The following work illustrates the type of outputs that emerge from my interests in child development research and its application to policy and practice (examples are updated periodically). To access a full list of publications click here.

presentations

The following link provides a video presentation of a talk given to the National Conference of the Children’s Fund in Birmingham, 2005; the talk deals with the potential for logic model techniques to underpin investment strategies for the development of Children’s Services in England.

The Logic Model: a Method for Outcome Led Planning, March 2005.

International Effectiveness of Interventions for Children and Young People - English

International Effectiveness of Interventions for Children and Young People - Dutch

Powerpoint presentation (2.67Mb)

The following file contains a PowerPoint presentation with a voice over. It describes a logical framework for change leading to improved outcomes for children in the English local authority of Norfolk. The framework emerged from five days concentrated work involving 20 leaders of children’s services in Norfolk, including representatives from all agencies. The presentation contains the first representation of the model. Norfolk has continued with this work, and continues to adapt and develop.

Every child in Norfolk Matters - A Logical Framework for Change
note: when viewing the presentation, click the speaker icon to hear the audio (there will be a delay before the audio starts on slower internet connections).

The following PDF file contains evidence given to the inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié by Lord Laming. The inquiry was fundamental to the Children Act, 2004 that led to the creation of Children’s Services in England, a focus on outcomes for all children as a mechanism for improving prevention and a re-statement of the principles of the Children Act, 1989. The paper deals with a request to deal with questions of common language, and tries to root observations in empirical evidence about how children come into contact with what we now recognise as children’s services.

Contribution to the Seminar on Identification: A Common Language, a Common Purpose - Second Seminar for Phase Two of the Victoria Climbié Inquiry

articles

The following PDF file summarises an article prepared with my colleagues Ron Thompson and Amelia Kohm that sets out a research agenda for the study of residence in the United States (with a discusion on relevance to other contexts). The article, which appeared in a special edition of the International Journal of Social Welfare, was written in the context of failing to mount an experimental study of outcomes in a research project on Child Development in the Context of Residential Education.

The Impact of Residential Placement on Child Development: Research and Policy Implications

The following PDF file contains a paper on the evaluation of a programme designed to improve outcomes for persistent young offenders known as the Intensive Supervision and Support Programme or ISSP. The Youth Justice Board eventually introduced a version of this programme across England. The evaluation confirmed the original hypotheses, that re-conviction is expected in nearly every case but that volume of offending can be significantly reduced (by 30%). The small number of persistent offenders weakens the power of the evaluation.

ISSP: An experiment in multi-systemic responses to persistent young offenders known to Children's Services

There has been a strong socio-legal tradition at Dartington Social Research Unit. The overview of the law as it impacts on services for children with social and psychological problems contained in the following PDF file was prepared in 2002. It deals with the interface between needs and rights, and describes the working of the law in civil and criminal cases. The paper was instructive in understanding the different approaches to children in need in the US and EU, and in recognising the way in which the law does and does not constrain innovation.

The Law Concerning Services for Children with Social and Psychological Problems

Much Dartington Social Research Unit work can be characterised as social policy analysis, using available information to make intelligent comments on the effectiveness of broad policies for children. The overview of research on child protection (the so-called ‘Blue Book’) is typical of this approach. The following PDF file contains a review of the extent to which reforms implemented by UK government since 1997 had impacted on children’s services, and therefore on outcomes for children.

Children’s Services in the UK 1997-2003 - Problems, Developments and Challenges for the Future

The common language work has been fundamental to ideas about how better to connect research to policy and practice. In addition to the production of practice tools, much effort has gone into defining terms commonly used in research in a way that can be useful to practice. The article in the following PDF file deals with risk and protective factors, and also resilience and coping. The article was used in taking forward in the Common Language practice tools Prediction and PaperWork.

Risk and Protection in the Context of Services for Children in Need

other

Michael writes: 'I have long been interested in the Bauhaus School as a metaphor for applying ideas from several disciplines to common training programmes that are used to sponsor innovation manifest as products that are useful in everyday life. The Bauhaus was interested in such connections in the context of the arts and architecture. My interest is in the links between research, policy and practice and in "making things" that will improve outcomes for children and families. The following PDF contains a presentation given at Chapin Hall. It deals with three issues; one the connections within the Bauhaus, two connections between the Bauhaus and what I call ‘oilers’ who fund unusual connections –including the Elmhirsts of Dartington, and three connections between Bauhaus and the work of the Warren House Group.'

Bauhaus connections

The following PDF file contains a review to appear in a forthcoming edition of Adoption and Fostering. The reviewed book Human Resilience: A Fifty Year Quest is a collection of articles by Ann and Alan Clarke.

Human Resilience: A Fifty Year Quest

The following PDF file contains (on page 8) the proofs of a review of a book by Adrian Ward and colleagues on Therapeutic Communities. The review expresses a frustration that recommendations made in a study of Caldecott Therapeutic Community in 1996 (in the book A Life Without Problems) were not acted upon, and evidence on the effectiveness of this type of intervention remains as scant as ever.

Therapeutic Communities for Children and Young People