Innovation and the Evidence Base

Innovation has been a persistent theme in probation reform and probation practice over recent years. At a system level, when the Coalition government’s ‘rehabilitation revolution’ was first articulated, it encompassed innovation by frontline staff, by organisations working within a mixed economy and even social entrepreneurs. Under Transforming Rehabilitation, innovation remained a stated aim of probation reform, although the scope of innovation envisaged appeared to have narrowed. Innovation is also integral to ideas of evidence-based and evidence-led practice and there are numerous examples of innovative practice developing within probation and the wider criminal justice system. Applying the ‘innovation lens’ to evidence-based practice also raises interesting questions for the future development of such practice

Homelessness and the Private Rented Sector

Homelessness has a devastating effect on those who experience it and is costly to the public purse. Homelessness acceptances have been increasing since 2009, with the most significant growth being from the private rented sector. The number of such households has grown in absolute terms – from 4580 acceptances in 2009 to 16,320 acceptances in 2017, and as a proportion of all acceptances, from eleven percent to twenty eight percent (MHCLG, 2018). Yet, while there has been some excellent research published recently about particular aspects of this growth, there remain a number of gaps in our understanding. Knowing what is driving recent increases in homelessness from the private rented sector is key to understanding what policy and other changes are necessary to address this proble

Are Social Impact Bonds an innovation in finance or do they help finance social innovation?

Outcomes Based Commissioning (OBC) – for example, Pay for Success (in the US) or Payment by Results (in the UK) – has been suggested as a way to provide ‘more’ social services for ‘less’ public resources. Such commissioning is often linked with an innovative financing tool called a Social Impact Bond (SIB). Using data from the Social Finance UK Database and focusing on SIBs in the US and UK, we evaluate whether the SIB approach aligns with the theoretical predictions of social innovation. The results provide limited evidence that SIBs facilitate capital injections from the private sector into the production of social goods as well as facilitate parts of the process of social innovation – namely, piloting and scaling. We conclude that there is significant variation, both between the US and UK and within the US, in social innovation ecosystems and the role played by SIBs

DeWitt Wallace Library Annual Report 2014-2015

Summary of library and media services activities for 2014-201

The Amateur Sky Survey Mark III Project

The Amateur Sky Survey (TASS) is a loose confederation of amateur and professional astronomers. We describe the design and construction of our Mark III system, a set of wide-field drift-scan CCD cameras which monitor the celestial equator down to thirteenth magnitude in several passbands. We explain the methods by which images are gathered, processed, and reduced into lists of stellar positions and magnitudes. Over the period October, 1996, to November, 1998, we compiled a large database of photometric measurements. One of our results is the "tenxcat" catalog, which contains measurements on the standard Johnson-Cousins system for 367,241 stars; it contains links to the light curves of these stars as well.Comment: 20 pages, including 4 figures; additional JPEG files for Figures 1, 2. Submitted to PAS

DeWitt Wallace Library Annual Report 2017-2018

Summary of library and media services activities for 2017-201

Attributing the variability of eddy‐covariance CO 2 flux measurements across temporal scales using geostatistical regression for a mixed northern hardwood forest

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95220/1/gbc1702.pd

Brexit and the work-family conflict:a Scottish perspective

This paper examines the Scottish Government’s desire to maintain ties with EU law post-Brexit in the context of employment and equality law, particularly those laws which impact on work-family conflict. The paper critically examines whether there is, or could be, a distinctly Scottish perspective in the context of work-family rights post-Brexit. The paper frames the analysis by considering the potentially gendered implications of Brexit in this context. In doing so, it examines this issue from the perspective of traditional heterosexual dual-partnered working family models. It is argued that rights for working fathers will be most vulnerable post-Brexit, with related consequences for working mothers. Consequently, the implications of Brexit in this context are primarily viewed through the lens of working fathers. The paper then critically examines the Scottish Government’s position on EU employment and equality law in the post-Brexit context

The Marketisation of Rehabilitation: Some economic considerations

This paper considers criminal justice policy in England and Wales since the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) agenda implemented in 2013. TR rested on the proposition that probation services are best provided in a market context. Motivated by profit and extrinsic rewards, private sector consortia, and their employees, theoretically act efficiently to deter and rehabilitate offenders from crime. However, there is evidence that marketisation itself undermines the prospects of efficient social policy. Over-reliance on markets may undermine pro-social norms through emphasising individualism and extrinsic returns. Outsourcing is also associated with increasing inequality, which may also undermine pro-social norms. Further, the emphasis placed on self-interest in framing market-based incentive structures is associated with declining public welfare support for the economically marginalised and increased use of relatively expensive incarceration. In application, TR proved unsustainable. The innovation involves increasing reliance on the para-state sector, in which private profits rely on public payment. However, the profits expected under TR fell short of expectations, in part due to changes in wider society. The early cancellation of TR contracts highlights the inflexible nature of such public sector procurement. On the basis of theory and practice, we suggest a reconsideration of the government’s position on probation and set out reasonable steps to address shortcomings in the current system