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Sure Start, the flagship New Labour anti-poverty initiative launched in 1999, was an area-based early intervention targeting pockets of social and economic deprivation in England. The multi- disciplinary National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS), to which Professor Angela Anning was the central educational contributor, was the largest social science evaluation contract ever awarded in the UK. Findings were continually fed back to ministers and civil servants to inform policy and practice. Impacts (discussed below, section 4) include:
(1) systemic changes in integrated services for vulnerable families;
(2) rethinking the resourcing and funding of Children's Centres;
(3) revision of training and qualifications of early childhood staff;
(4) enhancing the role of family support and parenting projects.
Looked after children (children in public care) generally have poorer outcomes in educational achievement and mental health than the wider population. The `Letterbox Club' improves the educational attainment and well-being of looked after children in the UK, and now involves nearly 6,000 children and 130 supporting organisations each year. Each child is sent a parcel of books, number games and stationery once a month for six months, addressed to them at their home. Evaluation consistently demonstrates above-predicted average gains in reading and number skills, high levels of enjoyment, and improvements in educational support provided by foster carers. The scheme has led to changes in policy and practice at local and national levels.
Loughborough University's Improving Outcomes of Services for Children in Need research is a programme of interlinked studies that has had a substantial impact on the development of national and international policy and professional practice for the most vulnerable children. It has influenced the development of government policy on safeguarding children from abuse and neglect, placement in out-of-home care, and adoption throughout the United Kingdom and in Australia, Canada and countries in Western and Eastern Europe. The researchers have translated a number of findings into tools designed to shape professional practice: these include a computer application that introduces transparency into the comparison of costs and outcomes of services.
Four staff align with impact in the interdisciplinary field of Childhood Studies; Broadhead, Brock, Moss and Potter. Their research examines different, related aspects of early to late childhood. The impact is evident in several domains. Research has contributed to policy and professional development in relation to the early years and autistic spectrum disorders. It has enhanced pedagogies in schools concerning play and children's social participation. It has improved communication with children through the development of play approaches and approaches for those children diagnosed on the autistic spectrum. It has contributed to childhood workforce skill enhancement in relation to the early years and men's professional and familial involvement with children. This research has also informed public awareness of children's perspectives and experiences through the use of media and other forms of public engagement.
Between 2009 and 2012 Clemens Sedmak was lead coordinator of a research project in collaboration with the international development NGO `SOS Children's Villages International'. Founded in 1949, this organisation is a service provider in the areas of care, education and health for children, as well as a child rights actor advocating for vulnerable children's rights. It runs 2,407 programmes in 133 countries and territories, providing over 80,000 children and youth with family-based care worldwide. It has been nominated 16 times for the Nobel Peace Prize and is recipient of numerous highly esteemed international awards (see 5.2.4 below). In 2011, total income was €886.8 million (see 5.2.1). Sedmak's research underpinned the design and implementation initially of a pilot project to improve quality of foster care in SOS Children's Villages in Namibia and Nicaragua. Specifically, the research applied Sedmak's own reworkings of the `capability approach' (discussed below) to children aged 8-13 and youths aged 14-18 who have lost parental care or are at risk of losing it. The beneficiaries of Sedmak's research are the NGO and also foster children and their families. The final report, published in February 2012, identified major challenges and opportunities for programme planning and evaluation. It also developed a theoretical framework based on primary data for subsequent application across the SOS Children's Villages globally.
Brunel research evaluated the first UK adaptation of an innovative American model for managing child care proceedings in court cases of parental drug and alcohol misuse. This evaluation provided the UK evidence base for the `Family Drug and Alcohol Court model' (FDAC); this has created impacts with national significance and international reach. Impacts for health and welfare for families were demonstrated through improved health and welfare outcomes such as reduced parental substance misuse, higher family reunification rates or, if required, swifter alternative placement for children; impacts for practitioners and professional services were achieved for social workers, lawyers, children's guardians and judges through the development of new understanding, enhanced inter-professional working and the delivery of more integrated practice with potential cost savings; impacts on public policy, law and services were achieved through raising political awareness, legislative debate, as well contributing to the international adoption of the model.
Research conducted at UEL on the protection, participation and welfare of children living in difficult circumstances in the aftermath of conflict and in contexts of urban and rural poverty has had wide-ranging impacts on international policy and practice. Benefits have arisen particularly from its influence on national policies for orphans and vulnerable children in Rwanda; on international professional standards and `best practice'; and on legal asylum in the USA. It has been used directly by governmental policymakers in Rwanda and Bangladesh and aid organisations in Africa and Asia, and has formed the basis for the development of new learning and advocacy resources used to improve the services offered by social work professionals in Africa, Asia and the UK. Through its direct impact on these individuals and organisations, the research has delivered indirect benefits to millions of children and adults around the world.
In a period of national questioning of social work quality, Sussex research has significantly influenced the curricula content of and entry standards for social work education (SWE). New guidelines set admissions standards for all English social work courses, resulting in better quality candidates. Law teaching has been shaped by a new curriculum guide based on our research, as well as the development of prize-winning educational resources. Social workers feel better equipped to communicate with children through contributions to new curricula requirements, textbooks to improve teaching, and direct influence — via Continuing Professional Development — on the quality of communications.
Research conducted by Peter Elfer has shown the significance of attention to babies and under threes' emotional well-being in nursery if early learning is to be effective. Children who are continually anxious or distressed do not learn well. A sensitive, responsive and consistent relationship with mainly one or two members of nursery staff (now known as the child's `key-person') has been shown to promote in young children feelings of safety and security. The research has underpinned the development of the key-person role in nurseries, as the means for enabling individual attention to children. This research has had a significant impact in the following areas:
1) UK Government curriculum guidance and requirements
2) Training of the early years workforce and continuing professional development
3) The evolution of UK Coalition Government policy and public discourse
The reach of the research is extensive, providing the underpinning for attachment practice in English nurseries. The above developments have strengthened the expectation in national standards of greater attention to the emotions of babies and young children in nursery and have provided the detailed guidance on how this can be achieved in practice.
This case study describes the policy and practice impacts of a series of studies by Claire Fox and colleagues on children's and young people's social and emotional wellbeing, in particular counselling provision in schools and domestic abuse prevention education. The research on the effectiveness of school counselling has been used by the Welsh Assembly to argue for a national roll-out of counselling in Welsh secondary schools. It is also being used by those responsible for commissioning counselling services in England and Northern Ireland. The research on young people and domestic abuse (DA) centres on the evaluation of a particular DA prevention programme delivered in North Staffordshire by local charity Arch. This organisation has benefited substantially from the research findings in terms of sustaining their work in schools. The research has also had a broader impact in terms of influencing UK, and European, policy on DA prevention education in schools.