Understanding Education, Children and Families Spring 2008

Welcome to the first edition of the new e-bulletin from the Ipsos MORI Education, Children and Families team. It's aimed at researchers and policy makers involved in conducting or commissioning social or policy-related research in this sector. Our team works for a wide range of clients, helping them to understand the views and needs of children, families, service providers and professionals, and to inform and evaluate policies, practices and initiatives. We'd like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the findings from our recent research.

Jane Stevens, Fiona Johnson and Emma Wallace

Contents

Current research and news

Encouraging participation: citizens' juries in schools provide students with the opportunity to become actively engaged in decision-making.

DCSF's 'Staying Safe' public consultation: research with stakeholders, young people and parents on helping young people to stay safe.

TellUs2 survey: capturing children's views on a range of quality of life indicators.

Six years of longitudinal research on becoming a teacher.

Teachers Omnibus: evidence of a growing divide between practitioners and policy makers?

Upcoming events and presentations

Publications

Education tracker

Current research and news

Encouraging participation: citizens' juries in schools provide students with the opportunity to become actively engaged in decision-making

In March, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears unveiled plans for a new White Paper, Unlocking the talent of our communities, which further promotes "active citizenship" — people getting involved in making the decisions that will affect them. Ipsos MORI is particularly well-equipped to meet this new focus on active citizenship. We have a dedicated and experienced Participation Unit, our in-house, cross-specialism research team with a focus on engaging people in a dialogue rather than taking a snapshot of their opinions, involving people more fully in the processes of research to ensure that results reflect their concerns and that interventions are beneficial to them and their lives as well as to the client, and, ultimately, shifting power to the citizen, resident or service-user. For further details, please see Ipsos MORI Participation Unit.

The Participation Unit worked recently on a project on behalf of the English Secondary Students' Association (ESSA) to trial citizens' juries in schools and provide students with the opportunity to become actively engaged in the democratic process. The use of citizens' juries in schools is particularly topical given the emphasis within Every Child Matters on involving young people in the community (Strand 4: Making a positive contribution). Based on juries within the criminal justice system, a key belief about citizens' juries is that once a small sample of a population has heard a range of evidence about an issue, their subsequent deliberations and recommendations can fairly represent the conscience and intelligence of the community. Extending this democratic process to a school environment allows young people to get involved in decision-making that affects them. As a result of this work, ESSA has produced a guide to how to run a Citizens' Jury in a school: download citizens' juries in schools and colleges (pdf, 706KB) for more details.

Moreover, the findings of this research have caught the interest of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and are mentioned in a discussion paper produced by the Cabinet Office, Realising Britain's Potential: Future Strategic Challenges for Britain (Feb 2008).

DCSF's 'Staying Safe' public consultation: research with stakeholders, young people and parents on helping young people to stay safe

As part of the DCSF's public consultation 'Staying Safe' Ipsos MORI recently designed and conducted a number of day-long deliberative consultation events. Stakeholders, including practitioners and policy makers from the public and voluntary sectors, were invited to workshops, held in eight regions, to discuss their key safeguarding priorities, to suggest how agencies can work better on the ground, and to give reactions to proposals featured in the consultation document.

Between 40 and 80 stakeholders attended each event. They were encouraged to give their views through a range of methods including: group discussions, thoughts on case studies, plenary feedback, questionnaires, and feedback forms. Qualitative interviews and group discussions with young people, parents and the wider public also took place in the same regions to complement the work with stakeholders.

The Government has now published the Staying Safe Action Plan in response to the consultation (Staying Safe Action Plan pdf, 706KB). The Action Plan outlines the key commitments the Government will be taking forward over the next three years to improve children and young people's safety.

TellUs2 survey: capturing children's views on a range of quality of life indicators

In 2007, Ipsos MORI helped Ofsted and DCSF develop the methodology and a questionnaire for the TellUs2 survey of children and young people, a web-based survey of their experiences and views of their life. The survey was lead by Ofsted and administered by schools among 111,325 pupils in school years 6, 8 and 10 (aged 10-14) online in Summer 2007.

Questions were designed to capture children's views on a range of quality of life indicators, such as activities and things to do, safety, health, education, risk-taking behaviour, bullying and involvement in decision-making.

The results are being used to assess council services across the country and to provide national benchmarking data on the views of children and young people. A small number of measures, including emotional health, experience of bullying and substance misuse, are also being used in the new local government National Indicator set for the 2007 Annual Performance Assessments and Joint Area Reviews of Children's Services. Download Annual performance assessment 2007 and joint area reviews (Word doc, 767KB) for details.

Ofsted will be repeating the survey this summer (TellUs3) using a slightly amended questionnaire which Ipsos MORI has recently cognitively tested. What is the Tellus3 survey? for details.

Six years of longitudinal research on becoming a teacher

Since 2003, Ipsos MORI has been working in partnership with the Universities of Nottingham and Leeds to conduct a longitudinal study of new teachers as they embark on their careers. The Becoming a Teacher project is being undertaken on behalf of the Department for Children Schools & Families (DCSF), the Training and Development Agency for schools (TDA) and the General Teaching Council (GTC).

The six-year study is focusing on teachers' experiences of initial teacher training (ITT), induction and early professional development (EPD). It is tracking teachers who entered the profession via a range of different routes, including BEd, BA(QTS), BSc(QTS), PGCE, SCITT, GRTP and Flexible PGCE Route training. The cohort being tracked completed their initial teacher training in Summer / Autumn 2004 and the research has followed them through their induction year and the subsequent three years of teaching. Overall, the study aims to support teacher retention by investigating the differential impact of ITT, induction and EPD experiences on teachers' attitudes to, and choices about, their teaching career.

