Negotiations are under way with the Open University and the Peninsula Medical School to develop our Ph.D training into a new doctoral programme to be available from 2010. The Unit has been provided its doctoral students with a taught curriculum for some years. The emphasis is on the application of research to policy and practice.
This year's annual lecture took place in London, at the Commonwealth Club. Guest speakers included Professor Delbert S. Elliott.
The lecture and reception was open to people from across the UK with an interest in evidence based prevention. The audience included leading academics and policy makers.
The event was free of charge and as hosted at The Commonwealth Club, 25 Northumberland Avenue, London. WC2N 5AP. The nearest tube station is Embankment.
A seminar was held for head teachers, education welfare staff, and local policy makers to discuss the effects of investing in evidence based programmes among schools in the city of Birmingham. Birmingham is the largest local authority in Europe with a population of 1 million people of which 250,000 are under 18. The city launched an ambitious 5 year strategy for children last year which gives high priority to implementing evidence based programmes and focuses activity on six outcomes (social literacy, emotional wellbeing, behaviour, physical health, job skills and literacy/numeracy). The city is investing 41m in prevention and early intervention activity on an ‘invest to save’ basis. Heavily influenced by the work of Steve Aos from the Washington Institute for Public Policy, the city has assembled a portfolio of prevention and early intervention activity. The PATHS programme is being rolled out and evaluated in 20 schools in the city.
The Social Research Unit offers a curriculum for the training of research students to supplement orthodox university programmes leading to a PhD qualification. The research curriculum is part of the Common Language project and mirrors another training programme in development designed for practitioners working with children in need. Both courses share the conceptual framework that underpins the Common Language work.
Professor Delbert Elliott, director of the Center for the Study of Prevention and Violence and Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado in the United States presented at the Peninsula Medical School.
Other events
Center for Social Policy Spring Seminar 2010
March 23 2010
The next seminar will be held at Dartington Hall and the topic will be evaluating the work of Robert Owen Communities for learning disabled people and the development of Urban Village Schools, as discussed by James Wetz (fellow) in a recent book.
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The first day will host a debate around the current social context in today's urban schools. The second day will host a presentation on the work of ROC - supporting people with learning disabilities. Full programme attached below.
Center for Social Policy Fellows Meeting
December 2 2009
Fellow speakers include, Canon Melvyn Matthews, Professor Mervyn Murch, Professor Bill Jordan, and Professor Douglas Hooper, Dr Liz Burns, and Dr Chris Clulow. Along with guest discussants; Professor Ludwig Salgo, from Jurisprudence and Social Pedagogy, Wilhelm Goethe Universitat, Frankfurt. The meeting will be held in the Duke's Room at Dartington Hall, Dartington. A PDF flyer of the programme is available for download below. For more information, or to RSVP for the event, contact Julian Addy at 01803-762400.
Center for Social Policy summer seminar
June 18 2009
The Center For Social Policy completed its summer seminar series. Topics covered the prediction of risk and the role of serious case reviews.
This is especially pertinent in the light of the Baby P case and associated inquiries. Contributors included Gillian Downham and Richard Lingham who have just published a study of mental health serious case reviews and Louise Brown from the University of Bath who has recently published a paper on prediction in social care.
Speakers included Roger Weissberg, president of the Academic, Social and Emotional Learning Center (CASEL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Jackie Hughes Head of School Effectiveness for Birmingham City Council.
Birmingham is the largest local authority in Europe with a population of 1 million, of which 250,000 are under 18. The city launched an ambitious 5 year strategy for children last year which gives high priority to implementing evidence based programmes and focuses activity on six outcomes (social literacy, emotional wellbeing, behaviour, physical health, job skills and literacy/numeracy).
The city is investing £41m in prevention and early intervention activity on an ‘invest to save’ basis. Heavily influenced by the work of Steve Aos from the Washington Institute for Public Policy, the city has assembled a portfolio of prevention and early intervention activity. This seminar was among a number of events designed to inform participants on the impact of evidence based programmes as opposed to those which have no proof that they work.
how to book
How to book by Phone
To book for events by phone; contact Kay Turner, Office Manager at +44-1803-762400.
