This research program examines issues related to family policy from the perspective of lifetime investment in human capital based on in-depth empirical and analytical evidence of the strengths and weaknesses of current policies as well as evidence supporting alternative strategies. The IRPP's research in this area raises important questions concerning recent choices of federal and provincial governments in their policies affecting children. The focus is on recent developments across the country in policies that are geared toward children, and the various policy options to promote the reconciliation of work and family life.

Promoting saving and financial independence among low-income families has recently attracted fresh attention from social policymakers. Personal savings cushion against the adverse events that can knock vulnerable individuals and families from financial independence to social assistance, with important costs to them and to society. Even small nest-eggs, say some policy advocates, can promote forward thinking about personal investments, such as education, and encourage financial independence throughout life. Aside from a handful of pilot projects aimed at asset-building, and several education and retirement savings programs suited to people of middle and uppermiddle
incomes, Canadian governments up to now have not been active in this
area. There are, however, reasons to believe that this situation may change.

Following the seminal work of Gøsta Esping-Andersen, many studies have identified a variety of welfare regimes in advanced Western societies. Analyzing a set of quantitative indicators, using hierarchical cluster analysis, we have confirmed, in earlier work (Saint-Arnaud and Bernard, 2003), the existence of four regimes, the three originally proposed by Esping-Andersen – socialdemocratic, liberal, and conservative – to which one must add, as many authors have pointed out, a fourth regime, distinct from the latter, called familialistic. We examine here, using the same methodological approach, the situation of the four largest Canadian provinces – Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia – in the middle of the 1990s. Does their belonging to the same country make them similar to each other and close to the average profile of Canada, a liberal country, or, on the contrary, do they display notable divergences, stemming from economic, political and cultural differences which would translate into their social policies, largely under provincial control in the Canadian federation? The results indicate modest, albeit significant, variations: Alberta somewhat resembles the “ultra-liberal” United States, while Quebec leans in the direction of Europe, and to some extent, of social-democracy.

For the past 15 years, affordable housing has been a policy orphan. No one at any level of government admitted to owning this responsibility, and everyone shrugged, implying that the real estate industry – builders and developers – should do it. The industry, however, has made it very clear that it will not build units where profit margins are too low to justify the investment. This paper, by Tom Carter and Chesya Polevychok, assesses the impacts of this state of affairs on housing need. Little, if any, affordable housing has been built in recent times, and some affordable units have disappeared as a result of redevelopment and upgrading of neighbourhoods. At the same time, the demand has increased rapidly, as a result of difficult times for many Canadians – especially lone adults and young families. They are vulnerable because they cannot earn enough to pay market rents. Yet, the authors demonstrate that housing is in many respects a missing link in our social and economic policy toolkit. When people have affordable housing, their family lives are more stable, health improves, children’s school performance gets better, immigrants are better able to integrate into society, and dependency on income supports diminishes. On the economic side,
adequate housing supports community economic development, enhances consumer spending, and increases the availability of workers.

Parents, policymakers, business leaders, and the general public increasingly recognize the importance of the first few years in the life of a child for promoting healthy physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development. Nonetheless, many children face deficiencies between ages 0 and 5 that can impede their ability to develop to their fullest potential. The PNC Grow Up Great initiative, a program financed by PNC Financial, Inc., asked RAND to prepare a thorough, objective review and synthesis of current research that addresses the potential for various forms of early childhood intervention to improve outcomes for participating children and their families. The authors consider the potential consequences of not investing additional resources in the lives of children, the range of early intervention programs, the demonstrated benefits of interventions with high-quality evaluations, the features associated with successful programs, and the returns to society associated with investing early in the lives of disadvantaged children. Their findings indicate that a body of sound research exists that can guide resource allocation decisions. This evidence base sheds light on the types of programs that have been demonstrated to be effective, the features associated with effective programs, and the potential for returns to society that exceed the resources invested in program delivery.

This research brief shows that alcohol advertising appears to promote adolescent drinking and suggests that school drug prevention programs can blunt the impact of alcohol ads on youth.

Obesity is a complex public health issue that is a growing threat to children’s health, as well as a current and future drain on National Health Service (NHS) resources. The Wanless Report stated that public health – the promotion of good health and the prevention of disease – should be central to the work of the NHS. Obesity already costs the NHS directly around £1 billion a year and the UK economy a further £2.3 to £2.6 billion in indirect costs. If this present trend continues, by 2010 the annual cost to the economy could be £3.6 billion a year.

Failure to thrive as a manifestation of child neglect
Most children with failure to thrive (FTT) can be assessed by a general pediatrician with the help of professionals in other disciplines. The clinical evaluation for FTT should include a comprehensive history, physical examination, feeding observation, and a home visit by an appropriate health professional.

Autistic spectrum disorders. Best practice guidelines for screening, diagnosis and assessment
All professionals responsible for the care of children perform routine developmental surveillance to identify children with atypical development. All professionals involved in the care of young children are aware of developmental indicators of ASD.

- Alcohol Calorie Calculator
- Alcohol Cost Calculator
- Calculate your BAC

This webpage provides information on work-related mental health problems, the stress and health at work study, and more.

This report found that quality of assessment has improved, but not enough. Quality of interventions had improved for offenders' needs, but only a little for victims' needs. Quality of initial outcome had improved significantly, but not enough in respect of offender re-conviction.