Almost 5,000 trainees (a sixth of all trainee teachers in the UK) took part in the first wave of the research via self-completion sessions in Autumn 2003. Follow-up telephone surveys have been conducted every summer since then, with the final wave of interviewing due to go ahead in June 2008. From the original cohort of 5,000 trainee teachers, around 1,550 are still involved in the research five years on. There has been a much lower rate of attrition than the research teams originally envisaged, due in no small part to a number of techniques employed to encourage participation and keep respondents interested and engaged in the research. These include — for respondents — an annual prize draw, access to research findings and regular 'keep in touch' mail outs, as well as regular 'cleaning', verification and updating of the respondent database by the research team.

Research findings are already informing policy development in England relating to ITT, induction and EPD. Further information about this large-scale research project can be found on the dedicated website, www.becoming-a-teacher.ac.uk

Teachers Omnibus: evidence of a growing divide between practitioners and policy makers?

For the first time in more than 20 years, a national walk-out by teachers went ahead in April; the largest teaching union, the National Union of Teachers called for strike action by all its members in England and Wales on 24 April, in protest at this year's pay offer from the Government. Meanwhile, the latest round of teaching union conferences (ATL, NASUWT and NUT) has seen practitioners at loggerheads with policy makers and ministers over a number of key issues including work-life balance, class sizes, Academies, pupil testing and the school leaving age. — Read more

Upcoming events and presentations

Integrated working and joint commissioning in children's services

Children Services Network (CSN) / The Local Government Information Unit (LGiU)

1 May 2008

LGIU Office, 22 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0TB

Emma Wallace, Research Director at Ipsos MORI, will be presenting on the important role of surveys and interviews with children, young people and families, and how to correctly analyse local information, to establish the needs of children and young people locally. Slides from her recent presentation on this topic to the Local Government Chronicle Conference are available from Emma Wallace.

For further information, go to: www.lgiu.gov.uk

The 27th Annual Conference for British International Schools

Council of British International Schools

10-12 May 2008

1 Whitehall Place and the Royal Horse Guards Hotel, London

Ben Page, Managing Director of Ipsos MORI Public Affairs and Chairman of Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute, will be speaking about Trends in Education and Leadership. The Conference is open to governors (Board Members), headteachers, and members of senior management teams from British International Schools anywhere in the world.

For further information, go to: www.cobisec.org

Who's Happy Now? Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute Summer Conference

3 June 2008

The Royal College of Physicians, London

The fourth Ipsos MORI annual summer conference will examine what the British think of happiness and how we compare with other countries. We will look at who's happiest and who's most miserable and why. We will consider the role Government is and should be playing in promoting citizens' happiness or well-being.

Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute Chairman Ben Page will be joined in discussion on these issues by Evan Davis, Presenter of Today, Professor Paul Dolan, Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London and Iain Duncan Smith MP. The session will be interactive, with plenty of time for questions and debate.

The conference is free for Ipsos MORI clients and friends and will be followed by a drinks reception in the garden (weather permitting). Registration is via our online booking form.

Publications

A study into the views of parents on the physical punishment of children

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) commissioned Ipsos MORI to survey parents in summer 2007 as part of its review of Section 58 of the Children Act 2004 (in order to examine its practical effect and to revisit views on smacking). The government considered several sources of evidence as part of the review: the findings from this survey of parents, those from qualitative research with around 60 children and young people aged 4-16 (undertaken by Sherbert), responses to a public consultation, and interviews with legal professionals including the police and Crown Prosecution Service. The review concluded that the law on smacking children should remain as it stands currently 'in the absence of evidence it is not working satisfactorily'. Our report can be found here www.dcsf.gov.uk/publications/section58review

Questionnaire design for children

An extensive literature exists on effective questionnaire design approaches for surveys among children. However, the challenges involved in ensuring surveys collect accurate measures are considerable and putting theory into effective practice so that questions accurately measure what the researcher wants to find out can often be difficult to achieve. Ipsos MORI was commissioned by Department for Children, Schools and Families to support methodological development and questionnaire design of a survey to be administered in a self-completion online format among children in school years 6, 8 and 10 (10-14 years) for Ofsted's Tellus 2 Survey. Findings from the cognitive testing work can be found here (Questionnaire design for children pdf, 44KB). It should be of practical value for research practitioners involved in surveying children and young people. It briefly summarises some of the key theoretical principles by way of context and then reports on practical learning arising from the testing in relation to some key demographic and quality of life measures.

Education tracker

Education is now the fifth most important issue for the British public, down from the fourth position it held throughout 2007. At the moment, crime / law and order is seen as the most important issue facing Britain today followed by race relations / immigration, the NHS / health and — as might be expected in the current financial climate — the economy.

A third of the British public thinks the quality of education will get better over the next few years; the same as in March 2007. A quarter (24%) thinks it will get worse and 38% feel it will stay the same. Similarly, a third expect opportunities for young people to get better over the next few years, although a third (33%) expect services for young people to get worse. Net figures indicate that public confidence in the future of education has remained reasonably positive in the last 6 months (the net better figure is at +9% as it was in September 2007). While public confidence in opportunities for young people is much lower at -1% it has improved this year from -4% in September 2007 and -8% in November 2007.

More people think they will see more of an improvement in the quality of education than in other public services such as transport (29%), the NHS (26%) and policing (24%).

Get in touch

For more information about any of our research, or to enquire about potential research projects, please get in touch with Jane Stevens t: 020 7347 3168, Fiona Johnson t: 020 7347 3253. or Emma Wallace t: 020 7347 3205.

The Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute has conducted studies for a wide variety of clients examining a range of issues facing young people and associated practitioners. To find out more about us, and the research solutions available to you, visit our website at www.ipsos-mori.com/education

If your contact details change, please do let us know so we can keep you updated on current research relating to children, families and education.

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