Category Archives: Grey Literature

Prof. Dana Fusco, Department of Teacher Education, York College, City University of New York Podcast title: Key Principles for Effective Youth Work Practice

In the 2000s an unprecedented wave of left-party victories in presidential elections swept across Latin America. Although scholars have studied variation among left regimes and how these regimes differ from neoliberal-era predecessors, few have addressed the role of labour unions and labour policy under the Left. We argue that ‘bringing unions back in’ to the analysis of left governments’ performance sharpens distinctions with neoliberal governments and unsettles existing typologies. We review the labour policies of left governments in four countries—Chile, …

Educational performance appears to be one of the main barriers which stop people moving out of poverty. Yet studies indicate that poorer children are still failing to achieve their educational potential. How should these continuing inequalities be addressed? Policies that focus on early years, greater ‘school readiness’ and support for parents are clearly important but research also points to the multiple structural problems that prevent poor children from achieving their potential, including the pressing need for more ‘good’ schools.

Allison Metz Ph.D, National Implementation Research Network and FPG Child Development Institute, United States

Dr Karen Blase, Co-director of the National Implementation Research Network, and Senior Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Podcast title: Implementation Science – How to get best practice into human services.

Six years on from the tragic death of Baby Peter Connolly in Haringey, serious concerns persist that we are still failing some of our most vulnerable children. A quarter of the 79 councils inspected under Ofsted’s new safeguarding children framework have been rated “inadequate” by Ofsted and stories continue to emerge in our courts and in our media of young people known to social services being kept in risky situations for too long. Ministers, including the Secretary of State for …

For more than a decade, The Atlantic Philanthropies, sometimes in conjunction with Government and other organisations, has invested over €96m in agencies and community groups running 52 prevention and early intervention programmes throughout the island of Ireland. These include a funding partnership with the Irish Government to support three large-scale model prevention and early intervention projects in disadvantaged areas of Dublin. The Initiative supports diverse services working in a wide range of areas such as early childhood, literacy and learning, …

This position statement is the second in a short series that articulates ADCS members’ collective aspirations for the care system. In particular, this statement reviews the key messages from evidence relating to models of adolescent care provision, examines whether there might be alternative models better suited to the needs of adolescents, looks at the balance of parenting responsibility between the state and a young person’s family, offers some propositions for debate, and makes some recommendations as to how we might …

UK Health inequalities continue to undermine social mobility

The Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is an annual data collection designed to gather information about nonfatal personal crimes and household property crimes in the United States. The main purpose of the NCVS is to accurately measure the number and type of criminal victimizations that occur each year to persons age 12 or older. Victimization rates are most commonly used in NCVS reports to describe changes in the level of personal and household crime over …

Prof Daniel Perkins, Director, Penn State Cooperative Extension’s Children, Youth, and Families Are Resilient Initiative Podcast title: Programme implementation, scaling up and maintaining fidelity

Baby Steps: Poverty, Chronic stress and New York’s Youngest Children.

Bianca Albers, MA, Director at the Family and Evidence Center, Copenhagen, Denmark Podcast title: The Family and Evidence Center Experience of Implementation Teams

This annual report relates to data extracted from Mental Health Minimum Data Set (MHMDS) for activity undertaken within the financial year 2012-13. The publication for 2012-13 was produced from a single file compiled by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) from the quarterly submissions (2012-13 data). This uses a new, centrally derived, unique Spell ID to link patient spells across these quarters. We have, for this publication, designed a process for compiling a cumulative annual file, which removes …

ADCS Response to DfE re ‘Reforming Children’s Homes Care: consultation on changes to the Children’s homes Regulations 2001 and Care Standards Act 2000 Regulations 2010’ and ‘Improving Safeguarding for LAC: consultation on changes to the Care Planning, Placement and review Regulations 2010’ ADCS is the national leadership organisation in England for directors of children’s services appointed under the provisions of the Children Act 2004 and for other children’s services professionals in leadership roles. The statutory role of director of children’s …

Guest presenter Heidi Tweedie, Highland Festival Publicity Co-ordinator, gives us a round-up the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival 2013 in the Highlands.

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act requires insurance groups that offer coverage for mental health or substance use disorders to provide the same level of benefits as they do for general medical treatment. On Friday, November 8, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and the Treasury issued a final rule to implement the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.

