The Welfare State discussed on the Moral Maze this week

Hello.
First thing's first; in case you've never come across it before The Moral Maze is a discussion programme on Radio 4. The format is 3 or 4 people with opposing views discuss an issue and 'witnesses' are called during the debate to highlight specific issues. It's often quite 'lively'.

The programme last night was a discussion of what and who the welfare state is now for.

It's very good and covers many issues which I know you'll have discussed in lectures.

According to iplayer the link to the show is permanent, but I'd click here and have a listen soon-just in case!

Randomised Control Trials pt 2...

Yesterday I wrote a post on Ben Goldacre's government funded report looking into how RCT's can be used in the sphere of social policy.

This morning Goldacre was on the Today programme talking about the report so I thought I'd send you the link to the audio.

So here it is.

Evidence Based Practice and Public Policy - the future

Hello again. I know you may be having a well deserved rest from studying at the moment, but I've got something that I think is worth sharing...

One of my favourite people to follow on Twitter is a man called Ben Goldacre, a doctor and writer who's best known for his Bad Science column, originally published in the Guardian. He specialises in attacking the misuse of statistics, often by the media.

I mention this because he, along with three other experts, has written a new report for the Cabinet Office on how Randomised Control Trials (RCT's) can be implemented in areas of Public Policy. In case you're new to research skills RCT's are where you basically take two (well, usually two) groups and introduce some particular stimulus (for example, participation in a particular drug rehab programme for people suffering with drug problems) for half the participants.


The 'random' part of dividing the RCT's population into groups is crucial. Without that element you'll often get a skewed result due to volunteers being positively biased to succeed to begin with. At the end of the trial you try and ascertain whether the drug programme group are healthier/happier/ than the control group who haven't taken part in the programme. In a nutshell, this supposedly simple method is what we call 'evidence based practice'.

The new report looking into how RCT's can be used in the area of Public Policy is called 'Test, Learn, Adapt'. I think it's really interesting and thankfully it's pretty straightforward to comprehend. Read or download it from here.

I'll happily talk to you about statistics and research methods if you need assistance with that side of things. At the very least I can suggest some decent resources to make the issues clearer.

Right. You can get back to your summer now...

Kicked Out Kids TV programme

My attention has been brought to a TV programme that was shown the other night concerning children who are in danger of getting thrown out by their parents. Its's a BBC 3 show but don't let that put you off!

Having watched some of it this morning it seems communication (or lack of it) is key. Just for a change.

Anyway. It's on i-player for another week or so and you can find it from this link.

Series of pieces on London gangs

I was listening to the Today programme this morning and heard a 7 minute piece on gang rivalries in London.

You can listen to it here. I think there's a separate report covering gangs every day this week so I'd recommend  returning to the Today website later in the week (or listening live, of course) to get a round up.

In (sort of) related news, the Government has announced a major new scheme to help 'troubled families'. The Guardian reported the story like this. There's also a quick video about the same story here courtesy of the BBC website.