Antenatal Screening. The UK NHS Antenatal Screening Programmes: Policy and Practice

AbstractThis paper draws on data from one strand of a six-strand, exploratory study on end of life care for adults using substances (AUS). It presents data from the key informant (KI) strand of the study that aimed to identify models of practice in the UK. Participant recruitment was purposive and used snowball sampling to recruit KIs from a range of health and social care, policy and practice backgrounds. Data were collected in 2016–2017 from 20 KIs using a semi-structured interview approach. The data were analysed using template analysis as discussed by King (2012). This paper focusses on two of seven resulting themes, namely “Definitions and perceptions of key terms” in end of life care and substance use sectors, and “Service commissioning and delivery.” The KIs demonstrated dedicated individual practice, but were critical of the systemic failure to provide adequate direction and resources to support people using substances at the end of their lives.

Download Full-text

Rapid, remote and responsive research during COVID-19

Methodological Innovations ◽

10.1177/20597991211008581 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 205979912110085

Author(s):

Jane Richardson ◽

Barry Godfrey ◽

Sandra Walklate

Keyword(s):

Criminal Justice ◽

Social Science ◽

Health Research ◽

Applied Research ◽

Data Gathering ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Research And Innovation ◽

The Uk ◽

Practical Recommendations

In March 2020, the UK Research and Innovation announced an emergency call for research to inform policy and practice responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This call implicitly and explicitly required researchers to work rapidly, remotely and responsively. In this article, we briefly review how rapid response methods developed in health research can be used in other social science fields. After outlining the literature in this area, we use the early stages of our applied research into criminal justice responses to domestic abuse during COVID-19 as a case study to illustrate some of the practical challenges we faced in responding to this rapid funding call. We review our use of and experience with remote research methods and describe how we used and adapted these methods in our research, from data gathering through to transcription and analysis. We reflect on our experiences to date of what it means to be responsive in fast-changing research situations. Finally, we make some practical recommendations for conducting applied research in a ‘nimble’ way to meet the demands of working rapidly, remotely, responsively and, most importantly, responsibly.

Download Full-text

Military Veterans and Welfare Reform: Bridging Two Policy Worlds through Qualitative Longitudinal Research

Social Policy and Society ◽

10.1017/s1474746421000166 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Lisa Scullion ◽

Katy Jones ◽

Peter Dwyer ◽

Celia Hynes ◽

Philip Martin

Keyword(s):

Welfare Reform ◽

Longitudinal Research ◽

Military Veterans ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Veterans Affairs ◽

Civilian Life ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Policy Makers ◽

The Social ◽

The Uk

There has been an increasing focus in the UK on the support provided to the Armed Forces community, with the publication of the Armed Forces Covenant (2011), the Strategy for our Veterans (2018) and the first ever Office for Veterans’ Affairs (2019). There is also an important body of research – including longitudinal research – focusing on transitions from military to civilian life, much of which is quantitative. At the same time, the UK has witnessed a period of unprecedented welfare reform. However, research focused on veterans’ interactions with the social security system has been largely absent. This article draws on the authors’ experiences of undertaking qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) to address this knowledge gap. We reflect on how QLR was essential in engaging policy makers enabling the research to bridge the two parallel policy worlds of veterans’ support and welfare reform, leading to significant policy and practice impact.

Download Full-text

Preserving and memorialising relationships: exploring young people’s experiences of foster care through the lens of social capital

Adoption & Fostering ◽

10.1177/0308575918773032 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 42 (2) ◽

pp. 176-188 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Justin Rogers

Keyword(s):

Social Capital ◽

Social Networks ◽

Foster Care ◽

Young People ◽

Qualitative Methods ◽

Family Life ◽

Growing Up ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

The Uk ◽

Gain Access

This article presents findings from research into how young people growing up in foster care in the UK manage the relationships in their social networks and gain access to social capital. It is a concept that highlights the value of relationships and is relevant to young people in care as they have usually experienced disruptions to their social and family life. Qualitative methods were used and the findings show that despite experiencing disruption to their social networks, the young people demonstrated that they were able to maintain access to their social capital. They achieved this in two ways. Firstly, they preserved their relationships, often through what can be seen as ordinary practices but in the extraordinary context of being in foster care. Secondly, they engaged in creative practices of memorialisation to preserve relationships that had ended or had been significantly impaired due to their experience of separation and movement. The article highlights implications for policy and practice, including the need to recognise the value of young people’s personal possessions. Furthermore, it stresses the need to support them to maintain their relationships across their networks as this facilitates their access to social capital.

