Will Parry
Freelance applied statistician and data analyst. Holds a PhD in Quantitative Social Science from the Department of Quantitative Social Science, UCL Institute of Education, and a Masters in Social Research Methods from the Methodology Institute of London School of Economics and Political Science.
Address: London, London, City of, United Kingdom
Address: London, London, City of, United Kingdom
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As a condition of beginning this programme, women agree to use an effective form of reversible contraceptive for the 18-month duration of the programme. This is intended to allow women the opportunity to reflect and focus on their own needs.
Pause began in Hackney in 2013, and received funding from the Department for Education Innovation Programme in 2015 to expand the pilot within Hackney, and to Doncaster, Greenwich, Hull, Islington, Newham, and Southwark.
This evaluation report assesses the impact of programme delivery, as well as the processes through which impact was achieved, for 125 women engaging with Pause at these 7 pilot Practices. It also offers an assessment of the fiscal costs and benefits of delivering the programme.
Alongside the research, the Centre has published ‘Open Plan’, a policy discussion paper that explores what the findings of the research mean for the different policy agendas around older homeowners: specialist housing and home adaptations; under-occupancy and housing supply; the use of housing wealth to fund retirement; and, housing wealth taxation and fairness.
The research was undertaken in the wake of the April 2015 changes to rules on ‘Defined Contribution’ (DC) pension savings, which broke with the previous regime – known as the ‘annuities deal’ – which required DC pension savers to convert their savings into a secure income at retirement.
Given the limited evidence available on the link between level of secure income and people’s experience of retirement, the Strategic Society Centre undertook this research, which was made possible by the support of Just Retirement and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The study analysed data from Wave 6 (2012-13) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), which is a longitudinal, multidisciplinary social survey undertaken every two years, of a representative sample of the English population aged 50 and older.
Leading a physically active lifestyle is known to provide a wide variety of health benefits, from reduced risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, to improved mental well-being and healthy weight maintenance. Despite this, the majority of adults are not sufficiently active to benefit health.
Government has consistently sought to increase levels of physical activity in the population (as well as develop elite sport talent) by focusing policy on the promotion of traditional, competitive sport in schools. The main rationale for this approach is that children who play lots of sport in school will continue participating as adults.
The academic literature has frequently criticised the focus on traditional, competitive sports, citing evidence that they have limited appeal to many children, exclude those with lower levels of skill and fitness, and may be counter-productive in terms of promoting lifelong activity. There is, however, scant prospective, quantitative evidence available to support either perspective.
The research presented in this thesis uses longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, and robust statistical methods, to identify how childhood experiences of sport and exercise develop between primary and secondary school, and how they are associated with adult exercise behaviour. Hypotheses based on government policy assertions and academic theory are tested.
The findings provide little support for government policy: the cohort members’ participation in school sport was not independently associated with their exercise behaviour in adulthood. In contrast, there was consistent support for academic theory. Parental and family influences (posited by family socialisation theory) were consistently identified as key determinants of sport and exercise experiences, both in school and in adulthood. Likewise, an interest in physical fitness in childhood (i.e. intrinsic motivation, as described in self-determination theory) also affected adult exercise behaviour.
The findings are used to suggest alternative approaches by which government might encourage physical activity in the population.
The academic literature suggests that parental and family influences are the main drivers of children’s participation in physical activity. Active children are socialised into active lifestyles by encouraging, supportive parents. They acquire skills and abilities that enable them to do well at and enjoy school sport and physical education.
The analysis presented in this research uses data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to compare statistical models based on policy assertions with models based on socialisation and motivation theories. By doing so, it identifies whether school sport and physical education policy is likely to act as an effective intervention, or whether it mostly benefits children who have already been socialised into active lifestyles by their parents.
It was found that girls and boys had different experiences of physical activity at age 10, indicative of prevailing gender stereotypes. There was little evidence that school sport and physical education acted as an effective intervention. In contrast, there was strong evidence that children who were socialised into sport outside school had better experiences inside school. It is possible that current government policy, which focuses on traditional sports, competition and performance, could have negative impacts on children who are already less active outside school.
