News Archive 2018

New blog post by Bert Provan
Stop doing things to residents of poor neighbourhoods without asking what they need

These days, few organisations can escape the clamour to assess the ‘Social Return on Investment’, or SROI, of proposed new projects. But how often are local people actually asked what they need from local investment, and how realistic are the aims of delivery? Read more in Political Quarterly here

Nuffield Foundation report
Can we improve the survey representation of non-resident parents, and collect robust data on reasons for separation?

At any one time, there are more than four million children living in separated families in the UK. Improved survey data on separated families, particularly non-resident parents, has the potential to inform and improve decision making on issues such as child support, welfare benefits, and housing.

Last year Nuffield published a report, Understanding the lives of separating and separated families in the UK, which concluded that a number of the existing longitudinal surveys, including Understanding Society (the UK Household Longitudinal Study), could be enhanced to address some of the evidence gaps.

In light of this, Bryson and McKay have carried out an experimental study which tested methodologies with the potential to collect data directly from non-resident parents (rather than relying on resident parent reports) and to collect data on the reasons why families separate.

Find out more about the project on the Nuffield Foundation website and download the report in PDF.

The non-resident parent experiment is written up in more detail in a CASE Working Paper 210 (Bryson and McKay, 2018) which is available to download here.

CASE special event
From Input to Influence: how can the participation of people in poverty shape research and public policy?

A joint event with ATD Fourth World and Goethe University was held on Friday 16th November 2018.

Speakers:
Tom Croft (Member of ATD Fourth World's International Volunteer Corps) &Moraene Roberts (activist, ATD Fourth World)
Dr. Rikki Dean (Fellow in Democratic Innovations, Institute for Political Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt)
Introduction: Dr. Tania Burchardt (Director of CASE, The London School of Economics and Political Science)
Chair: Fran Bennett (Senior Research and Teaching Fellow, University of Oxford, and a co-author of From Input to Influence: Participatory Approaches to Research and Inquiry into Poverty with Moraene Roberts)

This seminar explored the relationship between participatory research and participation in policymaking, using the approach of ATD Fourth World as an example. Dr. Tania Burchardt opened the event with her thoughts on participatory research (click here to read Tania's opening remarks). This was follwed by Tom Croft and Moraene Roberts who described ATD’s evolution, highlighting the ways in which people with experience of poverty can participate in research and influence policy. Dr Rikki Dean then spoke about his theoretical typology of approaches to participation as well as his empirical research with those involved in participatory policy-making to examine the many purposes and values associated with participation (Click here to see Rikki's slides).

Click here to listen to podcast of the event

Special event held as part of the Social Exclusion seminar series
What difference does devolution make for social policies and distributional outcomes?

CASE Special Event
The power of measurement: equality audits and frameworks. Tuesday 12 June 2-4.30pm

Speakers include: Polly Vizard (CASE), Gregory Crouch (EHRC), Abigail McKnight (CASE), Richard Laux (Race Disparity Unit) and Tania Burchardt(CASE).

Location: Room KSW1.04,London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE

How well are the tools now available working in improving our understanding of inequalities?

How could they be improved?

Are they succeeding in increasing transparency and engagement with stakeholders and users more broadly?

Effective interventions to reduce inequalities depend on understanding the nature and extent of those inequalities. Frameworks, audits and other analytical tools can help, potentially allowing us to monitor progress or the lack of sufficient progress, to understand the causes, and to design of better policies.

This seminar offers a critical engagement with three current and recent models used by statutory bodies, NGOs and independent researchers in the UK and internationally to analyse and measure different aspects of social and economic inequalities.

This event provides an opportunity for research, policy and NGO communities to discuss opportunities for greater collaboration in using and developing these tools.

To register for this free event please go to Eventbrite

LSE Festival 2018
Five LSE Giants' Perspectives on Poverty

Speaker(s): Dr Tania Burchardt, Professor Sir John Hills, Professor Stephen P Jenkins, Professor Lucinda Platt
Chair: Professor Paul Gregg
Video, Audio recording and Slides available here

This event, held as part LSE Research Festival 2018: Beveridge 2.0, focused on Beveridge’s Giant of ‘want’. It addresses the thinking on poverty of five ‘Giants’ in the study of poverty over the last 100 years, who have been closely associated with LSE and who are themselves authors or co-authors of influential reports: Beatrice Webb, Brian Abel-Smith, Peter Townsend, Amartya Sen and Anthony Atkinson.

The event brought together current LSE academics known for their work on poverty and inequality. John Hills considers the ‘rediscovery of poverty’ marked by the publication of Brian Abel-Smith and Peter Townsend’s 1966 work on ‘The Poor and The Poorest and Tania Burchardt analysed the distinctive contribution of Amartya Sen to how we understand poverty across very different contexts. Lucinda Platt discussed Beatrice Webb’s ‘Minority Report on the Poor Laws’ of 1909 and Stephen Jenkins evaluated the significance of the Atkinson Commission’s 2015 Report on Monitoring Global Poverty to how we conceptualize and address poverty in a global context.

