United Kingdom: Institute of Child Care Research, Queens University

Established in 1995, The Institute of Child Care Research (ICCR) is a core funded research unit located in the School of Sociology Social Policy and Social Work in Queens University Belfast. The aim of the Institute is to play a key role in influencing the development of child care policy and practice in Northern Ireland. In pursuit of this aim the Institute has three major objectives: 1)Identify and conduct original research into child care needs and services through using and developing a mix of research methods and varied forms of dissemination; 2)Offer training and consultation on undertaking and applying child care research; 3)Provide postgraduate research supervision for postgraduate students undertaking and completing child care research. These aims and objectives are underpinned by United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Queens University

Examples of Research Projects:

The research the programme of work in the Institute is organized around four different themes as follows

Youth development, lifestyles and social behaviour
Parenting and the early years
Children in the care of public authorities or adopted
Mental health and disability in children and young people

The Institute has twenty five members of staff carrying out a wide range of research projects. A few examples of ongoing work:

The Belfast Youth Development Study, a large scale longitudinal survey of adolescent development focusing on the onset and desistance of adolescent drug use.
The Care Pathways and outcomes study – a longitudinal study which has been tracking outcomes for a full population of children (n=375) who were under five years old and in the care of social services in Northern Ireland on the 31st March 2000.

Details of all current and past studies are available here.

Contact details:

Institute of child Care Research
School of Sociology Social Policy and Social Work
6 College Park
Queens University Belfast
BT7 1LP
E-mail: iccr [at] qub.ac.uk
Director: Professor Geraldine MacDonald

Tags: ["child care", "youth", "parenting", "mental health", "disabilities", "policy development"]

Published Sep. 19, 2008 1:46 PM - Last modified Apr. 17, 2013 2:57 PM