Download Full-text

“There is still a perception that homelessness is a housing problem”: devolution, homelessness and health in the UK

Housing Care and Support ◽

10.1108/hcs-06-2016-0003 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 33-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Martin Whiteford ◽

Glenn Simpson

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Homeless People ◽

Small Sample ◽

Issue Salience ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Healthcare Provision ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Content Type ◽

The Uk ◽

Comparative Policy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an exploratory account of the links between devolution, homelessness and health in the UK. Specifically, it focusses on the policy context and governance structures that shape the systems of healthcare for homeless people in London, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Design/methodology/approach Empirically the paper draws on semi-structured interviews with a small sample of policy and practice actors from the devolved territories. Qualitative interviews were supplemented by a comparative policy analysis of the homelessness and health agenda within the devolved regions. Theoretically, it takes inspiration from Chaney’s concept of the “issue salience of homelessness” and explores the comparative character of healthcare as pertains to homeless people across the devolved territories. Findings The paper provides clear evidence of areas of divergence and convergence in policy and practice between the devolved regions. These features are shown to be strongly mediated by the interplay of two factors: first, the scope and scale of national and local homelessness prevention strategies; and second, intra-national variation in public health responses to homelessness. Originality/value The paper offers considerable insight from a comparative policy perspective into the nature of healthcare provision for homeless people in the devolved regions.

Download Full-text

Countering Violent Extremism in Canada and Abroad

Inquiry@Queen's Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings ◽

10.24908/iqurcp.11804 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Nora Abdelrahman Ibrahim

Keyword(s):

Best Practice ◽

Unintended Consequences ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Far Right ◽

Significant Development ◽

The Us ◽

Violent Extremism ◽

Recent Trends ◽

The Uk

Terrorism and violent extremism have undoubtedly become among the top security concerns of the 21st century. Despite a robust agenda of counterterrorism since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the evolution of global terrorism has continued to outpace the policy responses that have tried to address it. Recent trends such as the foreign fighter phenomenon, the rampant spread of extremist ideologies online and within communities, and a dramatic increase in terrorist incidents worldwide, have led to a recognition that “traditional” counterterrorism efforts are insufficient and ineffective in combatting these phenomena. Consequently, the focus of policy and practice has shifted towards countering violent extremism by addressing the drivers of radicalization to curb recruitment to extremist groups. Within this context, the field of countering violent extremism (CVE) has garnered attention from both the academic and policy-making worlds. While the CVE field holds promise as a significant development in counterterrorism, its policy and practice are complicated by several challenges that undermine the success of its initiatives. Building resilience to violent extremism is continuously challenged by an overly securitized narrative and unintended consequences of previous policies and practices, including divisive social undercurrents like Islamophobia, xenophobia, and far-right sentiments. These by-products make it increasingly difficult to mobilize a whole of society response that is so critical to the success and sustainability of CVE initiatives. This research project addresses these policy challenges by drawing on the CVE strategies of Canada, the US, the UK, and Denmark to collect best practice and lessons learned in order to outline a way forward.