This publication presents summary results from the 2004–05 National Health Survey (NHS) conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) from August 2004 to June 2005. Approximately 25,900 people from all States and Territories and across all age groups were included. One adult (aged 18 years or more) and one child (where applicable) from each sampled dwelling were included in the survey. The survey was designed to obtain national benchmarks on a wide range of health issues, and to enable changes in health to be monitored over time.

The “aging of America” has become a familiar part of people’s understanding of today’s world. This dramatic change in the nation’s demography began several decades ago and will continue for many more. By 2030 there will be about 70 million people in the United States who are older than 64, nearly 22 percent of the population. This older population will be quite different from earlier cohorts: it will be more ethnically and racially diverse, with almost 26 percent comprised of ethnic minorities; it will be better educated than any in history; and it will be the first cohort to anticipate old age as a normative stage in life. The “oldest old”—those over 85 years of age—will increase from 4.2 million to 8.9 million by 2030.

The Decent Homes Standard sets government targets for social housing in England on a range of issues but does not specifically include any requirements about the accessibility of properties. This study considered the approach of six English housing associations with large refurbishment programmes following the transfer of previously council-owned stock. It looked at whether there had been a missed opportunity in terms of improving accessibility and whether there was any evidence that accessibility had actually been made worse by the works that had been carried out.

One of the main limitations of social-science research on altruism is that most research has been based on very restricted, small, non- representative samples, mostly of undergraduate students.1 While work with student, convenience samples can be very useful, especially when experimental designs are utilized, they suffer from serious, external-validity problems and do not tell social scientists and others about the extent of behaviors and values in society-at-large. . . . Four aspects of altruism were examined: altruistic love, altruistic values, altruistic behaviors, and empathy.

This report examines the interaction of child support and welfare receipt by addressing several questions concerning child support receipt for samples of current and former welfare recipients. We use several data sources, covering different samples, time periods, and geographic areas, to address these questions in an effort to understand current and former recipients’ status in the child support system, such as their rates of receipt before and after leaving welfare, and the effects of child support on self-sufficiency. This report is the second and final in a series for this project. The first report provided an extensive literature review addressing each of the key research questions.

This report describes recent results from four studies of programs that supplemented the earnings of low-income adults. The four studies, which took place beginning in the early 1990s, are the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP), the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), Milwaukee’s New Hope Project, and Connecticut’s Jobs First program. The programs’ supplements were intended to encourage work and to boost the income of adults who worked. Each was studied using a reliable research design that randomly assigned people to a program group that was eligible for earnings supplements or to a control group that was not. This report updates effects on economic outcomes after the earnings supplement programs ended.

Although much is known about how to help welfare recipients find jobs, little is known about how to help them and other low-wage workers keep jobs or advance in the labor market. This report presents information on the effectiveness of a program in South Carolina that aimed to help former welfare recipients obtain jobs, work more steadily, and move up in the labor market. The program was run as part of the Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project, which is testing 15 programs across the country. . . . South Carolina's ERA program, Moving Up, which operated between September 2001 and April 2005 in six rural counties, attempted to contact and assist individuals who had left welfare for any reason between October 1997 and December 2000. Typically, nonworking participants received help finding a job, and working participants received help staying in their job or moving up. The core of Moving Up was one-on-one case management, with staff aiming to provide or connect participants with a range of services, including job search assistance, short-term vocational training, and support services. The program also provided modest financial incentives to encourage and reward program engagement and employment achievements.

This report highlights that more than 26,000 children in England would have a better life if their parents were given more support and help by local councils. These 'at risk' children, on the Child Protection Register, come from homes where parents experience domestic violence, drug and alcohol use, serious mental health problems or physical disabilities, difficulties with housing, immigration or debt.

This report found Calderdale youth offending team to be an engaged, committed staff team, well supported by management. Work was still needed in terms of risk assessment and management. This work should be evaluated, with consultation with children, young people and their parents/carers.

This study suggests that a number of elements contribute to homelessness prevention and a number of promising prevention activities exist. The study identifies elements of community homelessness prevention strategies that seem to lead to reductions in the number of people who otherwise would become homeless. The contributing elements include targeting through control of the eligibility screening process; developing community motivation; maximizing mainstream and private resources; fostering leadership; and ensuring the availability and structure of data and information used to track progress, improve on prevention efforts, and facilitate outcomebased contracting. Evidence from the six communities studied indicates that those employing the most elements seem to be more successful at prevention and better able to document their achievements.

The President’s 2007 budget includes two proposals that risk corrupting federal budget rules in order to facilitate passage of Administration tax cuts. One proposal calls on Congress to adopt a new scoring convention that would make the cost of extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts disappear; under this proposal, legislation to make these tax cuts permanent would be officially “scored” as having zero cost. The other proposal would promote a dubious technique for assessing tax policy changes that, depending on the assumptions used, could be used to manufacture cost estimates showing various tax-cut proposals as having little or no cost.

Healthy Families New York (HFNY) is a community-based prevention program that provides intensive home visitation services to improve the health and well-being of children at risk for abuse and neglect. The program focuses on promoting positive parenting skills, preventing child abuse and neglect, ensuring optimal prenatal care and child health and development, and increasing parents’ self-sufficiency. Research finds that HFNY families have improved child birth weight outcomes and fewer reports of child abuse and neglect.

