EBP Exchange - UMB School of Social Work

I thought that some of you would enjoy this information because it is the first I have seen from Prime Minister Brown’s new “Department of Children, Schools, and Families” which was very recently created to integrate the child welfare, juvenile justice, and education under one roof and secretary.  There was a bit of harrumpffing from those who lamented the loss of status of education, from its own department, but I think the idea is quite intriguing.

 Also, this piece shows the longstanding effort that they have made to find “statistical neighbor” communities in the UK.  This is more sophisticated than what we typically do in the US and the methods are worth a look. http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/STA/t000712/index.shtml

The GAO just released a report to follow their recent report on the epidemiology of domestic violence services (DVS). http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07846r.pdf

 This report was to be on effectivness of DVS but the GAO rightly concluded that there is not nearly enough data (administrative or otherwise) to draw such a conclusion.  They suggest some inittiatives needed to improve routine services data gathering but make no mention of how these initiatives would be supported nor do they seem to give much creedence to the challenges of turning administrative data on services into information about effectiveness.  There is a critical need for DVS to begin to rigorously test models of service to add to what we are beginning to know from a range of surveys. 

I am hoping that we can, ultimately, develop a course on effective methods of addressing domestic violence and put together the best information available in this nation.