How to book an event online
Click on the event title and you will find a registration for for each event.
Latest news
Our involvement in developing a prevention strategy for Birmingham UK and evaluating a major trial of a behaviour and social skills curriculum for primary schools is in the news this week.
Mark Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University where the PATHS programme was developed, gave the keynote speech at a conference to launch the pilot project as part of the city council’s Brighter Futures initiative.
The Social Research Unit has supported Birmingham's work from the start, and is now training staff for service design and implementation of evidence based programmes, as well as setting up randomised controlled trials to estimate the impact on child outcomes.
In the case of PATHS, 30 primary schools are implementing the curriculum. Their experience, in terms of the behaviour and general well-being of children, will be compared with 30 more non-PATHS schools at the end of two years. If the results are sufficiently encouraging, the programme will be rolled out across the rest of Birmingham.
During the launch at Starbank Primary in Small Heath, Mark Greenberg, told The Birmingham Mail: ‘The idea is to help children build good friendships and self-control and to be able to use their attention well in the classroom.
‘It’s about improving their social skills, investing in them to build a healthy classroom, but it’s also about encouraging good behaviour.’
Social Research Unit director Michael Little said: ‘A whole lot of other local authorities do what Birmingham is doing. The big issue is preventing problems before they happen. The children are only four or five, but at 15, that’s the age where they might get into trouble with the police.’
The Mail also acknowledged the cost-benefit analysis: ‘Council chiefs have estimated that early intervention, costing £42 million over the next 15 years, will save more than £100 million due to children not getting into trouble and requiring more expensive services such as social care, probation and criminal justice when they get older.’
Read The Birmingham Mail story at www.birminghammail.net
How cost-benefit models are likely to be used by UK local authorities as they cope with the spreading effects of the economic crisis on the public purse, was the theme of Unit research director Michael Little’s talk at a Government Office for London seminar, this week.
He was among speakers at the Shared Cities Learning seminar in the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Cost-benefit analysis was just one aspect of a package of evidence based approaches that could enhance child well-being, he said. Greater community engagement in decision making and higher standards of evidence were equally important.
His presentation slides are available in PDF format below.
The Unit’s efforts to focus attention on the damage done to the cause of child development by measures introduced since the Columbine massacre, are reported in the current edition of Young Minds.
The UK journal includes coverage of The Social Research Unit's annual lecture in London, earlier this summer, by Del Elliott, director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado,
The money spent on installing anti-weapon devices like metal doors and alarm systems in US high schools to reduce the risk of student perpetrated violence has only succeeded in turning classrooms into fortresses, Young Minds reports.
‘Elliott’s research showed that since Columbine there had been a slight fall in the number of young people carrying a gun. Despite this, 5% of students had still done so in the past three years, and on almost every other indicator of school violence there had been no change. He put this down to the failure of schools to introduce effective strategies and preventative work based on evidence gathered after Columbine.
‘One reason for this is that academic performance is considered more important than preventing violence, even though it was known that a child who felt unsafe at school would not learn, he added.
‘In Colorado, Elliott has helped establish a confidential helpline, which over the past five years received 5,000 calls, leading to 28 planned school attacks being stopped.
‘Research has shown that building a safe school environment, with clear, fairly enforced discipline policies and respect from teachers and peers, was most effective in reducing violent pupil behaviour, he added.
‘The “code of silence,” which meant that information was not shared for fear of tale-telling, had to be done away with – there was ample evidence at Columbine that the two boys had told others of their intentions. In more than 80% of violent incidents someone knows it is about to happen.
'In Colorado, Elliott has helped establish a confidential helpline, which over the past five years received 5,000 calls, leading to 28 planned school attacks being stopped.
'Research has shown that building a safe school environment, with clear, fairly enforced discipline policies and respect from teachers and peers, was most effective in reducing violent pupil behaviour, he added.
'The “code of silence”, which meant that information was not shared for fear of tale-telling, had to be done away with – there was ample evidence at Columbine that the two boys had told others of their intentions. In more than 80% of violent incidents someone knows it is about to happen.'
Terry Philpot in Young Minds August/September 2009