The existing literature suffers from a number of conceptual and empirical shortcomings, limiting the ability of decision makers to draw conclusions about the relative effectiveness of alternative policies. The research reported here presents two sets of innovative analyses aimed at addressing these issues. Each analysis employs cutting-edge analytical techniques and draws on all available evidence to identify the factors that influence engagement in culture and sport. The analysis presented here allows for a firmer understanding of what drives engagement in two ways: a. Understanding how background factors predict engagement. This is useful to, for instance, understand the threats and opportunities presented by external factors, such as the aging population or changes in the wider economy. b. Understand how policy interventions can change patterns of engagement. This is useful in comprehending the possible impacts of policies – making better business cases for interventions.
The results enable specific discussions about possible interventions to improve the engagement in culture and sport of certain groups, and what the likely impact of that intervention will be. This can range from understanding that those living in social housing are less likely to attend the arts, to designing good interventions for this group, and what the potential effect of that intervention might be. Despite the contribution to the evidence base made by this report, there is still need for further research efforts to ensure that policy makers intervene most efficiently to increase engagement in culture and sport. The report suggests areas where these research efforts can be best focused. This report is one of three sets of reports produced by the CASE programme’s ‘Understanding the drivers, impact and value of engagement in culture and sport’ project. The other reports answer the following questions: a. What is the impact of engagement? and b. How can we value engagement?
This report and all the others are available on the Department for Culture Media and Sport CASE website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/case-programme-understanding-the-drivers-impacts-and-value-of-engagement-in-culture-and-sport
In contrast to curriculum-based health education interventions in schools, the school environment approach promotes health by modifying schools’ physical/social environment. This systematic review reports on the health effects of the school environment and processes by which these might occur. It includes theories, intervention outcome and process evaluations, quantitative studies and qualitative studies.
Research questions
Research question (RQ)1: What theories are used to inform school environment interventions or explain school-level health influences? What testable hypotheses are suggested? RQ2: What are the effects on student health/inequalities of school environment interventions addressing organisation/management; teaching/pastoral care/discipline; and the physical environment? What are the costs? RQ3: How feasible/acceptable and context dependent are such interventions? RQ4: What are the effects on student health/inequalities of school-level measures of organisation/management; teaching/pastoral care/discipline; and the physical environment? RQ5: Through what processes might such influences occur?
Data sources
A total of 16 databases were searched between 30 July 2010 and 23 September 2010 to identify relevant studies, including the British Educational Index, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Health Management Information Consortium, EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsycINFO. In addition, references of included studies were checked and authors contacted.
Review methods
In stage 1, we mapped references concerning how the school environment affects health and consulted stakeholders to identify stage 2 priorities. In stage 2, we undertook five reviews corresponding to our RQs.
Results
Stage 1: A total of 82,775 references were retrieved and 1144 were descriptively mapped. Stage 2: A total of 24 theories were identified (RQ1). The human functioning and school organisation, social capital and social development theories were judged most useful. Ten outcome evaluations were included (RQ2). Four US randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and one UK quasi-experimental study examined interventions building school community/relationships. Studies reported benefits for some, but not all outcomes (e.g. aggression, conflict resolution, emotional health). Two US RCTs assessed interventions empowering students to contribute to modifying food/physical activity environments, reporting benefits for physical activity but not for diet. Three UK quasi-experimental evaluations examined playground improvements, reporting mixed findings, with benefits being greater for younger children and longer break times. Six process evaluations (RQ3) reported positively. One study suggested that implementation was facilitated when this built on existing ethos and when senior staff were supportive. We reviewed 42 multilevel studies, confining narrative synthesis to 10 that appropriately adjusted for confounders. Four UK/US reports suggested that schools with higher value-added attainment/attendance had lower rates of substance use and fighting. Three reports from different countries examined school policies on smoking/alcohol, with mixed results. One US study found that schools with more unobservable/unsupervised places reported increased substance use. Another US study reported that school size, age structure and staffing ratio did not correlate with student drinking. Twenty-one qualitative reports from different countries (RQ5) suggested that disengagement, lack of safety and lack of participation in decisions may predispose students to engage in health risks.
