Key journal articles in the field of child development are brought together in a new book edited by Unit Director Michael Little and Barbara Maughan, from the Institute of Psychiatry, London.

Published by Ashgate as part of its Library of Essays in Child Welfare and Development, Child Development shows how understanding of the causes and consequences of impairments to children's health and development has been transformed in recent years.
 
A range of issues are covered, including the relative contribution of genetics and the environment, the way in which the brain re-wires itself at critical points in a child's development and the interplay between environmental influences and the individual characteristics of the child.
 
Other books in the series look at the law and child development, children's services in the developing world, defining and classifying children in need, children in state care and effective interventions for children in need.
 
Reference
Maughan, B. and Little, M (2010) Child Development, Aldershot, Ashgate
 
See the publishers website for further details or to purchase a copy of the book. 

A new book edited by Unit Director Michael Little and Barbara Maughan, from the Institute of Psychiatry, London, sets out the current state of knowledge on 'what works, for whom, when and why' when it comes to preventing and addressing child development problems.

Published by Ashgate as part of its Library of Essays in Child Welfare and Development, Effective Interventions for Children in Need brings together key journal articles by leading intervention scientists from around the world on subjects including the effectiveness of universal and targeted programmes, the relationship between need and services, and long-term outcomes of interventions.
 
Other books in the series look at child development, the law and child development, children's services in the developing world, children in state care, and defining and classifying children in need.
 
References
Little, M and Maughan, B., (2010) Effective Interventions for Children in Need, Aldershot, Ashgate
 
See publishers website for further details.

The charity is looking to expand, become more efficient and increase its influence. To do this, new ways of working are needed. The Business Development Manager will work sensitively with all staff to review current practices and recommend processes that will assist the organisation to become more effective. The post is for two years, subject to review after one year.

Key responsibilities
Fund raising
1. Identify funding opportunities for the charity
2. Help to raise funds for research, development and dissemination projects
3. Raise funds to support the general development of the charity finance
4. To review financial processes with a view to better aligning budget setting, financial reporting, project management and fund raising
5. To develop a method for costing projects
6. To assist with the preparation of budgets for new projects Project management
7. To model project management practices by taking lead project management responsibilities for one major unit project. 8. To review current project management practices and determine how to establish and run projects with due consideration of budgets, milestones, staffing, governance, contract monitoring and customer care.
9. To support staff to learn and apply project management principles
10. Assist researchers to deliver effectively their projects by relieving them of discrete project management tasks
11. To assist with contract negotiations Business processes
12. Develop in conjunction with the operations manager business processes that serve the needs of the organaisation e.g. introducing time sheets
13. To prepare business plans Other
14. To undertake other activities that will improve the efficiency of the organisation
 
To learn more about the job description, see attachment below. 

We are recruiting a research assistant. To apply, please email your cv to kturner@dartington.org.uk. For more information call +441803762400.

Job title: Research Assistant
Place of work: Dartington, Devon
Salary: £15,444
Hours of work: 35 hours Full time
Duration of contract: one year (subject to possible extension)
 
Job Summary
To work as a Research Assistant in a small team of researchers, service designers and disseminators providing support to all aspects of the charity’s work.
 
Key responsibilities
To assist with data collection, data management and analysis on epidemiology project.
To assist on new research projects.
To contribute to the database of effective services To help prepare short articles for Prevention Action (www.preventionaction.org).
To learn to proofread and comment on reports and articles for publication To help prepare supporting materials for seminars and training events.
To provide administrative support to the research team.
To assist with the smooth running of the charity.
To undertake any other appropriate duties to support the delivery of the charities projects Person specification Experience
Good social science (or similar) honours degree at 2:1 or above.
Experience of working with or interest in children’s well-being and development.
 
Knowledge/skills
Knowledge of the research process Knowledge of qualitative and quantitative approaches to research Interest in child development and children’s services Interest in applied research Knowledge of basic statistics.
Strong writing skills Ability to think logically and be methodical.
Excellent communication skills Ability to work in a team.
Ability to use initiative but to know when to ask for help Strong time management skills.
Ability to organise a varied workload.
Personal Willingness to be supervised and receive feedback Enthusiastic and willing to learn.
Flexible Willingness to travel and spend nights away from home.
Willingness to work evenings and weekends. 
 
See detailed job description below. 

The Social Research Unit invites you to the 2010 Annual Lecture, Better outcomes for less money: techniques for children's policymakers to make good choices in times of scarcity, to be given by Steve Aos on Thursday, June 17, 2010.

The event, which is free, will open with a reception at 5.00pm at the Commonwealth Club (25 Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5AP) followed by the lecture from 6-8pm in the Commonwealth Club's auditorium.
 
As space is limited, please reserve your free place as soon as possible by sending an email to lecture2010@dartington.org.uk or by phoning Kay Turner on 01803 762400.
 
