The NatCen Blog

Here we’ll be talking about our research in the context of the latest news, opinion and
analysis through comments from our team of experts. We’d love to hear from you, so post comments or get in touch with us.

To keep up-to-date with our latest blog posts and reports, subscribe to our monthly newsletter. 

• Posted on 21 December 2011

  10 things we learned from NatCen Social Research in 2011 (and one more for Christmas)

  Our Director of Research, William O'Connor shares the 10 most important things we have learnt from our research in 2011:

  Read the rest of this entry

  Tags: British Gambling Prevalence Survey, British Social Attitudes, Evaluation of Every Child a Reader, family interventions, Growing up in Scotland, Health Survey for England, London riots, The Reality of Generation Rent, Scottish Social Attitudes, Survey of Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England, Troubled Families Unit, Understanding Society

• Posted on 15 December 2011

  Troubled families: Joined-up solutions informed by joined-up evidence

  Today David Cameron has announced plans for a network of "troubleshooters" to give more focused support to England's most troubled families. He’s promised to turn around the lives of 120,000 families who have multiple problems and complex, chaotic lives. This is a joined-up policy solution for families with complicated problems based on joined-up evidence. And much of that evidence has come from two vital research initiatives led by us: the Families and Children Study  (FACS) and Family Interventions  assessment.

  Read the rest of this entry

  Tags: BSA, British Social Attitudes, FACS, Families and Children Study, family interventions, housing, poverty, unemployment

• Posted on 12 August 2011

  Building a stronger society

  Last Friday, I was at a 2011 BBC Proms highlight. The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra is the flagship of Venezuela’s El Sistema, where 250,000 children and young people participate in orchestral music, over three quarters of whom live below the poverty line. Just 24 hours later a riot was taking hold in Tottenham. As disorder spread through English cities over the next few nights, it was hard not to contrast the life enhancing work of one set of young people, with the destructive power of another. Our Chief Executive, Penny Young focuses on some basic premises of the London Riots.

  Read the rest of this entry

  Tags: education, Every Child a Reader, family interventions, London riots, National Citizen Service, volunteering