. The post will be advertised internally from 6 September, with closing date for applications on 20 September. For more information, contact Angela Evans (OCSRO).

Ian Jones has now joined OCSRO as a permanent member of staff. Ian will be responsible for developing social research intranet pages, as well as continuing to develop the research webpages. He will also be supporting key cross-cutting research projects such as the Standards of Conduct in Public Life survey and the Living in Wales survey.

Ceri Hughes - on career break from WAG GSR to work on community projects in Ecuador, posts his latest blog update

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Continuing Professional Development

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• GSRU announces new course schedule - booking is now open for GSR courses for 2007/08. You can find full details of the courses on offer from the GSR website. It is recommended that you book early as places are allocated on a first come, first serve basis.
  
  
• Be sure to check also the updated External events page

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GSR research outputs

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Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) publish

• The Welsh Health Survey 2005/06 statistical publication
• Welsh Health Survey: 2004/06 Local Authority Results statistical bulletin.

They can be found on the Statistics webpages

Legal Services Research Centre publish a report by Alexy Buck, Pascoe Pleasence and Nigel Balmer which sets out findings relating to the work of the Public Legal Education and Support (PLEAS) Task Force. The report is available for download from the PLEAS Task Force website at www.pleas.org.uk The focus is on results from the English and Welsh Civil and Social Justice Survey that have education implications, namely:

• Do citizens know how to deal with civil legal issues?
• Are there socio-demographic groups who seem more likely to have knowledge and skills gaps when faced with civil legal problems?
• Are there types of problems where knowledge gaps are more likely to act as a barrier to problem resolution?
• What impact does a lack of 'legal capability' have?

Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) publish:
The second annual monitoring of the RIPSS Public Sector Research Establishment (PSRE) sustainability - Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs), including Research Council Institutes (RCIs), collectively represent a world-class resource for UK science. Their sustainable performance, alongside universities, is of strategic importance to the UK. As part of the commitment made in the Science and Investment Framework for PSREs to move towards financial sustainability, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) runs an annual monitoring exercise on PSRE sustainability.

BERR Employment Market Analysis and Research branch publish six Employment Relations Research Series reports:

• PDF file of International review of leave policies and related research 2007 - annual report on leave policies, prepared by the International Network on Leave Policies and Related Research. An invaluable reference for international comparisons of policies and leave entitlements.
• PDF file of Work-life policies in Great Britain: what works, where and how? (3137KB)
• PDF file of Re-assessing the family-friendly workplace: trends and influences in Britain, 1998-2004 (1447KB)
• PDF file of The influence of legal representation at employment tribunals on case outcome (433KB)
• PDF file of The costs and benefits of employment tribunal cases for employers and claimants (397KB)
• PDF file of The settlement of employment tribunal cases: evidence from SETA 2003(965KB)

These and other reports can be downloaded at the BERR website

Scottish Executive publish:

• Young people's awareness and experience of Educational Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) and their impact on choices and pathways - combines qualitative and quantitative methods and finds that there were some positive effects, including improvement in the attendance and punctuality of some young people. However, the EMA was not an influential factor in staying on at school for the majority of young people. The low number of pupils deemed to be at risk of becoming NEET involved meant that there was limited evidence to ascertain whether the EMA is having an impact on NEET prevention.
  
  • Research Findings summary
    
    
• The eighth annual and technical reports of the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) - the annual report outlines the main findings from interviews carried out with 31,013 households throughout Scotland in 2005 and 2006, providing detailed information about people living in Scotland today. It reports at both national and local authority level. The survey has been commissioned to provide accurate, representative and up-to-date information on the characteristics, composition and behaviour of households in Scotland in a number of areas, particularly relating to communities, transport and local government.
  
  
• Early Years and Childcare Workforce Consultation - Key findings:
  
  
  • 62 per cent of childminders felt that it was important/very important to have qualifications on par with the rest of the workforce
  • 72 per cent of childminders said they would undertake training/learning if it was recognised within a single qualifications and professional development framework, although not having time prevented some from doing training
  • 83 per cent of childcare workers considered that better pay and terms would help employers attract and keep workers in the sector

Defra publish:

• Latest edition of the annual Sustainable development indicators in your pocket 2007 - More than half the official measurements show improvement. For the first time, wellbeing indicators covering life satisfaction, participation in sport, access to greenspace, participation in cultural activities and positive mental health, are included.

