Aspirations for later life: a report of research carried out by the National Centre for Social Research on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (Research Report No 737)

This research report presents new survey findings on people’s aspirations for later life (that is, aged 60 onwards) in Great Britain. The survey sought to determine whether people hold aspirations for their later life and, if so, what these might be. In addition, it sought to provide an insight into what are the enablers and barriers to achieving these aspirations. Questions were asked of adults of all ages, not just those in middle and older age groups to explore when people start thinking about later life and how these attitudes change across the life cycle. This survey was carried out as part of the National Centre for Social Research Omnibus Survey. The sample was drawn from the Postcode Address File (PAF), commonly used in general population surveys. Face-to-face interviews were carried out in summer 2010. A total of 1,867 adults aged 16 years and over took part in the survey. However, it was assumed that respondents aged 45 to 65 years (i.e. those closer to retirement) would be most likely to have aspirations for later life, and so the number of respondents in this category was boosted, to allow more detailed analysis of their answers

Measurements of the Cosmological Evolution of Magnetic Fields with the Square Kilometre Array

We investigate the potential of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) for measuring the magnetic fields in clusters of galaxies via Faraday rotation of background polarised sources. [...] We find that about 10 per cent of the sky is covered by a significant extragalactic Faraday screen. Most of it has rotation measures between 10 and 100 rad/m/m. We argue that the cluster centres should have up to about 5000 rad/m/m. We show that the proposed mid frequency aperture array of the SKA as well as the lowest band of the SKA dish array are well suited to make measurements for most of these rotation measure values, typically requiring a signal-to-noise of ten. We calculate the spacing of sources forming a grid for the purpose of measuring foreground rotation measures: it reaches a spacing of 36 arcsec for a 100 hour SKA observation per field. We also calculate the statistics for background RM measurements in clusters of galaxies. We find that a first phase of the SKA would allow us to take stacking experiments out to high redshifts (>1), and provide improved magnetic field structure measurements for individual nearby clusters. The full SKA aperture array would be able to make very detailed magnetic field structure measurements of clusters with more than 100 background sources per cluster up to a redshift of 0.5 and more than 1000 background sources per cluster for nearby clusters, and could for reasonable assumptions about future measurements of electron densities in high redshift clusters constrain the power law index for the magnetic field evolution to better than dm=0.4, if the magnetic field in clusters should follow B ~ (1+z)^m.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables, accepted by MNRAS, minor correction to eq (5

Monitoring and evaluation of family interventions (Information on families supported to March 2010) RR044

Josie Dixon, Vera Schneider, Cheryl Lloyd, Alice Reeves, Clarissa White, Wojtek Tomaszewski, Rosie Green and Eleanor Irelan

Monitoring and evaluation of family interventions: information on families supported to March 2010 (Research report DFE-RR044)

"This report updates and builds on the previous research by presenting and analysing FIIS [Family intervention Information system] data provided by family intervention staff up to and including 31 March 2010. The report is primarily based on simple descriptive statistics which provide a summary of the quantitative evidence. In addition statistical modelling (logistic regression) was used to look at the factors associated with successful and unsuccessful outcomes." - Page 14

3rd Annual Conference of the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health (LCIRAH), Developing methods in agriculture and health research, London, 13–14 June 2013

Non-PRIFPRI3; ISI; CRP4; B Promoting healthy food systemsPHND; A4NHCGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH

Connecting Communities:Process Evaluation: Final Report

Connecting Communities was a voluntary employment support programme funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and procured and overseen by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). It was tested across nine geographically defined neighbourhoods (also called ‘lots’) and ran for three and a half years. This period included the Covid-19 pandemic, which impacted on programme delivery, employment opportunities and everyday life more generally. The nine lots were located across the WMCA area: Birchills Leamore; Batchley and Brockhill; Cannock North; Washwood Heath; Shard End; Chemsley Wood; Binley and Willenhall; Camp Hill; and Glascote.Emphasising intensive, personalised, and context-specific support, the programme sought to: (a) build social networks to foster positive behavioural and attitudinal changes towards work; (b) increase employment; and (c) work with local businesses to bolster the recruitment and progression of disadvantaged individuals. This evaluation identifies the factors that influenced employment and progression outcomes for participants, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the place-based approach to employment support more broadly. The study drew on qualitative data from observational site visits, in-depth interviews, and analysis of management information and claims data. An impact evaluation and assessment of cost-effectiveness will be published separately.<br/