29 November 2016

Alcohol & Substance Abuse

I've tried to gather some relevant resources here, for those of you writing on this topic. As a starting point, the World Health Organization's website has a dedicated page containing a range of resources, which include publications including:
Numerous Government publications have been produced, here are the most current. There are several organisations that regularly publish research in this area: the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) provide current overviews of drug problems in Europe - the United Kingdom Drug Situation report is a publication submitted to the EMCDDA annually; Public Health England provides a list of articles, publications and statistics; the ONS have datasets on drug misuse and drinking habits in Great Britain; statistics have also been made available by the HSCIC on drugs misuse and alcohol abuse

The following related books are available in the library:
  • Substance misuse : the implications of research, policy and practice - 362.29 BAR
  • A-Z of substance misuse & drug addiction - 362.29 MAC 
  • Understanding & working with substance misusers - 362.29 PYC 
  • Drugs - 362.290941 ACR (Available in E-Resources: Isssues Online)
  • Motivational interviewing and stages of change : integrating best practices for substance abuse professionals - 362.291 TOM 
  • Getting wise to drugs - 372.37044 EMM 
  • Emerging perspectives on substance misuse - 616.86 MIS 
  • Applied cognitive and behavioural approaches to the treatment of addiction - 616.86 MIT 
  • Theory of addiction - 616.86 WES 
In E-Resources (portal), try individual searches in CareKnowledge, SocIndex and Issues Online.
Hope this helps! If you do require anything further information, please contact 

28 November 2016

Academies

Research by the London School of Economics has found that the conversion of primary schools into academies has not improved pupils' results. The results of primary schools converted to academies, were studied by the authors who saw no improvement compared with similar schools that converted later. This comes in the wake of the Government's U-turn on their Bill to force all state schools in England to become academies. 

23 November 2016

Men's Attitude to Fatherhood and Child Behaviour

The outcomes of a a new study which explores the influence that a father's attitude to parenting has on a child, have been discussed in the Guardian. Researchers have found that children whose fathers were more confident about being a parent and who were more emotionally positive about the role, were less likely to show behavioural difficulties by the ages of nine and eleven. The full research study, is available in BMJ Open.

22 November 2016

#iwill

#iwill is a campaign taking place this week, to highlight the benefits of youth social action across the UK. 

Young people will be taking part in activities such as campaigning, fundraising and volunteering, all of which create a double-benefit – to communities and young people themselves. So far more than 500 business, education and voluntary sector partners have committed to embedding social action into the lives of young people. Find out more about the campaign...

21 November 2016

Child Neglect

Research, Policy and Planning, the Journal of the Social Services Research Group, have published a special issue on child neglect; it is freely available online, articles are listed here:
  • Research, policy and practice across a devolved United Kingdom – an overview of the field. 
  • Noticing and helping neglected children in Scotland: ‘... sometimes it’s just too hard to talk...’. 
  • Tackling child neglect: key developments in Wales. 
  • Child neglect: policy, response and developments in England.
  • Childhood neglect – the Northern Ireland experience.

16 November 2016

Work in progress...

DfE are currently consulting on proposals to amend the literacy and numeracy qualification requirements for qualified Early Years Educators.

The National Audit Office has begun a study on DfE’s plans to improve teacher retention and workforce quality. It will examine progress made so far, in regards to improving the quality of the teaching workforce and teacher retention and encouraging trained ex-teachers to re-enter the workforce. Earlier this year, the DfE set out plans to achieve educational excellence across the country, following on from the NAO report Training new teachers.

Estyn are seeking the views of teachers, senior leaders, policy makers and everyone with an interest in education, on proposed changes to the ways schools and other providers will be inspected from September 2017 onwards. 

To help boost standards in schools across Wales, plans have been announced to set up a new National Network of Excellence for Mathematics.

10 November 2016

Education Update

The Government has now decided to scrap the Education Bill introduced earlier this year; many were relieved that state schools will not be forced to become academies by 2022. Parts of the bill expected to survive include the proposed revamp of initial teacher training and an overhaul of the National College for Teaching and Leadership.

The DfE has also been busy with two other bills: the children and social work bill and the higher education and research bill; there is also the technical and further education bill which will have its second reading debate next Monday.  Also expected from Justine Greening, new education secretary, are proposals on extending grammar schools in the 'Schools that Work for Everyone' consultation to be published early next year.

In the meantime, authorities are concerned about the planned cuts of £600m from the education services grant awarded to councils and academies. 

4 November 2016

Updates EY Compliance Handbook

OFSTED have made some minor updates to the Early Years Compliance Handbook including the summary of changes; the updates relate to the action taken by Ofsted when a childminder or childcare provider does not comply with regulations. The full handbook can be viewed here.

Pre-school Autism Communication Trial

There has been a buzz about a new trial for a parenting education programme - the results of which are very promising. In a nutshell, the Pre-school Autism Communication Trial (PACT) trained parents of autistic children to communicate with them, without the use of drugs or medical intervention; parents were required to attend twice-weekly clinics and given daily exercises to practice over a period of six months. Significant improvements could be seen by the end of the first year with these improvements continuing into the longer term. Details of the trial can be found in this article.

Dr Jonathan Green of the Autism Science Foundation is interviewed below - 
view related videos here.

3 November 2016

The Pioneers

I thought I would re-post this to help those of you working on your Pioneers assignment - hope it points you in the right direction!
To start off with, you may want to search Britannica Online (E-Resources), for brief introductions to many key theorists. I would also suggest looking at David Renfree's 'Theorists in 140' post', covering all the popular (and lesser known) theorists, along with links to further useful sources of information. 
There are a number of related books (listed below), some of which are also available online (Dawson Books via E-Resources):
  
  • 'Fifty Major Thinkers on Education' - 370.922 BRE 
  • 'Fifty Modern Thinkers on Education' - 370.922 PAL (also online) 
  • 'Fifty Key Thinkers in Psychology' - 150.922 SHE (also online) 
  • 'Theories of Childhood' - 305.231 MOO 
  • 'Pioneers in early childhood education' - 372.210922 GIA (also online) 
  • ‘Vygotsky in action in the early years’ - 372.21019 DOL (also online) 
  • ‘An introduction to Vygotsky’ - 150.92 DAN 
  • ‘Introducing Vygotsky’ - 372.21 SMI 
  • ‘Introducing Bruner’ - 372.2101 SMI (also online)
  • ‘Bringing the Montessori approach to your early years practice’ - 372.210941 ISA (also online) 
  • ‘Montessori and early childhood’ - 371.392 FEE (also online) 
  • A number of Linda Pound's books on theories behind children's learning, can be viewed here.

Sugar Tax

Further to the campaign for a tax on soft drinks in an attempt to combat the rise in childhood obesity, a report has been published by WHO which declares that taxing sugary drinks can lower consumption and reduce obesity, type 2 diabetes and tooth decay.

2 November 2016

Improving lives

The Government has launched a Green Paper, 'Improving Lives': a consultation on disability, health and work. They are seeking views from all sections of the community eg. employers, health care professionals, family as well as those living with long-term health conditions, in order to better understand the range of conditions and the circumstances faced by this group. The consultation is now open until Friday 17th February 2017.