The second in a series of reports produced by the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics (Forum) that describe the overall status of the U.S. population age 65 and over. This report provides Federal statistics from over a dozen national data sources to monitor several important areas in the lives of older Americans—population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, and health care. . . . Older Americans 2004 has added several new indicators to provide a more complete picture of the health and well-being of older Americans: sensory impairments and oral health; obesity; cigarette smoking; air quality; prescription drugs; sources of health insurance; sources of payment for health care services; and residential services. In addition to these new indicators, this report has been expanded to highlight an important and rapidly growing group of older Americans—older veterans.

Injury mortality data presented in this report using the external cause-of-injury mortality matrix for ICD–10 provide detail on the mechanism of death needed for research and other activities related to injury prevention. This report highlights the importance of multiple causes-of-death data when analyzing injury mortality—special attention is given to the issue of accuracy and completeness of information as it pertains to these data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is involved in several ongoing projects related to the study of injury and injury mortality.

The purpose of this Action Kit is to provide community leaders with the information, tools, and resources necessary to engage in health advocacy and improve the health and well-being of their communities.

The Equality Bill will introduce a gender equality duty for all public authorities. From April 2007, when the duty is likely to come into force, all public bodies will be legally bound to eliminate sex discrimination and promote gender equality. The most significant change in sex equality legislation for 30 years, it will place the onus on organisations to demonstrate fair treatment of women and men.

Social work educators prepare professionals to practice in a variety of settings where they have the opportunity to improve outcomes for their clients who either have an identifiable alcohol use disorder or are at risk for developing one. Lecture-ready modules, developed by top-named experts in alcoholism and social work research, support professional MSW education.

This fact sheet addresses the origin and impact of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).

This fact sheet for elementary school teachers addresses fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and provides tips on how to help students with FASD.

In February 2006, the U.S. Congress passed the fiscal year (FY) 2006 federal budget, called the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Subtitle C of Title VII of the Act contains a number of changes to the child support program operated under Title IVD of the Social Security Act.
One set of changes defines new rules for the distribution of child support payments collected on behalf of families who currently receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and those who have received cash assistance in the past.

As communities strive to ensure the success of all children, it is important that policymakers and early education professiona ls identify and respond to the needs of immigrant families so that teachers, schools, and early childhood programs are prepared to serve these children. High-quality, early education is critical to prepare children to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. Research shows that high-quality, early education programs can particularly benefit low- income children and those most at risk of school failure by supporting their healthy development across a range of measures.

Child care assistance helps low-income working families succeed and afford quality child care that fosters the well-being and healthy development of their children. Yet the President’s 2007 budget proposal would freeze discretionary child care funding for the fifth consecutive year. At the same time, the Administration is projecting substantial cuts in future years; analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds that the budget proposal calls for cuts in discretionary child care funding totaling $1 billion over the next five years as compared to the fiscal year 2006 funding levels adjusted for inflation.

According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN):
- During 2004, an estimated 142,701 alcohol-related emergency department (ED) visits were made by patients aged 12 to 20.
- Nearly half (42%) of drug-related ED visits among patients aged 12 to 20 involved alcohol.
- Patients aged 18 to 20 were approximately 3 times as likely as patients aged 12 to 17 to have an alcohol-related ED visit.
- Visits involving alcohol with other drugs were almost 2 times as likely as visits involving only alcohol to result in admission to the hospital for inpatient care (19% vs. 10%).

Today, we are on the threshold of achieving the promise of transforming mental health care in America. Government-Federal, State, and local-and thousands of organizations in the private sector are joining together to transform the mental health service delivery system across the Nation. While the States serve as the focus of many transformation activities, the Federal government has seized the opportunity to model collaborative activities and to support other critical participants in both the private and public sectors.

The main objective of the Division for Social Policy and Development is to strengthen international cooperation for social development, in the context of the comprehensive and detailed framework of commitments and policies for action by Governments, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations provided by the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development, with particular attention to the three core issues of poverty eradication, employment generation and social integration, in contributing to the creation of an international community that enables the building of secure, just, free and harmonious societies offering opportunities and higher standards of living for all.

Provisional figures relate to March 31, 2005, when there were 622 Day Care services registered in Scotland offering a total of 17,163 places at any one time and providing a service for over 21,680 people. Over 6,900 places are in Day Care services intended for older people; these account for 40 per cent of all Day Care places in Scotland.

The sixth quarterly update of the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics includes a range of health indicators at the data zone level covering hospital admissions, hospital operations, cancer registrations, and maternity statistics for the years 2002 through 2004. Health indicators on immunisation and GP consultations at the intermediate zone are also included for 2004. Statistics on community care including basic information on care homes at data zone level for 2005 and earlier years are included for the first time.

Choose Life commissioned the development of a ‘Resource Database’ of existing resources/materials relevant to activity in suicide prevention, intervention and postvention (the term postvention means support for people who have attempted, or are affected by suicidal behaviour or a completed suicide). This Resource Database –essentially an online searchable database - was developed in direct response to calls by those working in the field to pull together information on the range of materials/resources available.

This essay is from an Urban Institute collection that addresses employment, affordable housing, public schools, young children's needs, health care, arts and culture, and vulnerable populations. All these essays assess the challenges facing New Orleans today and for years to come and recommend tested models for making the city's social infrastructure stronger and more equitable than it was before Katrina.

