Breaking the Barrier evaluation published

I am really excited that the Breaking the Barrier evaluation was published this week.

Breaking the Barrier (BtB) is a Lifeworks programme. The aim of BtB is to provide opportunities for children and young people with learning disabilities – and, crucially, their families and carers – to participate in adventure sports. 

BtB 2018 consisted of three events: surfing at Saunton, cycling at Torbay Velopark and surfing at Bigbury-on-Sea. Across the three events, BtB 2018 provided adventure sport opportunities for 139 young people, 37 siblings and 30 parents, a total of 206 experiences.

The key objectives of the BtB 2018 evaluation were – employing quantitative survey data, qualitative interview data and a draft report review workshop with the BtB team – to understand the extent to which BtB 2018 achieved its objectives and the role of the partners in that. Lifeworks will use material from the evaluation in its work on programme development.

The key findings of the evaluation are that the BtB programme achieves its objectives to a very high degree. Two key reasons are identified: the BtB team and its partner organisations create a safe, comfortable and inclusive space that facilitates participation, and the event explicitly caters for young people with learning disabilities and their families. Recommendations for learning and development are also made in the report.

You can read the evaluation report here (just scroll down a bit).

I am very grateful to all the parents who participated in the evaluation and to Sarah-Jane Lowson and Tracey Hubbard at Lifeworks for fantastic support and input.

Public Attitudes to Science at the Engage conference

It was great to visit the Engage conference, which focuses on university public engagement, in Edinburgh last week (29-30 November, 2018). This year, the conference themes focused on looking forward to public engagement futures and looking back over the ten years since the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement was established. You can find out more here.

I have a longstanding interest in public engagement.

However, this time, I was primarily at Engage as part of a session on the 2018-9 Public Attitudes to Science research, which is funded by BEIS. The session was kicked off with an introduction by Tony Whitney in the Science, Research and Innovation team in BEIS. I then talked about the findings of the international literature review that I have undertaken as part of the research. I was followed by Amy Busby, of Kantar Public (who are leading the research), who talked about a digital dialogue that Kantar has run on trust in science and scientists. 

A common theme in my talk and Amy's talk was a distinction between trust in scientists and science as a profession (which is very strong) and trust in what happens when science is employed in technologies (which is more mixed). The session was well-attended and there were some interesting questions after the talks.

The literature review is currently in review by the project Advisory Group and it is expected that it will be published in early 2019. The new research will be published later in 2019.

Previous UK PAS research is available here.

Healthy Parent Carer Programme

I am really excited and proud to be working - as an Assistant Facilitator - on the Healthy Parent Carer Programme, which is run by PenCRU at Exeter University. The parent carers of children with additional needs are vulnerable to poor health and wellbeing and are often marginalised. Through a series of six workshops, the programme aims to improve health and wellbeing among this group. During the first half of 2019, the programme will be run in six locations in Devon and Cornwall.

My own role on the project is as an Assistant Facilitator. I am looking forward to further develop my workshop and participatory facilitation skills that I have developed through my own participatory research. On Thursday 22 and Friday 23 November 2018, I attended excellent and inspiring facilitator training workshops at Exeter University. I am looking forward to contributing to the programme in 2019 and - hopefully - as it grows in the future.

You can read more about the programme and associated research here.