Title

Improving Children’s Lives: An Interdisciplinary Research Initiative at Queen’s University Belfast

Research Team

Professor Paul Connolly (PI and Director), Dr Fiona Alderdice (Nursing), Professor Henry Halliday (Child Health), Dr Emma Larkin (Project Manager), Professor Madeleine Leonard (Sociology), Dr Laura Lundy (Education), Professor Geraldine Macdonald (Institute of Child Care Research), Professor Carol McGuinness (Psychology), Professor James McElnay (Pharmacy and Pro-Vice Chancellor), Dr Aoife Nolan (Law), Dr Liam O’Hare (Service Design Manager), Mr David Piekaar (Project Administrator), Professor John Pinkerton (Social Work), Professor Mike Shields (Child Health)

Timescale

October 2008 – December 2012

Funder

Atlantic Philanthropies and Queen’s University Belfast (Special Initiatives Fund)

Aims and Objectives

The vision for Improving Children’s Lives is to position Queen’s as a world-class centre for applied inter-disciplinary research for children and young people that will become internationally-recognised for applying a children’s rights framework to evidence-informed approaches to the design and delivery of children’s services.

Through its applied programme of research, dissemination and advocacy activities, the long-term impact that Improving Children’s Lives seeks to achieve is lasting improvements in the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in Northern Ireland and also nationally and internationally. To achieve this, Improving Children’s Lives will aim to make a significant contribution towards:

1. Increasing the number of organisations in Northern Ireland offering high-quality preventive programmes for disadvantaged children and young people.

2. Bringing about a sea change in Northern Ireland in relation to the way government supports and funds preventive programmes that is outcomes-focused, evidence-informed and rights-based.

3. Bringing about a sea change nationally and internationally to the design, delivery and evaluation of services for children and young people that ensures they are outcomes-focused, evidence-informed and rights-based.

Methodology

Improving Children’s Lives will achieve these aims and objectives through a series of activities including: drawing together and encouraging interdisciplinary research within Queen’s; building national and international collaborative links with research organisations; developing research capacity within Queen’s; and consolidating and developing further links with relevant government departments, agencies and children’s services providers.

This work will be supported by significant investments in new posts over the coming year. The initiative has already seen the appointment of the core secretariat all located in the Centre for Effective Education and comprising: Dr Liam O’Hare (Service Design Manager) and Mr David Piekaar (Project Administrator). Over the coming year, an additional eight full-time Research Fellows will be appointed across the university as well as a Lectureship.

Outcomes and Outputs

To achieve this long-term impact, Improving Children’s Lives will aim to make a significant contribution towards:

1. Increasing the number of organisations in Northern Ireland offering high-quality preventive programmes for disadvantaged children and young people.

2. Bringing about a sea change in Northern Ireland in relation to the way government supports and funds preventive programmes that is outcomes-focused, evidence-informed and rights-based.

3. Bringing about a sea change nationally and internationally to the design, delivery and evaluation of services for children and young people that ensures they are outcomes-focused, evidence-informed and rights-based.

To bring about these three key outcomes, Improving Children’s Lives will focus on producing the following three core outputs:

1. The provision of high quality support to organisations in Northern Ireland and beyond that wish to adopt an outcomes-focused, evidence-informed and rights-based approach to the design, delivery and evaluation of services for children and young people.

2. The provision of world-class research to organisations in Northern Ireland and beyond that is underpinned by a children’s rights framework and that can inform the design and delivery of services for children and young people and also rigorously evaluate their effectiveness.

3. The delivery of a comprehensive dissemination and advocacy programme that will aim to bring about a sea change in the funding and support of services for children and young people not only in Northern Ireland but also nationally and internationally.

Further Information

For further information on Improving Children's Lives please visit the website at: http://www.improvingchildrenslives.org If you require further information on the initiative please contact David Piekaar, the Project Administrator.