Long before the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina or the chaos of evacuation, New Orleans' social infrastructure was failing. News coverage of the overcrowded Superdome and the city's flooded streets exposed the poverty and vulnerability of many residents, especially African Americans. As New Orleans begins to rebuild, can the city avoid the mistakes of the past, instead creating more effective social support for low-income and minority residents? Innovation and experience from other U.S. cities offer promising strategies for reducing the risks of poverty and opening up opportunities for economic security and success. This essay is from an Urban Institute collection that addresses employment, affordable housing, public schools, young children's needs, health care, arts and culture, and vulnerable populations.

Presents data collected from a representative sample of felony cases filed in the Nation's 75 largest counties during May 2002. The cases are tracked for up to one year to provide a complete overview of the processing of felony defendants from filing to disposition and sentencing. Data collected include current arrest charges, demographic characteristics, prior arrests and convictions, criminal justice status at arrest, type of pretrial release or detention, bail amount, court appearance record, adjudication outcome, and sentence received if convicted. This periodic report has been published biennially since 1990.

This report provides a portrait of the American Indian and Alaska Native population in the United States and discusses the largest specified tribal groupings, reservations, Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), and areas outside reservations and ANVSAs
(outside tribal areas) at the national level. It is part of the Census 2000 Special Reports series that presents demographic, social,
and economic characteristics collected from Census 2000. In Census 2000, 4.3 million people, or 1.5 percent of the total U.S. population,
reported that they were American Indian and Alaska Native. This number included 2.4 million people, or 1 percent, who reported only American Indian and Alaska Native as their race.

The primary purpose of APP is to provide information that promotes a better understanding of the nature of poverty--its complex causes, prevelance and persistance in Alabama. APP is especially interested in facilitating coalitions between religious, business and higher education organizations dedicated to empowering the poor and eliminating poverty.

In recent years there has been a rise in the number of children looked after by local authorities, with consequences both for the children and families themselves and for local authority resources. It is therefore timely to consider the option of reuniting some children with their families. This review of the research in the UK and USA, by Nina Biehal at York University, presents the available research evidence on patterns and outcomes of reunion.

This document provides information for people interested in a career in social work. It covers the significance of social work; what social workers do; career prospects; and the routes into social work. It also gives details on where to obtain further information, as well as information on courses, funding and voluntary organisations.

Devolution has changed the way in which the United Kingdom is governed. The creation of the Scottish Executive, and the other devolved administrations allows greater divergence in policy making to address local needs and priorities. Without close co-operation between the UK Government and the Scottish Executive there is the risk that developments in one administration may inadvertently constrain or put pressure on policy or finances of the other administrations.

The guidance focuses on the different stages of the procurement process, and the way social issues can legitimately be incorporated into the purchasing cycle.

Findings from an NIMH research program on bipolar disorder provide much needed long-term data on the chronic, recurrent course of the disorder, and begin the work of building an evidence-base on the best treatments for those with the disorder. Also known as manic-depressive illness because of its recurring episodes of mania and depression, bipolar disorder is a serious, chronic illness which causes shifts in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function.

One potential source of bias is the decline in the coverage rate of the CPS. The percentage of the population who are missed as a result of people not responding to the survey has risen from less than 4 percent in the seventies to more than 10 percent in the last 2 years. If the people who do not respond to the survey are systematically different from the people who do respond (for example, if they are less likely to be employed), then non-response may be a serious source of bias in the CPS. This problem could be more severe for the sub-groups with the lowest coverage rates. For example, BLS estimates that the CPS does not cover 34.0 percent of the black men between 20-29, and 18.9 percent of the black women in this age group.

This spreadsheet provides information on the rate of disproportionality for children from different racial backgrounds, including African American, Alaskan Native, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic.

In September 2002, 26 public child welfare agencies from across the country, representing over 94,000 children in out-of-home placement, were selected to participate in an innovative project focused on recruiting and retaining resource families. This project employed a method for achieving system change that was new to the field of child welfare: a method called the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC). In a BSC, small-scale changes are rapidly tested to
achieve dramatic system-wide improvements in a short period of time. These small-scale tests of change often go through multiple cycles of modification and, when deemed successful, are spread quickly throughout the jurisdiction. If the tests are determined to be unsuccessful, they are stopped—thus ensuring that only the best ideas for change are implemented system-wide. This approach eliminates the time-intensive, belabored planning efforts that often hinder successful, rapid change in public systems.

Statistics on child protection, children looked after, children in residential accommodation, social work staff and finance in Scotland

Excel files containing the indicator data behind the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004.

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2004 identifies small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland in a fair way. It is a significant improvement on previous measures and will allow for more effective targeting of policies and funding at deprived areas. This leaflet provides important guidance on the use of the index.

The aim of this report is to provide the reader with a clear overview of the methodology used to develop the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 2004, and to present some Local Authority level summary results. The nature of the SIMD 2004 and the range of detailed information that it provides makes it impossible for the all the results and background to be presented on paper in a meaningful manner. . . . The SIMD 2004 is applicable to the whole of Scotland and can be used to identify area level relative deprivation across urban and rural parts of the country. The results of the analysis do indicate those areas identified as the most deprived are to be found in Scotland’s urban centres.