See also:

• Sustainable Development Research Network (SDRN)'s work on wellbeing and to access the SDRN Online Wellbeing Bibliography

Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) publish:

• Minority ethnic pupils in the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England - looks at the relationships between various pupil, family, school and neighbourhood factors in order to better understand the reasons for differences in the educational attainment of different ethnic groups.
  
  
• Deployment and impact of support staff in schools: report on findings from the second national questionnaire survey of schools, support staff and teachers (strand one, wave two - 2006) (PDF format, 1.19 Mb) - looks at the deployment and characteristics of all categories of support staff in primary, secondary and special schools in England and Wales. It presents results from a second large-scale, nationally representative postal survey of schools, support staff and teachers, conducted in 2006. The first wave was conducted in 2004.
  
• Cost benefit analysis of interventions with parents (PDF 667 Kb) - Interventions to promote positive early childhood development are widespread and are based on the belief that early benefits in child cognitive and emotional development will carry on into later life. This review of the existing research and policy evidence set out to collect and evaluate existing evidence relating to the effectiveness of parenting interventions.

Department for Transport (DfT) publish

• Social, Economics and Modelling Unit-level evidence and research strategy (HTML format) - Evidence and research collected and commissioned by the Social, Economics and Modelling Unit impacts on a wide range of Department for Transport policy areas, including social inclusion, climate change, and mobility and accessibility. The unit looks at how to improve take-up of public transport and gain a better understanding of transport economics, transport modelling, transport costs and prices.
  
• Review of future options for local transport planning in England (P 1.0 Mb) - Final report by Atkins Transport Planning, which was commissioned by the Department for Transport to undertake a study to assess options for the development of its policies for local transport planning in England. The consultation, Local Transport Planning: The next steps, contains proposals based on some of the options explored in this review.
  
• Delivering a sustainable railway - sets out a strategy for 30 years of growth. The railway will expand to carry at least 180 million more passengers. Capacity will increase to cope with more than 20 per cent growth in the next seven years, on a network which will be even safer and more reliable. It must also be a railway which sharpens its environmental performance and thrives on new technology, the strategy makes clear.
  
  
  • Summary of key research and analysis - compilation of the main evidence that underpins the analysis in the White Paper 'Delivering a sustainable railway'. There is also a set of supporting documents.

Home Office (HO) publish:

• Investigating and detecting recorded offences of rape (Online report 18/07) - summarises the findings from a study of attrition in reported rape cases. It is based on case file analysis of 676 offences of female rape recorded by the police in 2003/04 in eight forces in England and Wales. Highlights the importance of victim withdrawal in the loss of cases from the criminal justice system. A range of offence, offender, investigation and victim characteristics were found to significantly predict case outcomes. Much of the decline in recorded detection rates for rape since 1997 appears to be due to the impact of changes in the way that offences and detections are recorded.
  
  

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Other reports

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Office for National Statistics announce:

• Royal Assent to the Statistics and Registration Service Act (2007) and the House of Commons' confirmation of Sir Michael Scholar's appointment as the first Chair of the Statistics Board, following publication of the Treasury Select Committee Ninth Report: the appointment of the Chair of the Statistics Board (HC 934-I) which describes the role and functions of the new Statistics Board. This inquiry and Report related to the first occasion on which the very recent Government proposals to strengthen the role of the House of Commons in public appointments have been tested. Report concludes with reflections arising from the process and suggestions about the information that should be available to select committees, the time at which it should be available and the role such committees might play in the appointment process.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) publish

• Promoting social well-being in extra care housing - this study looks at ways of promoting and facilitating the social well-being of 'frail' people living in extra care housing.
• Experiences of poverty and educational disadvantage - summarises the messages from the first eight projects in the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Education and Poverty programme, which explore the relationship between poverty and educational disadvantage. Seeking to understand the role of education in transmitting poverty across generations, the reports examine the reasons for low educational achievement, look at provision for excluded children and examine the role of out-of school activities. The studies also consider social difference from the perspectives of children who were directly involved in conducting the research.
• A free summary of each report can also be downloaded from the JRF site

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) launch an 18-month project (What are the 21st Century’s social evils?) to discover what people believe causes the most damage to society.) JRF are not defining social evil in any detail. Once gathered, JRF will place the contributions within an analytical framework to understand them and explore how a number of them might be addressed through JRF evidence based research. JRF also hope that this work will help inform the work of other organisations seeking to address social ills.

Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at Kings College, London publishes:

Knowledgeable consumers? Corporate fraud and its devastating impacts - presents research findings based on interviews with victims of corporate fraud. It shows that the harms caused are equivalent to, and often more devastating than, those usually focused on by the criminal justice system and argues that the consequences not fully appreciated by government policy.

