Bulletin: February 2008
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Continuing Professional Development
GSR Seminar Series
- Propensity Score Matching: Tuesday 19 February 2008 - What is Propensity Score Matching and how can it be applied to government research?
- Developing for the Senior Civil Service 11 March 2008 - Are you a grade 7 or 6 equivalent in GSR looking to develop yourself for a future post in the Senior Civil Service (SCS)?
- GSR Seminar series (Word)
- Updated methods spotlight
GSR in-service Fast Stream 2008
- 2008 GSR in-service Fast Stream - applications are now being accepted, from existing GSR members only. Closing date for completed applications is 14 April 2008.
GSR Joint Event
Call for nominations for MRS Fellowship
- Call for nominations for MRS Fellowship - deadline for nominations is 31 March 2008. Fellows and Full Members may nominate candidates. Full details of the criteria for eligibility are available on the MRS website.
GSRU course schedule
GSR research outputs
Department of Health
Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG)
Scottish Government
Department for Transport
Ministry of Justice
Welsh Assembly Government (WAG)
- Public Health Information News (previously entitled 'Prevention News')
Contents include:
- Updates and publications
- Information bulletins
- Events and conferences
- World Health Organisation reports
- The National Learning and Skills Assessment (NLSA)- a series of policy papers covering a range of learning and skills-related themes. They provide a succinct summary of the issues in key areas for policy makers.
- Barriers to learning among selected communities - investigates the barriers to learning amongst Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Somali and African Caribbean communities in South Wales.
- Individual Learning Account (ILA) Wales: fourth main evaluation report - the evaluation programme has involved consultations, surveys and reviews of management information system outputs at prescribed intervals over the four-year period.
- Evaluation of the Learntrain Access Repository for National Learning Network materials - focuses on the effectiveness and impact of Learntrain, as well as the future need for and sustainability of an e-learning repository. It is intended to inform future access to the materials via an access portal.
- An evaluation of the Regional Support Centre for Adult and Community Learning - provides an assessment of a pilot exercise launched in 2006 to expand the remit of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Regional Support Centre into the adult and community learning sector.
- Evaluation of the All Wales Ante-Natal Domestic Abuse Pathway - a legal record of care provision which provides Midwives and Health Visitors with an evidence-based, structured approach to encourage disclosures of domestic abuse and to assess the level of risk faced by the woman and unborn child.
- Joint working for inclusion in housing - aims to learn from current thinking and examples of good practice in joint working in Wales and elsewhere in the UK. In particular it looks at the arrangements in Cardiff for joint working to plan for housing inclusion, such as the Common Exclusion Policy and Exclusions Panel.
- A study of models of accommodation and support for young single homeless people - aims to provide information which will equip local authorities and other agencies with the evidence base and strategic framework for planning an appropriate spectrum of medium to long term provision for young single homeless people.
- A review of Welsh social landlords' approaches to increasing choice in letting accommodation - provides a review of lettings systems currently in use by social landlords in Wales, which are either choice based or in which choice is an important component part.
- Evaluation of the Communities First Support Network - research commissioned to evaluate the support that the Communities First Support Network (CFSN) has provided and the effectiveness of the network, in the context of meeting the objectives of the Communities First Programme. It identifies several principles as likely to lead to good practice in supporting local partnerships and suggests further consideration of options for providing support to Communities First in the future.
- Evaluation of four anti-social behaviour projects in Wales - presents the findings of an independent evaluation of four pilot anti-social behaviour projects in Wales.
- Steps to success - a good practice guide to community design - aims to aid the delivery of excellent projects, to show what you should expect from your professional advisors, and to show that communities can benefit from the value that good design can bring.
- Partnerships in Powys - aims to investigate the levels of partnership working in Powys, identify areas of informal local networking, identify how these partnerships operate, the benefits that they bring and what barriers exist to partnership working. It also identifies how these local networks link to the more formal networks.
Other research outputs
Policy Press
- Evidence & Policy (Volume 3, number 4)
Contents include:
- Systematic reviews in social policy: to go forward, do we first need to look back?
- What evidence base? Steps towards the relational evaluation of social interventions
- A deafening silence: hidden violence against women and children - analyses male violence against women and children, and the mechanisms society develops to push it out of sight.
- Well-being: in search of a good life? <https://www.policypress.org.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=&products_id=1231> - considers what makes us happy, using a new approach that directly addresses the circumstances under which high subjective well-being is experienced, often with surprising results.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation publish
- Is poverty in the UK a denial of people's human rights? - argues that failure to incorporate the principles of the UN Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights into UK law has compounded social attitudes that denigrate people who experience poverty and undermine popular support for eradicating poverty.
- Local Links: developing active networks in local communities - a review of Common Purpose's piloted 'Local Links' programme that aimed to improve neighbourhood networking, support, skills development and information sharing for local decision-makers and active citizens in four Yorkshire areas.
Mathematica
Strategy Unit
- Realising Britain’s potential: future strategic challenges for Britain
covers:
- globalisation
- economic prosperity
- life chances, talent and social mobility
- the ageing and increasing diversity of the population
- family life and communities
- crime and public safety
- climate change, and
- the modernisation and renewal of the constitution and democratic institutions
Productivity Commission [Australia]
National Centre for Social Research
Australian National University
Other news
Prime Minister's Questions
The Times
The Guardian
- 16 January 2008: "More risk-taking in public services urged by minister" - reports an interview with Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Andy Burnham, which says that he has told public sector managers that policy change no longer needs to always be evidence-based, and that he has urged them to take more risks. He also suggests there could be better ways of measuring outcomes than targets, such as surveys of patients, parents and other users.
Website of the Month
The Global Social Change Research Project
- The Global Social Change Research Project - links to online books, manuals and guides about evaluation and social research methods, such as surveys, observations, and others - links to sites about data quality, statistical analysis, and free software such as statistical, office suites, spreadsheets and more.
Visit the Bulletin Archive to view the contents
of previous Bulletins.
Copy deadline for next Bulletin is noon Monday 17 March 2008