Limitations
We found no evidence regarding health inequalities or cost, and could not undertake meta-analysis.
Conclusions
There is non-definitive evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of school environment interventions involving community/relationship building, empowering student participation in modifying schools’ food/physical activity environments, and playground improvements. Multilevel studies suggest that schools that add value educationally may promote student health. Qualitative studies suggest pathways underlying these effects. This evidence lends broad support to theories of social development, social capital and human functioning and school organisation. Further trials to examine the effects of school environment modifications on student health are recommended.
Funding
The National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme.
The primary research question for the review was: What is known from review-level evidence about the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of population- and community-level interventions to improve modifiable risk factors associated with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes among BME and low-income / low-SES groups?
The secondary research questions were: What is known about promising ways to tailor interventions for diabetes risk factors to BME or low-income groups, for outcomes including improved BMI, physical activity levels, and blood pressure? What are the barriers/facilitators to the effectiveness of interventions?
The pilots began in 2007, and were a cross Whitehall initiative sponsored by the Cabinet Office, led by Department for Communities and Local Government and funded by Department for Health, Department for Works and Pensions and the Home Office. Twelve different projects have been working across England.
This report addresses the question of whether the Adults facing Chronic Exclusion pilots have succeeded or not in delivering their projected outcomes for service users and services, and have they been cost effective?
School-Home Support (SHS) is a national charity working with vulnerable and excluded children and families. SHS provides trained, experienced and professional workers who become paid members of the school’s pastoral care team, enabling teachers and school management teams to focus on managing core school business and delivering the curriculum.
· what types of organisation operate within it;
· the number of organisations and individuals engaged in delivering advice;
· what advice is provided;
· how much time is spent providing advice; as well as
· what these all equate to in terms of the cost of the sector.
Matrix Research and Consultancy was commissioned by the Department for Constitutional Affairs to undertake a research study to develop a better understanding of the size and nature of the civil legal advice sector in England and Wales. The objectives of this project were to:
· define the civil legal advice sector;
· establish what organisations and individuals make up the sector;
· estimate the extent of supply of advice in terms of workforce and cost implications; and
· explore the drivers which shape it.
As a condition of beginning this programme, women agree to use an effective form of reversible contraceptive for the 18-month duration of the programme. This is intended to allow women the opportunity to reflect and focus on their own needs.
Pause began in Hackney in 2013, and received funding from the Department for Education Innovation Programme in 2015 to expand the pilot within Hackney, and to Doncaster, Greenwich, Hull, Islington, Newham, and Southwark.
This evaluation report assesses the impact of programme delivery, as well as the processes through which impact was achieved, for 125 women engaging with Pause at these 7 pilot Practices. It also offers an assessment of the fiscal costs and benefits of delivering the programme.
Alongside the research, the Centre has published ‘Open Plan’, a policy discussion paper that explores what the findings of the research mean for the different policy agendas around older homeowners: specialist housing and home adaptations; under-occupancy and housing supply; the use of housing wealth to fund retirement; and, housing wealth taxation and fairness.
The research was undertaken in the wake of the April 2015 changes to rules on ‘Defined Contribution’ (DC) pension savings, which broke with the previous regime – known as the ‘annuities deal’ – which required DC pension savers to convert their savings into a secure income at retirement.
Given the limited evidence available on the link between level of secure income and people’s experience of retirement, the Strategic Society Centre undertook this research, which was made possible by the support of Just Retirement and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
The study analysed data from Wave 6 (2012-13) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), which is a longitudinal, multidisciplinary social survey undertaken every two years, of a representative sample of the English population aged 50 and older.
Leading a physically active lifestyle is known to provide a wide variety of health benefits, from reduced risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, to improved mental well-being and healthy weight maintenance. Despite this, the majority of adults are not sufficiently active to benefit health.
Government has consistently sought to increase levels of physical activity in the population (as well as develop elite sport talent) by focusing policy on the promotion of traditional, competitive sport in schools. The main rationale for this approach is that children who play lots of sport in school will continue participating as adults.
