Nick Axford
Biographic Data
| ID | 4238762 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nick Axford |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nick |
| FAMILY NAME | Axford |
| SIGNATURE | AXFORD N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Dartington Service Design Lab |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2434-2091 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 63 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 116 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 62 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Co‐production of health and social science research with vulnerable children and young people: A rapid review
Autistic adults’ experiences of managing wellbeing and implications for social prescribing
Autistic people demonstrate poor outcomes on objective measures of wellbeing, yet research centring lived experience provides a more nuanced picture. There is growing support for person-centred, holistic and community approaches to enhancing wellbeing for autistic people. Social prescribing may be one such approach. This qualitative study explored the concept of wellbeing for autistic adults - including barriers and self-management - and the impl…
Engaging youth at risk of violence in services: Messages from research
Addressing youth violence is a public health priority given its prevalence, harms and costs to society. Services designed to prevent or reduce youth violence exist. However, their effectiveness depends on youth engaging with them. To our knowledge, there is no overview of the evidence on how to support this process. This article therefore aims to identify key messages from the scientific literature about how services can best engage youth at risk…
Health and wellbeing outcomes and social prescribing pathways in community‐based support for autistic adults: A systematic mapping review of reviews
Adults on the autism spectrum are affected by health disparities which significantly reduce life expectancy and experience barriers to accessing healthcare. Social prescribing is a holistic approach that diverts patients from primary care to health-enhancing activities in communities. However, there has been a lack of research attention to how autistic people navigate the social prescribing pathway and the ability of these approaches to address e…
What works” registries of interventions to improve child and youth psychosocial outcomes: A critical appraisal
The last decade or more has seen a proliferation of online registries of evidence-based interventions designed to improve child and youth psychosocial outcomes. The purpose of these resources is typically to help decision-makers make sense of the evidence and thereby inform their decision-making about investment in interventions. Most registries are underpinned by standards of evidence, which are used to guide the rating of programs by a panel of…
The effectiveness of a therapeutic parenting program for children aged 6–11 years with behavioral or emotional difficulties: Results from a randomized controlled trial
The effectiveness of Chance UK’s mentoring programme in improving behavioural and emotional outcomes in primary school children with behavioural difficulties: Study protocol for a randomised controlle…
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN47154925 . Retrospectively registered 9 September 2014
The effectiveness of the Inspiring Futures parenting programme in improving behavioural and emotional outcomes in primary school children with behavioural or emotional difficulties: Study protocol for…
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN32083735 . Retrospectively registered 28 October 2014
Challenging the Politics of Early Intervention: Who’s ‘saving’ children and why by Val Gillies, Rosalind Edwards and Nicola Horsley
Defining and Classifying Children in Need
Perfect Bedfellows: Why Early Intervention Can Play a Critical Role in Protecting Children—A Response to Featherstone et al. (2014) ‘A Marriage Made in Hell: Child Protection Meets Early Intervention’
In their article ‘A marriage made in hell: Child protection meets early intervention’, Featherstone et al. (2014) question the value of early intervention in preventing or addressing early signs of child maltreatment. In this article, we summarise and critique their main contentions. Among the issues we cover are the difference between intervention and support, the tension between fidelity and flexibility, the relative value of randomised control…
In praise of academic dust-ups
When this journal was launched 12 years ago, we hoped that it would include some robust debates about salient issues, with exchanges between contributors that generated useful insights. In the event, this has barely happened. Indeed, until now the single example was an (invited) exchange in 2011-2012 over the relative merits of randomised controlled trials in children's services. Sarah Stewart-Brown and her colleagues queried their value, Donald …
Defining and Classifying Children in Need
Effectiveness and micro-costing of the KiVa school-based bullying prevention programme in Wales: Study protocol for a pragmatic definitive parallel group cluster randomised controlled trial
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN23999021 Date 10-6-13
Involving parents in school-based programmes to prevent and reduce bullying: What effect does it have
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why school-based programmes to prevent or reduce bullying involve parents, and what impact involving parents has on bullying. Design/methodology/approach – A review of relevant literature, in particular systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Findings – The logic of involving parents in school-based bullying prevention programmes is that this increases the likelihood of parents first, telli…
Children’s services in and beyond austerity
Looking back, looking forward
Who benefits
To adapt or not to adapt
