C4EO - disability research

C4EO is commissioning a distinct piece of research over three years into disability, which will be separate from the disability theme. The research will be carried out by the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York (SPRU) and led by Professor Tricia Sloper and Dr Bryony Beresford. They will be joined by Professor Jennifer Beecham from the University of Kent. It is part of the C4EO work, and was heralded in the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme. Celia Atherton from RiP leads this work within the C4EO. Responsibility within DCSF is held by the Disability Policy Team.

The primary research will be conducted on two areas: The effectiveness and costs of early identification and intervention for sleep problems:

• Rapid review of evidence on tools to detect and assess sleep problems, and the effectiveness of sleep interventions.
• Mapping of existing models of intervention to address sleep problems in disabled children. 
• Selection of local services implementing interventions that fit with evidence on effectiveness, using different models of delivery. Evaluation of the effectiveness and costs of methods of delivering early intervention sleep programmes (i.e. detection, assessment and intervention).

The effectiveness and costs of different modes of delivering behaviour management interventions to parents of disabled children:

• Rapid review of evidence on the effectiveness of behavioural approaches to behaviour management interventions.
• Mapping of existing models of interventions to address behaviour problems in disabled children across the age range.
• Selection of local services implementing a range of models of intervention that fit with the evidence on effectiveness, but use different ways of delivering the service.  Evaluation of the effects of interventions in terms of children's behaviour at home and school/nursery; parental stress and confidence.  Exploration of parents' and professionals' experiences of implementation, how problems are identified, and the history of the problem, including barriers to and facilitators of intervention; and comparison of different models on effectiveness and costs.

Outputs

1. Sleep study: accessible summaries of research evidence, including screening and assessment tools; guidance for practitioners on effective delivery of early intervention sleep programmes; guidance for parents on managing sleep problems; all co-produced with practitioners and parents, using facilitated participation techniques.
2. Behaviour problems study: accessible summaries of research evidence; guidance on effective ways of training parents in behaviour management skills; guidance for parents on managing difficult behaviour.
3. Both Rapid Evidence Reviews will be available in early 2009, in time for dissemination of summaries at the disability theme knowledge workshops. For the first research study (on sleep problems) this will be supported by screening and assessment tools. These summaries will be provided in hard copy and on the web – with separate versions written for practitioner and parent audiences.