The NatCen Blog

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Posted on 12 June 2018 by John Curtice, Senior Research Fellow

The Lords Amendments – What do voters want MPs to do?

Tomorrow and Wednesday, the House of Commons will consider the 15 amendments that the House of Lords made to the EU Withdrawal Bill against the government’s wishes.
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Tags: Brexit, House of Lords, MPs, Parliament, voting, politics
Posted on 31 May 2018 by Jonah Bury, Researcher

What does the research tell us about homophobia in football?

“I'm coming out about my homosexuality because I want to move the discussion about homosexuality among professional sportspeople forwards,” former Germany international Thomas Hitzlsperger explained when coming out as gay in January 2014, a few months after retiring from professional football in September 2013.
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Tags: Football, sport, LGBT, homophobia, attitudes
Posted on 25 May 2018 by Professor Jane Green, British Election Study

Electoral Shocks: Professor Jane Green on the Sir Roger Jowell Memorial Lecture

On 21 May 2018, Professor Jane Green delivered the fifth annual Sir Roger Jowell Memorial Lecture, in honour of the famed statistician (and NatCen's co-founder). In this blog she shares some of her insights from the lecture, on the subject of electoral shocks and the increasing volatility of voters in British elections:
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Posted on 18 May 2018 by Sally McManus, NatCen Associate

More frequent survey data is needed on England’s mental health

Published annually, the Health Survey for England monitors the general health of the nation. It’s how we have a handle on who’s most likely to have undiagnosed diabetes or chronic kidney disease, whether we’re getting more obese as a nation, and it allows us to track levels of unmet need in older people.
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Tags: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, HSE, Health Survey for England, Mental Health Awareness Week, mental health
Posted on 18 May 2018 by Lydia Marshall, Senior Researcher

Mental Health Awareness Week - how research can inform the mental health needs of teachers

As many will be aware, this week is Mental Health Awareness week. Perhaps less well publicised, last week was National Teacher Appreciation week. This has led me to reflect more on something that I’ve been thinking about for a while – the mental health of teachers.
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Tags: Mental Health Awareness Week, Teachers, education, teaching, mental health
Posted on 16 May 2018 by Katriina Lepanjuuri, Senior Researcher

Are we eating out more - and enjoying ourselves less?

Social research is often focused on finding out more about a particular problem or concern. We carry out research on the issues that affect victims of crime, for example – or we evaluate experiments on how to encourage Maths and English re-sits among college students.
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Tags: Dining, Eating Out, lifestyle, restaurants, food
Posted on 03 May 2018 by Caroline Turley, Head of Crime, Justice & Attitudes

It takes a village: the importance of multi-agency partnerships in tackling online child sexual abuse

Online child sexual abuse is a global and ever-evolving problem. Every day, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) identifies and removes online images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.
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Tags: Exploitation, Internet, Online abuse, Abuse, crime, IWF, children
Posted on 01 May 2018 by Andy MacGregor, Head of Policy Research (ScotCen) ScotCen

Minimum Unit Pricing: do people want to see a floor price for alcohol?

In November 2017, following a long legal process, the UK’s Supreme Court ruled that introducing Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol, as the Scottish Government had been attempting to do for five years, did not breach EU law. Today, MUP comes into effect.
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Tags: NHS Scotland, Scottish drinking, alcohol
Posted on 27 April 2018 by Emily Tanner, Head of Children, Families & Work

Mental health support needs to begin in early childhood

There’s widespread concern about the mental health of children and young people in England. Self-reported levels of happiness and wellbeing are low and declining, and England compares poorly to other countries. Stories about the negative effects of exam stress, body image, relationships and more recently, social media are rarely out of the news, driving a real sense of urgency to find solutions.
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Tags: education, health, schools, mental health
Posted on 24 April 2018 by Nancy Kelley, Deputy Chief Executive

Does Britain want to stay in the EU customs union?

The parliamentary passage of the Brexit bill remains stormy with Monday’s Lords vote in favour of an amendment to keep the UK in the EU customs union. The Commons get their chance to vote on this critical amendment on Thursday.
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Tags: Brexit, customs union, economy, free trade, politics