In 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 46.2 million people, or 15.0 percent of the nation’s population, lived below the official poverty level.1 Although the poor were primarily children and adults who had not participated in the labor force during the year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 10.4 million individuals were among the “working poor” in 2011; this measure was little changed from 2010. The working poor are persons who spent at least 27 …

Copyright © minister for Children and youth affairs, 2013 department of Children and youth affairs 43-49 mespil road dublin 4 tel: +353 (0)1 647 3000 fax: +353 (0)1 667 0826 E-mail: contact@dcya.gov.ie web: www.dcya.ie published by government publications, dublin

UK Pregnancy and infancy are now recognised as crucial periods for child development, but parental influences extend well beyond the early months of a child’s life. A growing body of research suggests that good parenting skills and a supportive home learning environment are positively associated with children’s early achievements and wellbeing. Hence interventions to improve the quality of home and family life can increase social mobility

Military servicemembers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and depression, as well as military suicides, continue to be a major concern of Congress. Numerous legislative provisions have been enacted over the past years to address these issues. Members will likely seek to offer legislation in the 113th Congress to address this complex set of issues. This report is intended to provide assistance in understanding the issues associated with psychological health in the active duty forces, potential …

Fifty-eight percent of women in the United States age 16 and over participate in the labor force (working or looking for work).2 This includes 57 percent of White women, 60 percent of Black women, 57 percent of Hispanic women, and 57 percent of Asian women.3

Presents annual counts and rates of hate crime victimization that occurred from 2003 through 2011, using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The report examines changes over time in hate crime victimizations, including the type of bias that motivated the hate crime, the type of crime, whether the incident was reported to police, and characteristics of the incident, offender, and victim. In addition, the report compares characteristics of hate crime and nonhate crime victimization. NCVS estimates are supplemented …

An evaluation of National Minimum Wage enforcement in the social care sector over the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2013.

(November 2013) Contraceptive use varies widely around the world, both in terms of total use and the types of methods used. Worldwide, 63 percent of married women ages 15 to 49 use a method of family planning; 57 percent use a modern method. While most women in more developed countries use contraception, in many of the poorest countries, fewer than one in five married women use a modern method. PRB’s Family Planning Worldwide 2013 Data Sheet provides the latest estimates …

1.1. The Recovery Committee of the ACMD was formed in response to an invitation from the Inter Ministerial Group on Drugs (IMG). It has been created as a standing committee of the ACMD with membership drawn from the Council plus co-opted external expertise. 1.2. The Recovery Committee supports the ACMD in its duty to provide evidence-based advice to Government on recovery from dependence on drugs and alcohol and (later in its work) how best to prevent drug and alcohol misuse …

Leah Bromfield, Deputy Director, Australian Centre Child Protection, Australia Podcast title: Knowledge translation and exchange to enhance evidence-informed practice and policy relating to children and young people

The current study tested the boundary conditions of ethical decision-making by increasing cognitive load. This manipulation is believed to hinder deliberation, and, as we argue, reduces the cognitive capacity needed for a self-serving bias to occur. As telling a lie is believed to be more cognitively taxing than telling the truth, we hypothesized that participants would be more honest under high cognitive load than low cognitive load. 173 participants anonymously rolled a die three times and reported their outcomes – …

Why is it important for education and child welfare agencies to collaborate to improve educational outcomes for children in care? To be successful, children in foster care must overcome numerous educational challenges.

In 2011, a total of 478,400 fatal and nonfatal violent crimes were committed with a firearm (table 1). Homicides made up about 2% of all firearm-related crimes. There were 11,101 firearm homicides in 2011, down by 39% from a high of 18,253 in 1993 (figure 1). The majority of the decline in firearm-related homicides occurred between 1993 and 1998. Since 1999, the number of firearm homicides increased from 10,828 to 12,791 in 2006 before declining to 11,101 in 2011.

Similar to cigarettes, hookah smoking delivers the addictive drug nicotine and it is at least as toxic as cigarette smoking. While many hookah smokers may consider this practice less harmful than smoking cigarettes, hookah smoking carries many of the same health risks as cigarettes.

Who should accept responsibility for, and bear the costs of, climate change? Can climate change be sectioned off as an isolated issue of justice, or is it inextricably entangled with broader concerns of global justice?

The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA; P.L. 108-79) requires the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) to carry out, for each calendar year, a comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape. The act further specifies that the review and analysis shall be based on a random sample, or other scientifically appropriate sample of not less than 10 percent of all prisons, and a representative sample of municipal prisons

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Total federal debt can increase in two ways. First, debt increases when the government sells debt to the public to finance budget deficits and acquire the financial resources needed to meet its obligations. This increases debt held by the public. Second, debt increases when the federal government issues debt to certain government accounts, such as the Social Security, Medicare, and Transportation trust funds, in exchange for their reported surpluses. This increases debt held by government accounts. The sum of debt …

