Anglia Ruskin University

Final Report for the Early Years Professional Status Impact Study

The Early Years Professional Status Impact Study (EYPS) took place between 2010 and 2013 and was commissioned and funded by Essex County Council.

The study used a combination of methods, within a case study design, to assess whether Early Years Professionals (EYPs) in Essex are enabling outcomes in each of the five 'Every Child Matters' areas of being:

• health
• staying safe
• enjoying and achieving
• making a positive contribution
• achieving economic wellbeing

Overall the findings are extremely positive, indicating that EYPs are enabling outcomes for children in all five areas. The evidence that EYPs are making an impact is supported by their work with parents and staff, especially in the area of economic wellbeing.

The full report can be viewed by clicking on the file below.

The Caribbean Child Development Centre Public Lecture

On 29th November 2012 Dr Darren Sharp was a guest speaker at a special public lecture, made possible through support from the British Academy, on "Children's Rights, Gang Culture and Citizenship: Empowerment and inclusion towards reducing youth gang culture".

Dr Sharpe"s topic was "Children and Young People's Citizenship: who's in and who's out of British democracy". The lecture was part of a current partnership between The Caribbean Child Development Centre (CCDC) of the Consortium for Social Research and Development of the Open Campus, The University of the West Indies (UWI), and the Childhood and Youth Research Institute (CYRI).

Other guest speakers included Mr Horace Levy of the Peace Management Initiative in Jamaica, who is a member of the Peace Management Initiative in Jamaica, a community outreach programme, which over the past ten years, worked to head off and defuse community violence. He was lately a research fellow in the Institute of Criminal Justice and Security at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus. He is the author of the 2009 monograph, Killing Streets and Community Revival. Mr. Levy's topic covered "Youth Violence and Organized Crime: causes and counter-measures Project". The panel will also include presentations by youth programme representatives.

Dr Sharpe's visit to UWI was just a part of an exchange programme made possible by the British Council. As part of the exchange Professor Julie Meeks Gardner from UWI will be taking part in a programme of events at ARU in March 2013, which will include a public lecture looking at Children's Rights, Gang Culture and Citizenship taking place on Friday 22nd March 2013.

Big Data & Missing Data: Big, bold and beautiful - numbers are the thing!

On Wednesday 30th January 2013 Visiting Professor Ian Rivers lead the latest CYRI seminar - "Big Data & Missing Data: Big, bold and beautiful - numbers are the thing!" - which looked at how to cope with large and complex data sets, methods of addressing missing data and the use of case-control studies.

Ian Rivers is a chartered psychologist and HCPC registered Health Psychologist. He is currently Professor of Human Development at Brunel University London and a visiting professor within the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education here at Anglia Ruskin University. Ian is a fellow of the British Psychological Society and of the American Psychological Association and has conducted extensive large-scale studies on bullying behaviour in UK and US school-aged children.

The next CYRI seminar, led by Prof. Stephen Bustin and looking at 'Measles Virus and Autism' is taking place on the Chelmsford Campus on Wednesday 13th March 2013. Places at the seminars are limited so to ensure you are able to attend please book as soon as possible by emailing cyri@anglia.ac.uk. Places will be allocated on a 'first come first served' basis.

Lively Debate on Social Mobility at latest CYRI Seminar

On 9th January 2013 Professor Cecile Wright, Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham, hosted the latest event in the 2013 CYRI Seminar Series.

The seminar, "Young Black People and Social Mobility: In new times", explored why black youth matters using key sociological concepts such as history and biography nestled against postcolonial theory on 'race' and racialisation, which led to a lively and deep debate on how best to measure social mobility in ethnographic research. The seminar discussion has already shown to have added value to the emerging ESRC application co-authored by Prof. Cecile Wright, Prof. Simon Down and Dr Darren Sharpe.

Professor Cecile Wright's main interest as a sociologist is in social inequalities (race, gender and social class) her research interests in inequalities has focused on education, youth, community activism and social change. Her research has been supported by funding from the research councils, European Community, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Commission for Race Equality, Local Education Authorities and has generated numerous articles and chapters in books, 6 books in addition to reports. Her recent book is Black Youth Matters: From School to Success 2010 (with P.Standen and T.Patel; Routledge / Falmer). She is currently an Honarary Professor at the University of Nottingham, a trustee / board member of the National Children's Bureau and was previously Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University. She has also worked at the universities of Sheffield and Leicester.

The next event in the CYRI Seminar Series 2013 will be looking at how to manage data and is being held on the Chelmsford Campus on Wednesday 30th January 2013 from 5pm, in the Lord Ashcroft Building, room MAB002. For more information on this event and the full programme for 2013 please see the events page. Places at the seminars are limited so to ensure you are able to attend please book as soon as possible by emailing cyri@anglia.ac.uk, places will be allocated on a 'first come first served' basis.

ESRC Festival of Social Science

Youth Voice: Day of Active Citizenship

Part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science the Day of Active Citizenship was a one-day community engagement event organised by young advisors from the Childhood and Youth Research Institute and supported by Dr Darren Sharpe. The event took place at the Chelmsford Campus on Thursday 8th November 2012. The event bought together young people from many different types of organisations from across the South East.

What was it all about?
The events served as a platform for young people to debate current political and social challenges and try to find solutions to big problems. These challenges ranged from:

• Responding to the Leveson Inquiry and press intrusion
• Responding to natural disasters affecting your community
• Responding to the EU Economic downturn and youth unemployment
• Responding to when public protest becomes public disorder

Four sessions were led by keynote speakers that included: Rosanna Briggs is the Deputy County Emergency Planning Officer under a partnership between Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and Essex County Council, Filippo Addarii Executive Director of Euclid Network and Dr Sam Frankel Visiting Fellow at the University of Central Lancashire. The one-day event put young people in the shoes of key decisions makers in the emergency services, elected politicians, local people and the media in responding to challenging situations through video, drama and invited speakers and provided a glimpse of how social sciences impacts on their daily lives.

A cartoon strip depicting the day has been created and can be viewed by clicking on the file below.

How to Get Published

The How to Get Published event, a unique opportunity to find out directly from the publishers how to succeed as an author, held in late September, was organised and co-hosted by the Childhood and Youth Research Institute (CYRI) and the Department of Education. It brought together over 40 academics and students from across the university to gain an insight into how best to get published by Sage Publication Limited. Sage Publications Ltd is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. See www.sagepub.com/home.nav.

The Sage team (Education Books Publisher Jude Bowen, Commissioning Editor Caroline Lock, and Assistant Editor Robyn McAllister), talked with staff on how best to get a book or journal published and also how to go about creating an online presence. Participants at the event also benefited from a peer learning workshop facilitated by Prof Dave Hill (Dept Ed), Prof Tim Waller (Dept Ed) Reader Debbie Holley (Dept Ed) and Dr Darren Sharpe (CYRI) on the challenges and joys of writing for publication.

The five key learning points to come out of the How to Get Published event were:

• Do your research into which publisher best matches your area of interest
• Approach the publisher at the start of the writing process with your idea
• Identify a gap in the market and tell them about it
• Handle rejection by starting the process again
• Recognise the growing importance of online dissemination of published work

Further information from SAGE on getting an article published in a journal can be found in the following YouTube videos:

• Part One
• Part Two

As a result of the popularity and positive feedback for the workshop a similar event concerning digital media is already being planned for early in the New Year.