Steve Aos is the Assistant Director of the pioneering Washington State Institute for Public Policy, the non-partisan research arm of the Washington State legislature in the United States.
 
Non-partisan predictions indicate that the UK is likely to face the deepest public spending cuts since the 1970s, putting unprecedented pressure on public services and the decision makers whose job it is to allocate scarce resources. As knowledge about evidence-based public policies accumulates -- and as the economics of the options are better understood -- public policy makers can increasingly use information that will promote better outcomes at less total cost. In the next decade, flexible governments will find ways to take advantage of this growing body of evidence. In his lecture, Aos will describe the strategy Washington State is taking to achieve these goals, with lessons for UK policy makers.
 
Steve Aos has 34 years of experience conducting cost-benefit analyses and communicating the results to policymakers in a wide range of public policy areas, as well as in the private sector. His current work focuses on identifying and evaluating the costs and benefits of programmes and policies that reduce crime, improve educational outcomes from kindergarten through secondary school, reduce child abuse and neglect, improve mental health, and reduce substance abuse. He also has many years of experience in energy economics and regulatory policy.
 
The Social Research Unit is an independent charity that works to improve the health and development of children through high quality research into the potential causes of impairment in children's lives and the value of children's services, development work that applies high quality evidence to policies and practices, and dissemination that communicates learning about preventing and responding more effectively.
 
We very much hope that you will join us for what will be an important and engaging learning opportunity.

The Unit has been invited to enter into a long-term partnership with Renfrewshire Council in Scotland to use the Common Language methods to improve children's well-being.

The project, which will run for three years, is in two stages. The first will focus on children in care. High quality child well-being data will be collected on children known to specialist services. This intelligence, combined with a thorough analysis of administrative data, will inform a plan to identify efficiencies in services.
 
In the second stage, the same type of data will be collected on all children. This will inform how the savings will be reinvested in prevention and early intervention activity. If successful, the project will result in improved outcomes for children at zero net cost.
 
The project will provide an excellent opportunity to adapt the Unit's instrument for measuring child well-being for a service population.
 
The project will start in June this year. For more information contact Louise Morpeth at lmorpeth@dartington.org.uk.

The concept of social exclusion offers helpful insights into child well-being and the shape of children's services but these could be exploited more fully, says Unit researcher Nick Axford in an article published in the new edition of the British Journal of Social Work.

He explores how far a focus on social exclusion changes the way in which services seek to define vulnerable children and help them. He considers seven emphases commonly associated with a social exclusion perspective. He concludes that many of the perceived benefits of the concept of social exclusion in terms of service orientation actually sit as well if not better within pre-existing frameworks based on poverty, risk and protective factors and need.
 
An early version of the article, 'Is social exclusion a useful concept in children's services?' will be available for download on our publications page. Follow this link to see the journal British Journal of Social Work. 
 
Reference: Axford, N. (2010) ‘Is social exclusion a useful concept in children’s services?’, British Journal of Social Work 40 (3), 737-754.
 
 

The latest edition of the Journal of Children’s Services appears as impending cuts to frontline services loom on the horizon and in the midst of media excitement and public nervousness about the forthcoming UK general election.

In it, UK MPs Graham Allen and Iain Duncan Smith, from opposing parties, appeal for an apolitical approach to prevention and early intervention to sustain and develop recent small gains. Amongst other proposals they argue for a National Policy Assessment Centre for Early Intervention and a financial instrument ‘to raise money against the massive savings accrued by effective early intervention’.
 
Carolyn Webster-Stratton and Jamila Reid describe an experiment to adapt the evidence-based Incredible Years parenting progamme for families in the child welfare system. June Thoburn cautions about the need also to learn more about the impact of what she calls ‘services as usual’ and not to assume that manualised programmes like Incredible Years mould have all the answers.
 
Editors Michael Little and Nick Axford tie the articles together by arguing that ‘most innovation involves addition but there is also a spirit of innovation to be built on “subtraction”. If services must be withdrawn, they might be withdrawn in a sufficiently intelligent way that we find out more about their impact on child outcomes.’ Only this, they suggest, will protect recent gains in developing and implementing evidence-based services and permit continued investment in this area.
 
Follow this link to access the journal online.

Michelangelo used do it; in hard times children's services are going to have to learn to do it – find the best solution to their needs, and, if possible, unlock the perfect form by chipping the unnecessary material away.

Starting this week, the Unit is running a speculative, wide-ranging blog about "subtraction" – how to improve children's services under difficult economic times, and how to support children’s organisations looking to turn challenges into opportunities. We think it will become all the rage.
 
Contributions will be posted weekly on the following link, and will include observations about the potential for efficiencies in local government, and conversations about how central government can help. The main objective will be to show that more intelligent and inventive thinking about money can produce better child outcomes.