From Research to Practice: Building the Evidence Base on Childhood Policy

Please note the date and time of this event are TBC.

How does research actually change what happens for children and families? This online event brings together three speakers working at the intersection of research, policy and practice, each offering a different answer.

Dr Heather Rouse (Director, I2D2, Iowa State University) will describe how Iowa built a state wide system that links administrative data across health, education and social services — and what becomes possible for child and family policy once that data isn’t fragmented.

TBC will trace how early years research — from Sure Start to the childcare entitlement to the Family Nurse Partnership — has shaped UK policy, drawing on her own move from research into mission-driven, practice-facing work.

TBC will speak to the practicalities of a formal community–academia–government partnership: how it stays durable, how priorities get negotiated across sectors with different incentives, and what it has produced for Manitoba social policy.

Each speaker will give a 20-minute talk, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A.

The event is for anyone working on childhood policy, from either side of the research–practice divide. Researchers will come away with practical routes for getting findings into the hands of policymakers and practitioners. Policymakers and practitioners will see research with direct implications for their work — and meet people who are already bridging that gap successfully.

Details on how to register to follow.