Millions of U.S. mothers and infants each year forgo the health benefits of breastfeeding and rely on infant formula. Infants who are breastfed are less likely to develop infectious diseases and chronic health problems, such as diabetes and asthma, while breastfeeding mothers are less likely to develop certain types of cancer. Recognizing the health benefits of breastfeeding for infants and mothers, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2010 campaign has recommended that more U.S. infants be breastfed and that babies be breastfed for longer periods of time. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. would save a minimum of $3.6 billion in health care costs and indirect costs, such as parents’ lost wages, if breastfeeding increased to meet these Healthy People goals. Breastfeeding rates are particularly low among infants who participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

The problem of racial and ethnic disparities in access, coverage, treatment, and health outcomes has been well documented in recent years. In fact, the magnitude of this problem led the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make eliminating health disparities by 2010 a national goal and has inspired members of Congress to introduce legislation to help achieve that goal. However, recent threats to public health programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP (the State Children’s Health Insurance Program), changes in the Medicare program, and the growing number of racial and ethnic minorities who don’t have health insurance coverage make reducing and ultimately eliminating these heath disparities a challenging task.

This report aims to create a thorough, comprehensive and actionable body of information to inform legislators, policymakers and other critical stakeholders about the state of depression in the United States and the urgent need for action. In order to present a thorough understanding of depression, primary and secondary research was conducted in preparation of this report, including extensive interviews and literature reviews. Approximately 100 interviews were conducted across a wide range of stakeholders, including policymakers, regulators, payors, providers, employers, consumer advocates, pharmaceutical manufacturers and researchers. The interviews focused on developing a comprehensive understanding of the key issues facing the mental health system, specifically related to depression, as well as identifying the opportunities for
stakeholders to address the needs of those suffering from depression. Specifically, the report provides a landscape of the current state of depression, followed by more in-depth discussions related to the economic and social impact of the illness, access issues, quality issues and emerging recovery options.

The review of social work happened because people felt services weren't working well enough: Scotland has changed, and what people needed from services has changed as well. Also, there are fewer taxpayers and more people needing services, so there is not enough money to fund these services. The purpose of the review was to find better ways of working for services and social workers, and to find ways of using resources better. . . . One of the key groups that worked with the review was a panel of people who use social work services and carers called the User and Carer Panel. This introduction has been written by the Panel.

This report presents the results of a quantitative evaluation of the Job Outcome Target pilots, which ran in seven Jobcentre Plus Districts from January 2005. The pilots were designed to test whether moving to a more inclusive measure of performance (job outcomes, rather than job entries) would be operationally feasible, help to improve efficiency and avoid having adverse effects on Jobcentre Plus performance.

The Race Equality Network was set up in Yorkshire & Humberside and the North East to help housing providers improve their services for black and minority ethnic communities.

The EQUAL Community Initiative is a development programme aimed at challenging discrimination and tackling labour market inequality, funded under the European Social Fund in the 2000-06 programming period. The programme is based around a model of development partnerships, composed of a range of different organisations and testing innovative solutions to addressing labour market inequality.

The purpose of this publication is to outline how the 2006 Census will be conducted. The Census and Statistics Act 1905 requires that the "...census shall be taken in the year 1981 and in every fifth year thereafter...". The next Census will be held on Tuesday, 8 August 2006. The Census is the largest statistical collection undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and one of the most important. There are two broad objectives that underpin the Census. The first of these is to accurately measure the number and key characteristics of people in Australia on Census Night and the dwellings in which they live. The second is to provide timely, high quality and relevant data for small geographic areas and small population groups, to complement the rich but broad level data provided by ABS surveys.

Government across the UK is promoting 'mixed and balanced' communities, and mixed income new communities (MINCs) are now being built in most cities, either to regenerate low-income areas or to ensure social housing is provided alongside market-rate homes in new private developments. Better-off families have an important role to play in renewal, particularly if the goals include improving schools and other opportunities for low-income children. This study, by the Institute of Education and the London School of Economics, examined four inner city MINCs: two in low-income areas (Glasgow and Manchester) and two on regenerated brownfield sites (London). It investigated whether families were living in private sector homes and their motivations for doing so.

• Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in opioid treatment programs: Approaches to providing comprehensive care and maximizing patient retention
• Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in opioid treatment programs: Associated medical problems in patients who are opioid addicted
• Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in opioid treatment programs: Clinical pharmacotherapy
• Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in opioid treatment programs: Drug testing as a tool
• Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in opioid treatment programs: Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction during pregnancy
• Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in opioid treatment programs: Initial screening, admission procedures, and assessment techniques
• Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in opioid treatment programs: Phases of treatment
• Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in opioid treatment programs: Treatment of co-occurring disorders
• Medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction in opioid treatment programs: Treatment of multiple substance use

The State Fact Sheets provide descriptive information on the condition of vulnerable children in all fifty states and the District of Columbia, using indicators of child protection, health, child care, education, and income support.

By early 2003 everyone in Texas agreed the state’s child welfare system was in crisis. To keep up with increased workloads in Child Protective Services (CPS) over the years, non-casework positions had been converted to caseworkers. Yet CPS staff were still carrying some
of the highest investigation caseloads in the country. Children had died in high-profi le cases. And Texas (like all 50 states) had failed the fi rst federal review of its child welfare programs. At the same time, there was strong public feeling for parent-rights groups challenging what they saw as preemptive removal of children from their homes by CPS.