The academic literature has frequently criticised the focus on traditional, competitive sports, citing evidence that they have limited appeal to many children, exclude those with lower levels of skill and fitness, and may be counter-productive in terms of promoting lifelong activity. There is, however, scant prospective, quantitative evidence available to support either perspective.
The research presented in this thesis uses longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, and robust statistical methods, to identify how childhood experiences of sport and exercise develop between primary and secondary school, and how they are associated with adult exercise behaviour. Hypotheses based on government policy assertions and academic theory are tested.
The findings provide little support for government policy: the cohort members’ participation in school sport was not independently associated with their exercise behaviour in adulthood. In contrast, there was consistent support for academic theory. Parental and family influences (posited by family socialisation theory) were consistently identified as key determinants of sport and exercise experiences, both in school and in adulthood. Likewise, an interest in physical fitness in childhood (i.e. intrinsic motivation, as described in self-determination theory) also affected adult exercise behaviour.
The findings are used to suggest alternative approaches by which government might encourage physical activity in the population.
The academic literature suggests that parental and family influences are the main drivers of children’s participation in physical activity. Active children are socialised into active lifestyles by encouraging, supportive parents. They acquire skills and abilities that enable them to do well at and enjoy school sport and physical education.
The analysis presented in this research uses data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to compare statistical models based on policy assertions with models based on socialisation and motivation theories. By doing so, it identifies whether school sport and physical education policy is likely to act as an effective intervention, or whether it mostly benefits children who have already been socialised into active lifestyles by their parents.
It was found that girls and boys had different experiences of physical activity at age 10, indicative of prevailing gender stereotypes. There was little evidence that school sport and physical education acted as an effective intervention. In contrast, there was strong evidence that children who were socialised into sport outside school had better experiences inside school. It is possible that current government policy, which focuses on traditional sports, competition and performance, could have negative impacts on children who are already less active outside school.
The existing literature suffers from a number of conceptual and empirical shortcomings, limiting the ability of decision makers to draw conclusions about the relative effectiveness of alternative policies. The research reported here presents two sets of innovative analyses aimed at addressing these issues. Each analysis employs cutting-edge analytical techniques and draws on all available evidence to identify the factors that influence engagement in culture and sport. The analysis presented here allows for a firmer understanding of what drives engagement in two ways: a. Understanding how background factors predict engagement. This is useful to, for instance, understand the threats and opportunities presented by external factors, such as the aging population or changes in the wider economy. b. Understand how policy interventions can change patterns of engagement. This is useful in comprehending the possible impacts of policies – making better business cases for interventions.
The results enable specific discussions about possible interventions to improve the engagement in culture and sport of certain groups, and what the likely impact of that intervention will be. This can range from understanding that those living in social housing are less likely to attend the arts, to designing good interventions for this group, and what the potential effect of that intervention might be. Despite the contribution to the evidence base made by this report, there is still need for further research efforts to ensure that policy makers intervene most efficiently to increase engagement in culture and sport. The report suggests areas where these research efforts can be best focused. This report is one of three sets of reports produced by the CASE programme’s ‘Understanding the drivers, impact and value of engagement in culture and sport’ project. The other reports answer the following questions: a. What is the impact of engagement? and b. How can we value engagement?
This report and all the others are available on the Department for Culture Media and Sport CASE website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/case-programme-understanding-the-drivers-impacts-and-value-of-engagement-in-culture-and-sport
In contrast to curriculum-based health education interventions in schools, the school environment approach promotes health by modifying schools’ physical/social environment. This systematic review reports on the health effects of the school environment and processes by which these might occur. It includes theories, intervention outcome and process evaluations, quantitative studies and qualitative studies.
Research questions
Research question (RQ)1: What theories are used to inform school environment interventions or explain school-level health influences? What testable hypotheses are suggested? RQ2: What are the effects on student health/inequalities of school environment interventions addressing organisation/management; teaching/pastoral care/discipline; and the physical environment? What are the costs? RQ3: How feasible/acceptable and context dependent are such interventions? RQ4: What are the effects on student health/inequalities of school-level measures of organisation/management; teaching/pastoral care/discipline; and the physical environment? RQ5: Through what processes might such influences occur?
