JRF announces five new research programmes
Initiatives on migration and on public service governance are to be undertaken by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as part of a wide-ranging commitment to spend up to £1.5 million a year on five new research and development programmes. The Foundation has also agreed the appointment of three new trustees.
- Options being considered for the new work on Migration include topics relating to refugees and other migrants at neighbourhood level as well as national migration issues and the way they are perceived.
- The Governance of Public Services programme will cover statutory and not-for-profit providers and will include work on the most effective way for residents in disadvantaged communities to engage in the planning and delivery of services.
Three further programmes have been agreed by the JRF trustees that will build on earlier work supported by the Foundation:
- A Drugs and Alcohol Research Programme, including support for studies into drinking and employment and the links between social deprivation and substance misuse.
- An Independent Living programme that will examine the main barriers to achieving better personal support for older and disabled people, and look for solutions that have credibility with service users.
- A programme on Differences in Parenting to understand how policy makers and services define ‘a family’ and consider how this matches the realities and diversity of family life today. It will aim to improve understanding of different parenting styles and the varying support needs of families.
The five new programmes will each have a budget of around £300,000 a year for at least three years and be overseen by their own specialist committee of research, practice and policy experts.
The new JRF Drugs and Alcohol Research Committee has already met for the first time, chaired by Dame Ruth Runciman, who previously headed the Police Foundation’s independent inquiry on drugs legislation that reported three years ago. Dame Margaret Booth, chair of the National Family and Parenting Institute, although stepping down as a JRF trustee, has agreed to chair the new committee responsible for the parenting programme.
New trustees
In addition to the new programmes, the Foundation has agreed the appointment of three new trustees who will join the Foundation between now and the start of 2005 when Kenneth Dixon, the JRF Chair since 2001, is due to retire. They are:
Bharat Mehta: Clerk to the Trustees of the City Parochial Foundation and previously Chief Executive of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship (appointed with immediate effect).
Ashok Jashapara: Chair of the Knowledge Management Research Group and Senior Lecturer in Knowledge Management at Loughborough University (appointed from January 2004).
Tony Stoller: External Relations Director of Ofcom, the communications regulator, and formerly Chief Executive of the Radio Authority (appointed from January 2005).
Kenneth Dixon said: “I am delighted that Bharat Mehta, Ashok Jashapara and Tony Stoller are joining us, bringing new strengths and perspectives to the Foundation’s work. It is also good news that, although we are losing Dame Margaret Booth after six distinguished years as a trustee and chair of our former Children and Young People and Families Committee, she has kindly agreed to chair our new research committee on parenting.”
He added: “As we enter our centenary year, we will be moving ahead with five new programmes where we see important opportunities to fill gaps in existing research and pursue the task set by our founder, Joseph Rowntree, of using the knowledge we gain to influence policy and practice and foster social improvement.”
