Register Development

Register development

The work towards creating the register of child protection research has been ongoing for a number of years. The definitive account of how this register has been, and continues to be, developed is being prepared and will be made publically available in due course, but an outline of the two data collection phases, to date, is provided below.

Data collection

During both phases of data collection, in 1997 and in 2002-2003, questionnaires and covering letters were sent to

• The heads of the relevant departments in every university in the UK in the first phase of data collection or, in the second phase, to individual academics in the relevant department of UK universities
• The chief officers of all relevant statutory agencies in the UK, including education, health police, probation and social services departments
• The major child welfare voluntary organisations in the UK
• The members of the British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (BASPCAN)

Recipients were invited to complete and return the questionnaire in respect of any child protection research they were undertaking or had undertaken (since 1990). They were also asked to distribute the questionnaire and covering letter to any of their colleagues who were conducting or had conducted child protection research. Most of the studies that are currently listed in this website derive from these two data collection phases. This work was funded by small (internal) grants from the universities of Huddersfield (2) and Manchester.

The launch and publicising of this resource represents a new development in data collection regarding this register. This resource will make it more straightforward for colleagues to submit (or update) research and more likely that they will do this. This, in turn, will lead to the register being a more complete record of child protection research in the UK.

The register's staff will continue their proactive efforts to capture more of the completed and ongoing child protection research in the UK. As part of this endeavour, it is intended to seek funding to embark upon a further organised and systematic phase of data collection; one which is likely to include a comprehensive search of the child protection literature.