Download Full-text

Charting a course to an emerging field of 'research engagement studies': A conceptual meta-synthesis

Research for All ◽

10.18546/rfa.02.2.02 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 185-229 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jude Fransman

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

International Development ◽

Higher Education Policy ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Research Engagement ◽

The Past ◽

Narrow Definition ◽

Definition Of ◽

The Uk ◽

Education Science

The past decades in the UK have witnessed renewed interest by policymakers, research funders and research institutions in the engagement of non-academic individuals, groups and organizations with research processes and products. There has been a broad consensus that better engagement leads to better impact, as well as significant learning around understanding engagement and improving practice. However, this sits in tension to a parallel trend in British higher education policy that reduces the field to a narrow definition of quantitatively measured impacts attributed to individual researchers, projects and institutions. In response, this article argues for the mobilization of an emerging field of 'research engagement studies' that brings together an extensive and diverse existing literature around understandings and experiences of engagement, and has the potential to contribute both strategically and conceptually to the broader impact debate. However, to inform this, some stocktaking is needed to trace the different traditions back to their conceptual roots and chart out a common set of themes, approaches and framings across the literature. In response, this article maps the literature by developing a genealogy of understandings of research engagement within five UK-based domains of policy and practice: higher education; science and technology; public policy (health, social care and education); international development; and community development. After identifying patterns and trends within and across these clusters, the article concludes by proposing a framework for comparing understandings of engagement, and uses this framework to highlight trends, gaps and ways forward for the emerging field.

Download Full-text

Social Inclusion, Participation and Citizenship in Contexts of Neoliberalism: Examples of Adult Education Policy and Practice with Young People in the UK, The Netherlands and Ireland

Young Adults and Active Citizenship - Lifelong Learning Book Series ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-65002-5_4 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 57-78

Author(s):

Nathalie Huegler ◽

Natasha Kersh

Keyword(s):

Adult Education ◽

Young People ◽

The Netherlands ◽

Social Inclusion ◽

Structural Barriers ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Economic Perspectives ◽

The Uk

AbstractThis chapter focuses on contexts where public discourses regarding the education of young adults have been dominated by socio-economic perspectives, with a focus on the role of employment-related learning, skills and chances and with active participation in the labour market as a key concern for policy makers. A focus on ‘employability’ alone has been linked to narrow conceptualisations of participation, inclusion and citizenship, arising in the context of discourse shifts through neoliberalism which emphasise workfare over welfare and responsibilities over rights. A key critique of such contexts is that the focus moves from addressing barriers to participation to framing social inclusion predominantly as related to expectations of ‘activation’ and sometimes, assimilation. Key target groups for discourses of activation include young people not in education, employment or training (‘NEET’), while in- and exclusion of migrant and ethnic minority young people are often framed within the complex and contradictory interplay between discourses of assimilation and experiences of discrimination. These developments influence the field of adult education aimed at young people vulnerable to social exclusion. An alternative discourse to ‘activation’ is the promotion of young people’s skills and capabilities that enables them to engage in forms of citizenship activism, challenging structural barriers that lead to exclusion. Our chapter considers selected examples from EduMAP research in the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland which indicate that as well as framing the participation of young people as discourses of ‘activation’, adult education can also enable and facilitate skills related to more activist forms of citizenship participation.

Download Full-text

The contradictions of policy and practice: creativity in higher education

London Review of Education ◽

10.1080/14748460.2012.691281 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Iain MacLaren

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Risk Taking ◽

Management Practices ◽

Recent Literature ◽

Workplace Stress ◽

Policy And Practice ◽

Policy Context ◽

Collaborative Exploration ◽

The Uk ◽

Creativity And Innovation

Whilst much of the rhetoric of current educational policy champions creativity and innovation, structural reforms and new management practices in higher education run counter to the known conditions under which creativity flourishes. As a review of recent literature suggests, surveillance, performativity, the end of tenure and rising levels of workplace stress are all closing off the space for real creative endeavour, characterised as it is by risk-taking, collaborative exploration and autonomy. Innovation, as conceived in this policy context (i.e., that of the UK and Ireland), is narrow in scope and leaves little room for critical re-examination of the nature of education itself or radical reconceptions of curriculum, raising the question as to whether such are more likely to arise extra mural , from new forms of organisation.

Download Full-text