Data sources
A total of 16 databases were searched between 30 July 2010 and 23 September 2010 to identify relevant studies, including the British Educational Index, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Health Management Information Consortium, EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsycINFO. In addition, references of included studies were checked and authors contacted.
Review methods
In stage 1, we mapped references concerning how the school environment affects health and consulted stakeholders to identify stage 2 priorities. In stage 2, we undertook five reviews corresponding to our RQs.
Results
Stage 1: A total of 82,775 references were retrieved and 1144 were descriptively mapped. Stage 2: A total of 24 theories were identified (RQ1). The human functioning and school organisation, social capital and social development theories were judged most useful. Ten outcome evaluations were included (RQ2). Four US randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and one UK quasi-experimental study examined interventions building school community/relationships. Studies reported benefits for some, but not all outcomes (e.g. aggression, conflict resolution, emotional health). Two US RCTs assessed interventions empowering students to contribute to modifying food/physical activity environments, reporting benefits for physical activity but not for diet. Three UK quasi-experimental evaluations examined playground improvements, reporting mixed findings, with benefits being greater for younger children and longer break times. Six process evaluations (RQ3) reported positively. One study suggested that implementation was facilitated when this built on existing ethos and when senior staff were supportive. We reviewed 42 multilevel studies, confining narrative synthesis to 10 that appropriately adjusted for confounders. Four UK/US reports suggested that schools with higher value-added attainment/attendance had lower rates of substance use and fighting. Three reports from different countries examined school policies on smoking/alcohol, with mixed results. One US study found that schools with more unobservable/unsupervised places reported increased substance use. Another US study reported that school size, age structure and staffing ratio did not correlate with student drinking. Twenty-one qualitative reports from different countries (RQ5) suggested that disengagement, lack of safety and lack of participation in decisions may predispose students to engage in health risks.
Limitations
We found no evidence regarding health inequalities or cost, and could not undertake meta-analysis.
Conclusions
There is non-definitive evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of school environment interventions involving community/relationship building, empowering student participation in modifying schools’ food/physical activity environments, and playground improvements. Multilevel studies suggest that schools that add value educationally may promote student health. Qualitative studies suggest pathways underlying these effects. This evidence lends broad support to theories of social development, social capital and human functioning and school organisation. Further trials to examine the effects of school environment modifications on student health are recommended.
Funding
The National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme.
The primary research question for the review was: What is known from review-level evidence about the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of population- and community-level interventions to improve modifiable risk factors associated with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes among BME and low-income / low-SES groups?
The secondary research questions were: What is known about promising ways to tailor interventions for diabetes risk factors to BME or low-income groups, for outcomes including improved BMI, physical activity levels, and blood pressure? What are the barriers/facilitators to the effectiveness of interventions?
The pilots began in 2007, and were a cross Whitehall initiative sponsored by the Cabinet Office, led by Department for Communities and Local Government and funded by Department for Health, Department for Works and Pensions and the Home Office. Twelve different projects have been working across England.
This report addresses the question of whether the Adults facing Chronic Exclusion pilots have succeeded or not in delivering their projected outcomes for service users and services, and have they been cost effective?
School-Home Support (SHS) is a national charity working with vulnerable and excluded children and families. SHS provides trained, experienced and professional workers who become paid members of the school’s pastoral care team, enabling teachers and school management teams to focus on managing core school business and delivering the curriculum.
· what types of organisation operate within it;
· the number of organisations and individuals engaged in delivering advice;
· what advice is provided;
· how much time is spent providing advice; as well as
· what these all equate to in terms of the cost of the sector.
Matrix Research and Consultancy was commissioned by the Department for Constitutional Affairs to undertake a research study to develop a better understanding of the size and nature of the civil legal advice sector in England and Wales. The objectives of this project were to:
· define the civil legal advice sector;
· establish what organisations and individuals make up the sector;
· estimate the extent of supply of advice in terms of workforce and cost implications; and
· explore the drivers which shape it.