House of Commons Science and Technology Committee publish:

• Ninth report: international policies and activities of the Research Councils (HC 472-I)
• Eighth report: Chairman of the Medical Research Council: introductory hearing (HC 746)
• Third special report: The Cooksey Review: Government response to the Committee's
• Third Report of Session 2006-07 (HC 978)
  

Creating: excellence publish:

• South West Local Evidence Guide - guide to sources of local data and statistics in the south west. It also includes details of sources of help and advice available across the south west region.

What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) publishes

Beginning reading: topic report - describes each intervention, presents the findings of the WWC review, and indicates the extent and overall strength of the research base for each intervention.

Mathematica semimonthly updates contents include:

• Community health initiatives: an important but often neglected part of the health care system 'Working with Disability' brief focuses on demonstration to maintain independence and employment

Mathematica launches Center for Studying Disability Policy - "The center merges disability researchers from the Cornell University Institute for Policy Research and Mathematica. The mission of the new center is to inform disability policy formation with rigorous, objective research and data collected from the people disability policy aims to serve.

"For some time, the two organizations have collaborated on large-scale studies of Social Security disability programs that seek to improve the employment and economic independence of people who receive disability benefits. Staff members at both organizations also conduct research into many other disability-related issues, including ways to facilitate consumer choice, care coordination, long-term care, health insurance coverage, children with special needs, and mental health services research. Looking to the future, the center will disseminate its work through a new website and issue brief series as well as through continued publication in professional journals." (Press release)

The Scientist seeks views on whether researchers should change the way they communicate hot-button issues to the public - The debate was sparked by an article in Science entitled "Framing science", which argued that stating the facts is not enough if scientists want to communicate technical complexities in the news and that scientists should pare down complex technical issues and learn to actively "frame" the information to make it relevant to different audiences.

Almost immediately the science blogosphere was filled with heated discussions on the topic.

• List of the blog posts and discussions

Critics said that "framing science" is just another way of saying spin, and that scientists should never sacrifice the facts or the message no matter who their audience is.

Australian Social Policy Conference publishes:

• Australia, France and the United Kingdom: helping youth into the labour market: a community responsibility to maintain social cohesion? - Youth is often equated to the dynamics of transitions between various states: from adolescence to adulthood, from school to work, from family protection to personal responsibility. Often labelled as the age group with the highest unemployment rate, young people are seen as having specific needs which involve specific risks. In the late 1990s newly elected governments seemed keen on launching programmes which - at least in the beginning - targeted young people: Work for the Dole in Australia, the Emplois-Jeunes programme in France, or the New Deal for Young People in the United Kingdom. As most programmes hinted at the necessity to include young people into the broader community, there could be a point in analysing the diverse methods and rhetorics used. The focus on the obligations young people have to fulfil to be considered as good citizens, the suggestion that they are a potential threat to community building may have found a different echo in those three countries. The part played by the community in the inclusion process must also be considered as it reveals the legitimacy of the state in tackling social issues.
  
• Improving outcomes for homeless jobseekers: the YP4 experience - YP4 is a randomised controlled trial of service delivery options for people experiencing the double disadvantage of homelessness and unemployment. This paper focuses on the unusual experience of designing and implementing a randomised controlled trial in Australia and on the various challenges of creating a joined up service delivery model. It also provides detailed information about the experiences, before joining the trial, of the 414 trial participants.
  
• Social capital and its popularity - short paper from the 2007 Australian Social Policy Conference looks at the extent of the spread of the notion of 'social capital', and investigates a number of the reasons given in the literature for its popularity. Concludes that the question of why 'social capital' continues to prevail, despite its dubious epistemological status, can most usefully be explored by asking who stands to benefit (if anyone) from its continued usage.

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Website of the Month

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Institute for Social & Economic Research specialises in the production and analysis of longitudinal data - evidence which tracks changes in the lives of the same individuals over time. Longitudinal data allow researchers to analyse the dynamic links between individuals' life events, employment conditions, behaviour and values over the lifecourse, and through successive generations. The activities of its two divisions, the UK Longitudinal Studies Centre (ULSC) and the Research Centre on Micro-social Change (MISOC), are interdependent and are carried out by overlapping groups of experts. ISER is a department of the University of Essex and is core-funded by the University and the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). ISER also carries out research for other agencies, including UK and other national government departments, the EU and commercial organisations.

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Copy deadline for next Bulletin is noon 10 October 2007