The Public Advocate’s Office found that the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) does not report information on the number of foster children who have children . Agencies specializing in services for pregnant and parenting teens in foster care verified that ACS does not make this information known, even to direct service providers. The agencies indicated that they are not able to the compile information on a city-wide basis themselves . The problem is not new. Nearly ten years ago, the Youth Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization that teaches young adults in New York City foster care how to advocate for themselves and become self-sufficient, found that ACS does not report information on minor parents in foster care. The Center recommended ACS report related statistics so agencies could direct their services to those in need .

The dearth of information is alarming given that the City is responsible for acting as legal guardian for young parents in foster care.

States have begun to develop and implement marriage education programs to strengthen families and improve outcomes for children. These programs are intended to enhance communication, problemsolving,
and conflict-resolution skills among partners to help them develop and sustain healthy marriages. Many marriage education programs encourage active participation and can be delivered through a variety
of different means such as in classroom settings, lectures, or workshops. Such programs are in response to research indicating that on average, children raised in married, two-parent homes with low conflict levels have lower risk of both academic and behavioral issues and exhibit greater stability in their own relationships as adults. Yet an estimated one-fourth of all children will spend at least part of their childhood in a single-parent home.

The prevalence of substance abuse in the United States virtually guarantees that all children will have playmates, friends, and eventually adult friends and colleagues who have personal experience with alcohol and/or other drug problems. Thus, it is important to educate all young children about the realities of substance abuse, and teach them how to handle their problems and feelings safely. Children from families affected by chemical dependency have greater genetic vulnerability and exposure to factors that place them at-risk for substance abuse.

Over the last several decades, there has been a substantial increase in interest among the pediatric health policy and practitioner communities in moving beyond narrow medical models of health to promote more broadly the development of very young children including their social, emotional, intellectual, and physical well-being. In this report, we review existing national data sources in terms of their capacity to inform child health policy and practice in their efforts to promote early child development. The body of the report provides an overview of existing areas of strength, identifies gaps, and makes recommendations for future data development. Some 26 national surveys and administrative data sources are assessed for their collective ability to support research and for their adequacy as sources of descriptive social indicator data.

Good information sharing is the key to successful collaborative working and early intervention to help children and young people at risk of poor outcomes. This webpage encourages local authorities and partner organisations to ensure that information sharing is properly addressed in their own organisations.

Louisiana's nonprofits are poised to play pivotal roles in the state's recovery through job training, health care provision, affordable housing construction and more. This brief presents survey results, detailing the operating status and needs of Louisiana's charitable organizations in hurricane-affected areas. It finds fewer than half of the nonprofit health and human service providers surveyed are fully operational--and in the New Orleans area, fewer than half are providing any services at all. They expect their recoveries to be slow, despite an initial influx of donations, and cite providing housing for staff and volunteer reinforcements as necessary to meet community needs.

The challenge of rebuilding New Orleans and providing housing for its residents is immense, with tens of thousands of families displaced, their former homes destroyed or damaged beyond repair. The situation is especially difficult for families who lived in the poor, mostly African American neighborhoods that bore the brunt of the flood damage. The challenge going forward is even greater if New Orleans is to avoid old patterns of concentrating assisted housing and poor families in a few isolated communities. In this essay, we draw on evidence from innovative housing programs and development initiatives to outline a strategy that would allow New Orleans to recreate itself as an economically diverse, inclusive city that offers its low-income residents authentic opportunities. With careful planning by and for all, New Orleans can bring back its families and offer them homes in vibrant mixed-income communities.

Hurricane Katrina destroyed most of New Orleans' public education system. As the region rebuilds, public school availability--and quality--will play important roles in determining whether families return. For the foreseeable future, the system will need to operate amid uncertainty about how many students it needs to educate and how they will be distributed across neighborhoods. The city and state response to the challenge must be aimed at two key objectives: adaptability and quality. This essay draws upon recent experience in other cities to outline a strategy for rebuilding New Orleans' public education system. If such a strategy is implemented, it could pioneer new ways of organizing public education in cities nationwide.

Long before the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina or the chaos of evacuation, New Orleans' social infrastructure was failing. News coverage of the overcrowded Superdome and the city's flooded streets exposed the poverty and vulnerability of many residents, especially African Americans. As New Orleans begins to rebuild, can the city avoid the mistakes of the past, instead creating more effective social support for low-income and minority residents? Innovation and experience from other U.S. cities offer promising strategies for reducing the risks of poverty and opening up opportunities for economic security and success. This essay is from an Urban Institute collection that addresses employment, affordable housing, public schools, young children's needs, health care, arts and culture, and vulnerable populations. All these essays assess the challenges facing New Orleans today and for years to come and recommend tested models for making the city's social infrastructure stronger and more equitable than it was before Katrina.

On November 1, 2005, the President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform presented its recommendations to Treasury Secretary John Snow. The panel's report offers two alternative comprehensive reform plans, a "simplified income tax plan" and a "growth and investment tax plan." Both plans, the panel argues, would improve on the current system with respect to simplicity, fairness, and effects on economic growth. A previous CBPP analysis evaluated the impact of the panel's proposals on revenue collections and concluded that adopting either plan would increase deficits by $1.8 trillion over the next decade, and by significantly more thereafter. Because of these deficit effects, both plans, whatever their other virtues, would likely hinder rather than promote economic growth. Both plans also would lock in the regressive distributional effects of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, making the tax system less fair.