Why do we work almost as hard as we did 40 years ago, despite being on average twice as rich? Robert Skidelsky suggests an escape from the work and consumption treadmill. This event marks the paperback publication of Robert and Edward Skidelsky’s book How Much Is Enough? Robert Skidelsky is emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Warwick. His three-volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes; he also penned the critically …

In 2011-12, an estimated 4.0% of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 month

This report looks at mid-income older people, a group who have been overlooked in political and media debates about later life. Perspectives on ageing are dominated by how people think about the ‘top’ and the ‘bottom’. There are two competing narratives of later life: wealthy baby-boomers versus pensioners on the breadline facing poverty, isolation and ill-health. The truth is that the majority of older people today are somewhere in between – neither rich nor poor – and the middle is …

Whether it’s bicycle helmets or fracking, people often have strong feelings about risks and their control. But, when considering risk, to what extent is it feasible to separate thinking and feeling?

The windfall elimination provision (WEP) reduces the Social Security benefits of workers who also have pension benefits from employment not covered by Social Security. Its purpose is to remove an advantage or “windfall” these workers would otherwise receive as a result of the interaction between the Social Security benefit formula and the workers’ relatively short careers in Social Security-covered employment. Opponents contend the provision is basically imprecise and can be unfair.

Defined as those born between the years 1981 and 2001, students and 20-something graduates today have been called Generation Y, Gen Y, Millennials or Generation Why for their inquisitive nature(Chester, 2002). Following upon the heels of Generation X, these Gen Yers will make up of almost half of the country’s workforce by 2020(McArthur, 2009). T

UK This briefing highlights the use of longitudinal data in informing and shaping policies relating to child development and social mobility.

Six months on since Asian Development Outlook 2013 was published in April, developing Asia continues to consolidate its growth as the region’s two leading economies decelerate somewhat. Growth moderation in the People’s Republic of China reflects the authorities’ efforts to forge a more balanced and sustainable growth path than the familiar one led by exports and investment. In India, poor infrastructure and a lack of structural reforms continue to weigh on industry and investment, hampering growth. Regionally, developing Asia’s pace …

Prof Susan Michie, Professor of Health Psychology University College London Podcast title: Implementation and Human Behaviour Change – Bridging the Gap Between Sciences to Services

Congress created the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) in 2010 to help reduce teen pregnancies and their negative consequences. State PREP programs are expected to be evidence-based, provide education on both abstinence and contraceptive use, and educate youth on at least three of six adulthood preparation topics. States are also encouraged to target their programming to high-risk populations, such as youth residing in geographic areas with high teen birth rates, adjudicated youth, youth in foster care, minority youth, and pregnant …

Currently in Queensland (Australia) Indigenous children make up 6.5% of the population however they account for 37% of the children in child protection care. -Within Indigenous families, parenting problems are often coupled with other forms of adversity that can have adverse effects on children, create early onset behavior problems and contribute to the intergenerational cycle of general problem behaviors. -Evidence-based parenting interventions are shown to be the most effective way to reduce moderate to high levels of child behavior problems …

Abstract: Some Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics have had difficulty receiving reimbursement from State Medicaid Agencies for the provision of behavioral health services.

For married households, the amount of pre-retirement income replaced by Social Security depends on the labor force activity of both spouses.

The Social Security trust funds are projected to become exhausted in 2033, according to the 2013 Social Security Trustees Report. If Congress does not act before then, the trust funds would be unable to pay full Social Security benefits on time. The Social Security Act does not specify what would happen to benefits if the trust funds became insolvent. However, it is clear that full Social Security benefits could not be paid on time because the Antideficiency Act prohibits government …

Experimenter bias occurs when scientists’ hypotheses influence their results, even if involuntarily. Meta-analyses (e.g. Rosenthal & Rubin, 1978) have suggested that in some domains, such as psychology, up to 1/3 of the studies could be unreliable due to such biases. A series of experiments demonstrates that while people are aware of the possibility that scientists can be more biased when the conclusions of their experiments fit their initial hypotheses, they robustly fail to appreciate that they should also be more …

A specific phobia is characterized by an irrational fear of a particular object or situation. Specific phobias have two main components. The first is a strong and consistent fear of an object or situation that the individual realizes poses no actual threat. Secondly, this fear results in the intentional avoidance of the object or situation, causing difficulties in the individual’s life as decisions are made in order to avoid the feared stimulus. In many cases, the phobic object is something …

The reform of pension systems is arguably one of the key challenges for social policy in Europe in the context of demographic change. In recent years, the issue has been very high on the policy agenda across all EU Member States and in Norway. While several countries have introduced pension reforms over a decade ago, the economic crisis and the ensuing debt crisis have prompted a further wave of reform. These have largely concentrated on the sustainability of public pensions …

Australia’s retirement system has two key components: a means-tested government benefit and a mandatory savings account financed by employers.