Postponement of the forthcoming CASE Welfare Policy Analysis Seminar
Wednesday 14th March, Monica Costa Dias Institute for Fiscal Studies

Lessons from Grenfell:
bringing together residents from multi-storey estates around the country

Following the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017, LSE Housing and Communities were grant funded to bring together residents from multi-storey estates around the country to share their views on living in blocks of flats, document their experiences and the lessons learnt. There are many positive reasons why high-rise blocks were built and many people make secure, welcoming homes in those communities.

But the Grenfell fire disaster changed everything. It highlighted the lack of careful on-site management of high rise blocks, the poor standard of repair and upgrading, the inadequate checks and misapplied fire safety measures, the lack of clear information and guidance to tenants, the conflicting advice, and the barriers to tenants getting their worries, fears and experiences heard or acted on. The disaster also highlighted the lack of control over private lettings from Right to Buy owners converting to profitable private renting.

By gathering residents’ experiences, developing plans for estate upgrading, and collecting messages for landlords, professional bodies and government, we have been able to make an input into policy development among professionals and in government. Everyone recognises that the way social housing is run has to change and that tenants’ concerns need airing and acting upon.

Summary of the key findings 10 Lessons from the Grenfell Fire Disaster, based on feedback from a wide range of organisations and residents across the country living in and managing multi-storey housing.

Firstly a workshop for the communities and tenants was held, below are links for documents from this event:

Briefing note for lessons from Grenfell Community Think Tank

Headlines from Lessons from Grenfell Community Think Tank 30-31st October 2017

Information Pack (work-in-progress) Lessons from Grenfell Community Think Tank

A second Think Tank for professionals, landlords, policy making and residents added weight to the early findings. In all, 100 people attended. Many follow-on actions are already happening: some tower blocks have had their gas supply turned off for safety reasons; some have been evacuated; some are being stripped of expensive cladding; and tenants’ heating bills are inevitably rising as a result of insulation removal.

Briefing Note for Lessons from Grenfell Policy Think Tank

Headlines from Lessons from Grenfell: Social housing at the forefront, Policy Think Tank 4-5th December 2017

Resource Pack (work-in-progress) Lessons from Grenfell Policy Think Tank

Child poverty and multidimensional disadvantage:
Tackling ''data exclusion'' and extending the evidence base on ''missing'' and ''invisible'' children

Launched today a summary of the overview report from this research programme is available here (pdf), the full report is now available: Child poverty and multidimensional disadvantage: Tackling “data exclusion” and extending the evidence base on “missing” and “invisible” children (pdf) by Polly Vizard, Tania Burchardt, Polina Obolenskaya, Isabel Shutes and Mario Battaglini.

An additional discussion paper focusing on Children from the Roma, Gypsy and Traveller ethnic minority group is also available: Experience of multiple disadvantage among Roma, Gypsy and Traveller children in England and Wales (pdf) by Tania Burchardt, Polina Obolenskaya, Polly Vizard and Mario Battaglini.

Postponement of Social Exclusion seminar planned for
Wednesday 7th March 2018

In the light of the UCU strike action, we have decided to postpone this event:

Wednesday 7th March, 16:30-18:00

Is Brexit Disrupting British Politics?

Professor Sir John Curtice
University of Strathclyde and NatCen

Apologies for an inconvenience caused by the postponement of this event.

Postponement of Social Exclusion seminar planned for
Wednesday 7th March 2018

In the light of the UCU strike action, we have decided to postpone this event:

Wednesday 7th March, 16:30-18:00

Is Brexit Disrupting British Politics?

Professor Sir John Curtice
University of Strathclyde and NatCen

Apologies for an inconvenience caused by the postponement of this event.

Postponement of Social Exclusion seminar planned for
Wednesday 28th February

Report launch event: Building up the data infrastructure on missing and invisible
children: findings from four exemplar groups.

Friday 2nd March, 10:00 - 13:00 (Coffee on arrival from 9.45am)
The London School of Economics and Political Science, Room 1.04 (32L)

This event will present an overview of findings from the project, Child poverty and multidimensional disadvantage: tackling “data exclusion” and extending the evidence base on “missing” and “invisible” children. Further details are contained in the event programme (pdf).

This Nuffield Foundation funded project focussed on tackling “data exclusion” through secondary data analysis. It aimed to illustrate the progress that can be made by exploiting new opportunities for analysis made possible by new social survey questions and administrative datasets and through the development and application of techniques such as data pooling, data linking and intersectional analysis. The project has built up new evidence on income poverty and multidimensional deprivation covering four groups of children that are affected by the phenomenon of ‘data exclusion’: young carers, children from the Gypsy, Traveller or Roma ethnic minority group, children with a migrant family background, and children at risk of abuse and neglect.

The team will present an overview of findings from the project as a whole, summarise in depth findings from each of the project workstreams and set out recommendations looking forward.

Please email case@lse.ac.uk to register your attendance at this event.

New CASE research programme:
Social policies and distributional outcomes in a changing Britain

'Social policies and distributional outcomes in a changing Britain' ("SPDO") is a major new research programme being undertaken by a team of inequalities and social policy experts at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics in partnership with research teams at University of Manchester, Heriot Watt University and UCL Institute for Education. The research programme is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and will be overseen by an independent Advisory Board chaired by Dame Frances Cairncross.

For more information or to sign up for the SPDO newsletter, please visit see the Social policies and distributional outcomes in a changing Britain website