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Reducing youth anti-social behaviour and raising young people's educational aspirations are international priorities. Research carried out by the University of Greenwich has provided the basis for policy development on participation in higher education and has informed policy makers' views about, and practitioners' work on, anti-social behaviour in schools in the UK and more widely. The impact through partnerships with a local authority and a charity are also described, involving use of an assessment toolkit called the Emotion, Behaviour, Aspiration Toolkit (eBAT) to address factors that limit the aspirations and social mobility of young people. The work is located in the university's Research Centre for Children Schools and Families, which has become a centre for research on anti-social behaviour:
http://www2.gre.ac.uk/about/schools/health/research/healthsocial/ccsf.
Extended schools research and related projects have contributed to debate and policy-making in the UK and in countries in Europe, Asia and Australasia post-2008 on the role of the school in relation to disadvantage. Our research has strongly informed English government policy 2008-11 and the actions (including funding and scaling up extended schools) taken to develop community-oriented, full-service and extended schools to help address the impact of disadvantage on educational outcomes. We have had sustained and far-reaching impact on the policy and actions of schools and local authorities (LAs) in their development of extended schools. Professional practice changes include greater willingness to collaborate across agencies and an amendment to policy on `raising aspirations' to become `reaching aspirations'. Additionally our innovative research methodology, a version of theory of change, has been taken up and used by schools, LAs and other organisations.
Educational effectiveness and improvement research by the University of Southampton School of Education has contributed significantly to the design and implementation of educational policy and practice at both national and international levels. Impact has been predominantly in the area of policy, but the School's ground-breaking research has also shown the effects of (and practice within) `good' schools and has pioneered novel approaches to school improvement, school organisation and the use of data in schools. The Educational Effectiveness and Improvement Group has helped establish the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) and given it a global reach; its research has directly informed policy implementation through academy chains, schools and local authorities in the UK generally and in Wales in particular, and internationally in the US, China, Sweden, Cyprus and Chile. The School's worldwide reach is among the most widespread in Education.
An urgent need has been identified to redesign diabetes health services for young people in the UK, which has the fifth largest paediatric diabetes population in the world with no standardised approach to care. The Adolescent Diabetes Needs Assessment Tool (ADNAT) App is the first intervention of its kind filling a recognised gap in UK service provision. Evidence from the underpinning research programme that has studied adolescent diabetes self-care and explored technological methods of learning, has guided the development, validation and clinical evaluation of ADNAT which has now been included in the UK's 2013-2018 National Paediatric Service Improvement Delivery Plan.
Impact is demonstrated through the ways in which research findings have been utilised by schools and Alternative Provision (AP) providers, to evaluate and remodel educational policies and practices. Evidence is presented to support the assertion that by seeking out the perspectives of children and young people, schools can become more critically aware of the complex educational, social, cultural and economic factors that serve to increase pupil exclusion, vulnerability and exposure to risk. An increase in professional understanding and awareness is demonstrated with reference to examples of personalised pastoral interventions, which respond directly to the needs of alienated and disaffected pupils.
Policy-makers, professional and public audiences interested in young people's learning about sex and sexuality often approach discussions with strongly-held, sometimes conflicting views. Research at Sheffield Hallam University has contributed knowledge and understanding to discussions in national policy and practice development, and public debate, with impacts on education, service provision and support for young people. Findings have been used in Parliamentary debates, by national organisations lobbying for continued or improved provision in personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE), and in discussions about bullying in both lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT)-specific, and also in mainstream, community contexts. This has led to increased understanding about homophobia and LGBT wellbeing.
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.
Since 2008, UK and overseas policies, practices and tools aimed at evaluating and promoting quality in schools and supporting student learning, attainment and progress have been profoundly influenced by research conducted at the University of Bristol. The work began in 2001 in the Graduate School of Education; from 2005, the School's efforts were complemented by those of the Centre for Multilevel Modelling. The research has generated original knowledge about school performance measures and school, teacher and context factors which promote student learning. This knowledge has transformed government and institutional policies and practices. New improved methods of evaluating schools and interventions in education (and other sectors) have been demonstrated and widely disseminated, thereby enhancing public understanding of institutional league tables and facilitating the scaling-up of new approaches nationally. The development of statistical methodology and MLwiN software and training has enabled more rigorous and sensitive quantitative analysis of educational datasets around the world, as well as wider take-up of this methodology by non academics.
This case study demonstrates the impact generated through research studies at Plymouth University into `sexting', the self-generation and distribution of explicit images, by children and young people. The findings have informed briefing material for Ofsted inspectors, been used to develop material for schools, and led to schools developing new curriculum based support and peer mentoring. The research has also extended the understanding of the emerging issues and helped inform national debate and public discourse.
The Wellbeing Programme at the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) was founded in 2001, based on the belief that subjective wellbeing should be the main criterion for making government policy. The research programme has had a widespread impact on many UK government policies, including policies for measuring national wellbeing; for Improving Access to Psychological Therapies in the NHS; for improving life skills in schools; and for apprenticeships. CEP research has also had significant impact worldwide, including on the OECD's measurement programme, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations (UN) process towards making happiness one of the `sustainable development goals' after 2015.