However, the gains were very uneven. Top 1% incomes grew by 31.4% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.4% from 2009 to 2012. Hence, the top 1% captured 95% of the income gains in the first three years of the recovery. From 2009 to 2010, top 1% grew fast and then stagnated from 2010 to 2011. Bottom 99% stagnated both from 2009 to 2010 and from 2010 to 2011. In 2012, top 1% incomes increased sharply by 19.6% while …

Abstract: This issue brief explains that youth conferencing helps youth who are aging out of foster care forge or renew effective and enduring connections with caring adults. Youth conferencing models are presented that are all united by a common goal: to help youth garner the supportive resources necessary to prepare for life after foster care through the development of permanent connections that are independent of living arrangements, while establishing or reestablishing lasting relationships with those who love and care for …

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA, P.L. 111-148) allows certain individuals and small businesses to buy health insurance through state exchanges, beginning on October 1, 2013. The exchanges are not themselves insurers, but rather are special marketplaces where insurance firms may sell health policies that meet set, federal guidelines. As of September 2013, 16 states and the District of Columbia had secured Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) approval to create their own exchanges, 7 to …

In 2010, more than one in eight U.S. adults ages 65 and older were foreign-born, a share that is expected to continue to grow. The U.S. elderly immigrant population rose from 2.7 million in 1990 to 4.6 million in 2010, a 70 percent increase in 20 years (see figure). This issue of Today’s Research on Aging reviews recent research examining older immigrants in the United States, conducted by National Institute on Aging (NIA)-supported researchers and others. Understanding both the unique …

Australian Institute of Family Studies 01 November 2013 | This paper provides an overview of how the innovative use of technology can add value to service delivery in organisations working with families, children and young people.

This is the first report of the Fabian Commission on Future Spending Choices which was established to consider the public spending options for a government coming to power in 2015. The report is published to coincide with the 2013 Spending Round. It looks beyond current short-term debates to ask whether we are having the right sort of conversation about public spending; and what new principles, processes and structures can improve spending decisions. The report calls for debate on wide-ranging institutional …

In this chapter I use sole parents in Australia as a focus to examine what it would mean to take a gendered, human rights approach to interpreting the international law right to social security. While this approach supports the ongoing provision of social security in the form of cash transfers as a safety net for immediate alleviation of income poverty, the human rights approach points to complementary measures that are also needed. Social security is to be understood as a …

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Population aging causes financial imbalance of the pay-as-you-go public pension (social security) program. To remedy this problem but also ensure the adequacy of retirement saving for employees, many countries complement or substitute for public pensions by regulating private pensions. This paper is the first to utilize national pension policy change as a natural experiment to identify the impact of employer pensions on household voluntary savings. Specifically, I evaluate the response of household saving to mandatory employer-provided pension reform in Taiwan, …

This is the final report of the Fabian Society Commission on Future Spending Choices, which was established to explore the public spending choices facing government over the next two decades, including in the next parliament. It asks how these decisions can be made in a way that maximises prosperity, sustainability and social justice.

Pension plan participants’ characteristic lack of financial sophistication and widespread failure to monitor investments frequently prompts expressions of concern about the potentially large welfare losses such individuals could suffer. I explore this issue by studying the performance of an unsophisticated individual employing the so called “1/n strategy” of Benartzi and Thaler (2001) in a sample of defined contribution pension plans, finding that for typical investors, the out of sample impact of following this heuristic is insignificantly small. Moreover, lack of …

Panic disorder is characterized by recurrent panic attacks—an uncontrollable and terrifying response to ordinary, nonthreatening situations. There is also persistent anxiety or fear about the panic attacks and changes in behavior in an attempt to avoid further attacks. The symptoms of a panic attack include some combination of the following: sweating, hot or cold flashes, choking or smothering sensations, racing heart, labored breathing, trembling, chest pains, faintness, numbness, nausea or disorientation. Some experiencing an attack may feel like they are …

Australian Institute of Family Studies 01 November 2013 | This paper provides an overview of how the innovative use of technology can add value to service delivery in organisations working with families, children and young people.

Topics: Abuse, Neglect, Adoption & Foster Care, Self-Sufficiency, Welfare & Employment, Cross Cutting

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In ‘The Road to Full Employment’, Liam Byrne argues that if we restore our country to full employment, we can afford to rebuild social security for 21st century Britain. By investing in infrastructure, raising wages and using a more effective local framework for getting unemployed people from all walks of life back into work, we can stop the incalculable waste of human life around us. We can reduce the deficit and put the ethos of ‘something for something’ back into …