The primary purpose of this website is not to assist those trying to detect aggressive prostate cancer early enough to treat it effectively. Although the evidence here does address this issue, Len’s chief reason for writing the letter (below) was to help readers to apply the process of evidence-based practice to more effectively work with their helping professional as a team member for their own care. The letter contains many links to aid in each step of the evidence-based process. We hope that this website will help others to avoid what has happened to our family. We hope that by reading about the process of evidence-based practice you can help yourself and others whom you love and care about.

This technical report, part of MDRC’s Project on Devolution and Urban Change, describes the dynamics of participation in the Food Stamp Program from January 1993 through December 2001 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Los Angeles, California; Miami-Dade County, Florida; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Food stamp caseloads declined over time in all four counties, although the rates of exit differed by family type and locale. Most spells on food stamps lasted for 7 months or more, with median spell lengths varying by locale.

The Government is publishing, in draft, its proposals to amend the Maternity and Adoption Leave Regulations and the Flexible Working Regulations, following commitments made in the Government's response to the Work and Families Consultation in October 2005. The Government's intention is that maternity and adoption regulations will apply to the parents of children expected to be born, or placed for adoption, on or after 1 April 2007; and the flexible working regulations will apply from April 2007.

Poverty in Asia-Pacific is still predominantly rural but rapid urbanization may change this picture in the coming years. The United Nations estimates that by 2025 the majority of the population in the region will be urban and unless this urbanization process is well managed, an increasing proportion of the population (eventually the majority of the population) in cities and towns will be poor. In the coming decades, national policies and local initiatives to improve living conditions in cities will, therefore, become more and more relevant for reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific.

This statistical first release provides provisional statistics on children looked after at a national level. It is an update from the previous publication, which was released in March 2005. It includes details on overall numbers of looked-after children at 31 March, the number of children adopted in 2004-05, the number and qualifications achieved by care leavers in 2004-05 aged 16 and over, and the activity of 19-year-old former care leavers. This edition will also include new national tables on looked after girls who are mothers; distance between home and placement; and the method of participation in statutory reviews.

This is the follow-up to a letter on the 2005-08 Local Delivery Plan Phase II, which referred to the need to look again at existing plans (for 2003-06) for the early intervention mental health target. This letter sets out the conclusions and requirements for new plans.

A key component to the development of a disaster mental health response capacity to provide services to children impacted by disasters is the formation of a Disaster Response Team. The team should be comprised of professionals and paraprofessionals who have participated in special training. This section provides an overview of types of training for team members and other human service workers who will be in contact with children in a disaster or emergency. Also included is a list of persons at the federal, state and local level that may be used as training resources.

In September 2002, 26 public child welfare agencies from across the country, representing over 94,000 children in out-of-home placement, were selected to participate in an innovative project focused on recruiting and retaining resource families. This project employed a method for achieving system change that was new to the field of child welfare: a method called the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC). In a BSC, small-scale changes are rapidly tested to achieve dramatic system-wide improvements in a short period of time. These small-scale tests of change often go through multiple cycles of modification and, when deemed successful, are spread quickly throughout the jurisdiction. If the tests are determined to be unsuccessful, they are
stopped—thus ensuring that only the best ideas for change are implemented system-wide. This approach eliminates the time-intensive,
belabored planning efforts that often hinder successful, rapid change in public systems.

The scheme sets out the methods used to eliminate discrimination, foster good race relations and promote equality of opportunity. It has been revised in response to the requirements of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and with guidance from the Commission for Racial Equality.

PapersInvited was conceived and developed to assist researchers at all levels - scientists, professors, post-docs and students who are seeking publishing opportunities for their research papers. PapersInvited presents an exhaustive list of Calls for Papers issued by professional bodies, journal editors and other conference organizers in all disciplines. PapersInvited has become the preferred destination where conference organizers, journal publishers, researchers and academicians come together to issue and receive information resources that encourage presentation and publication of contemporary research.

The national discussion forum and community for UK Healthcare Professionals with an interest in acute, chronic, or palliative Pain Management.

Housingnews.co.uk exists to provide a national platform for Britain’s affordable and social housing sector. We also deliver eight regional daily newsletters providing news that is focussed, fast and free to subscribers.

ESE ("ease") uses the Nutch Search Engine to index 300,000 pages on 10,000 economics web sites from around the world. It is a companion to Resources for Economists on the Internet (RFE) and is also sponsored by the American Economic Association. ESE searches the sites listed in RFE and Economics Departments, Institutes and Research Centers in the World (EDIRC). The 300,000 indexed pages includes text, PDF, and MS Word files. Since it only indexes economics sites it should provide very useful results for economists searching the Internet.

This information booklet illustrates what needs to be done to meet the Government's objective of ensuring that the settled community and gypsies and travellers live together peacefully.

This report uses the Parent and Family Involvement Survey of the 2003 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) to estimate the number and percentage of homeschooled students in the United States in 2003 and to describe the characteristics of these students and their families. In 2003, 31 percent of homeschooled children had parents who cited concern about the environment of other schools, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure, as the most important reason for homeschooling, 30 percent had parents who said the most important reason was to provide religious or moral instruction, and 16 percent of homeschooled students had parents who said dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at otherschools was the most important reason. In addition, the report includes comparisons to an earlier study using data from the 1999 NHES to provide information about changes in the rate of homeschooling between 1999 and 2003 for different segments of the student population.

The Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have co-sponsored the development of a handbook to assist professionals who deal with the issue of child abuse and neglect among Indian families. The online publication, Child Protection in Indian Country, provides an overview of the legal and policy aspects of such issues as child abuse reporting, criminal background checks of persons who work with children, and developing child protections. Other resources on the site include training modules consisting of PowerPoint presentations, a resources section providing materials supporting the training modules, texts of Federal laws, and links to other websites of interest.

The manual describes strategies for developing State or local CDR programs and CDR teams. The information and tools needed to establish, manage, and evaluate effective review teams are provided. Best practices, based on the authors' experiences in implementing CDR in their States, are identified throughout the manual. A chapter of tools provides job descriptions, sample documents, and meeting agenda, as well as guides that include information relevant to specific kinds of deaths, for example, burning or sudden infant death syndrome.

“Aging out” without a permanent family and/or adequate preparation for
adulthood is a crisis. It is a personal injury to each and every youth in care and a public emergency for our national child welfare system. “Each year, as many as 25,000 teenagers ‘age out’ of foster care, usually when they turn eighteen. For most of their lives, a government agency has made every important decision for them. Suddenly they are entirely alone, with no one to count on. ”Exiting the system as an older adolescent by “aging out” without a permanent family is correlated with a range of deleterious outcomes as a young adult such as early pregnancy or parenthood, criminal involvement, homelessness, lack of employment or dropping out of high school.

A new report developed for the Annie E. Casey Foundation Family to Family Initiative by the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) elaborates on an emerging philosophy of youth permanency that stresses the possibility of permanency for all youth, the need for commitment on the part of caring adults, and the importance of the input of the youth themselves. The report identifies successful programs, policies, and strategies that have helped older children find permanent families.

This white paper sets a new direction for the whole health and social care system. It confirms the vision set out in the department's green paper, Independence, Well-being and Choice. There will be a radical and sustained shift in the way services are delivered, ensuring that they are more personalised and that they fit into people's busy lives. This will give people a stronger voice so that they are the major drivers of service improvement.

Brand new roles in social care could be created as part of a government review of the social care workforce called Options for Excellence. A number of working groups will also explore increasing the supply and improving the quality and training of social workers and social care workers. They will also look at career opportunities, and how to drive up service standards.

Child abuse and neglect have become epidemic in America, affecting an estimated one out of every four citizens. An estimated 1,400 children died from abuse and neglect in 2002, according to the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect. Since these figures are based only on reported child abuse, the numbers could be substantially higher. One of the functions of a Child Abuse Prevention Council (CAPC) is to educate those who are mandated to report child abuse so more children can be helped and more perpetrators can be prevented from abusing other victims.

Although there have been numerous literature reviews that report that
there are organizational and personal factors that affect recruitment and retention, there has been no systematic review of research studies to more fully examine “what works” in regard to recruitment and retention in child welfare and to illuminate the specific methodology and definitions used to frame those studies. It is hoped that by synthesizing the results across studies, practitioners, researchers, educators, policy makers, and administrators in the child welfare field may use lessons learned to take steps to increase the retention of a competent child welfare workforce.

In collaboration with the States we have identified ten domains as our National Outcome Measures, or NOMs. The domains we have identified embody meaningful, real life outcomes for people who are striving to attain and sustain recovery, build resilience, and work, learn, live, and participate fully in their communities.

The United States Supreme Court will again consider whether the Americans with Disabilities Act gives an individual the right to sue a state for discrimination based on disability – in this case, by a state-operated prison.

One prominent difference lies in the conference agreement’s treatment of poor married-couple families that receive assistance. The conference agreement requires states to enroll 90 percent of the two-parent families that they assist in work programs for at least 35 hours each week of every month. States that do not meet the bill’s work participation requirements would be subject to financial penalties. Both researchers and state officials have long recognized that such a requirement would be virtually impossible for even the best-run, highest-performing state programs to meet. This provision of the conference agreement thus effectively means that any state that elects to provide aid to poor two-parent families with TANF-related funds would fail to meet the federally imposed work requirements and face fiscal penalties as a consequence.

The President’s new health tax should be seen as part of a broader agenda to shift health insurance coverage to high-deductible plans with less comprehensive benefits so that individuals pay more for their health care. The Administration has long criticized traditional, low-deductible health insurance that provides comprehensive benefits and limits co-payments to relatively modest amounts, arguing that consumers may unnecessarily use health-care services because they are too heavily shielded from the economic costs. Yet for many low- and moderate-income individuals and families — especially those in poorer health — high deductibles, significant cost-sharing, and lack of coverage of essential medical services can lead to prohibitive out-of-pocket expenses that discourage access to medically necessary care.

The common features of care and support for older people in Scotland and the rest of the UK derive from the responsibilities of Westminster departments for taxation and social security benefits and the largely shared economic, social and cultural heritage. Since 2002, all the countries of the UK have supported free nursing care for older people in care homes. But Scotland has also provided free personal care for older people, both in care homes and at home. Throughout the UK, older people who are assessed as having the means to do so pay for 'hotel' charges (such as 'bed and board') in care homes. If at home, they are expected to contribute towards the costs of services which are neither personal nor nursing care.

A new report issued by the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) that identifies a number of specific obstacles for rural families who leave welfare and search for affordable housing. "Many rural Americans face shortages of affordable housing units, jobs that pay well, and adequate transportation," says Moises Loza, Executive Director of the HAC. "Several states have designed housing assistance programs to help meet their welfare leavers' needs, and we found that many of them can help rural residents."