Letter from Krakow
Neither monsters nor saints [1]
Exploring the influence of international governmental organisations on domestic child welfare policy and practice
The influence of international governmental organisations (IGOs) on child welfare policy and practice in individual sovereign states is little explored. This article sets out the nature of these bodies’ main work with children. It then considers the mechanisms through which they seek to influence national child welfare policy and practice and the extent to which they can make nation states comply. ‘Soft’ mechanisms, such as awareness-raising, com…
Evidence-based programs in children's services: A critical appraisal
Blueprints for Europe: Promoting Evidence-Based Programmes in Children's Services
This article describes the Blueprints database of evidence-based programs (EBPs) and its potential application in children's services in European countries. It outlines relevant aspects of the European context, including a tendency to be skeptical about programs imported from the US, and the need for a pan-European source of information about EBPs across multiple outcome areas. It then describes the standards of evidence used by Blueprints, which…
Making Child Well-Being Data Work Hard: Getting from Data to Policy and Practice
Engaging parents in parenting programs: Lessons from research and practice
Research Review: Risk and protection in the context of services for children in need
The paper summarizes the evidence and provides definitions of risk, protective factors, resilience, coping strategies and need in the context of children in need. Definitions are offered for children in need and children's services. The way in which individual interpretation can alter objective assessment of risk is explored. A method for recording evidence relevant to clinical practice on behalf of children in need is offered. Implications for p…
Child well‐being through different lenses: Why concept matters
‘Well‐being’ has entered policy rhetoric in children's services in the UK and other Western developed countries as a companion to other buzzwords of recent years. In order to improve children's well‐being, we need not only a better understanding of what it is and how services can improve it, but also the ability to measure child well‐being in order to evaluate success. This paper explores conceptually and empirically the ‘lenses’ through which ch…
Evidence-based programs in children's services: A critical appraisal
Is Social Exclusion a Useful Concept in Children's Services
The concept of social exclusion has a high profile in children's services in the UK. But how does a focus on exclusion change the way in which services seek to define vulnerable children and help them? In particular, how does it compare with (i) a risk and protective factor model and associated attempts to meet need and (ii) efforts to tackle poverty? This article examines the influence of the concept on policy and practice by considering seven e…
Are Looked after Children Socially Excluded
The concept of social exclusion has become ubiquitous in the discourse of children's services in the UK over the last ten years. But is it a useful concept? Nick Axford sets out a definition of social exclusion and examines the extent to which it applies to looked after children, since they are commonly referred to as being ‘excluded’ or ‘vulnerable to exclusion’. He discusses the implications for how service providers define and help these child…
Measuring children's needs: How are we doing
Children's services in England and Wales are legally required to determine the nature and extent of children's needs in their areas as a precursor to providing needs‐led services. However, few needs assessments are ever published. This article analyses 83 such reports conducted between 1999 and 2007 in two local authorities in England (one urban, one rural), focusing on their quality and usefulness. It makes recommendations for improving practice…
Developing congruent children's services to improve child well‐being
This paper explores whether different concepts of child well‐being call for different ‘service styles’ and, if so, whether these styles can dovetail together to form a congruent pattern of children's services. The first part draws on the distinguishing features of five approaches to conceptualizing well‐being – need, rights, poverty, quality of life and social exclusion – and their empirical manifestations (‘conditions’) to identify different emp…
Evaluating Children's Services: Recent Conceptual and Methodological Developments
This article considers recent innovations and challenges with respect to the evaluation of children’s services interventions. It sets out a method for designing and evaluating services that is based on research evidence gathered on individual cases and that permits revision of those services in the light of emerging results. It starts by describing briefly different ways of identifying a discrete group of children with similar needs. It then outl…
Involving parents in school-based programmes to prevent and reduce bullying: What effect does it have
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe how and why school-based programmes to prevent or reduce bullying involve parents, and what impact involving parents has on bullying. Design/methodology/approach – A review of relevant literature, in particular systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Findings – The logic of involving parents in school-based bullying prevention programmes is that this increases the likelihood of parents first, telli…
Children and global social policy: Exploring the impact of international governmental organisations
Axford N. Children and global social policy: exploring the impact of international governmental organisations International governmental organisations (IGOs) seek to influence child welfare policy and practice in individual sovereign states. But do they succeed and, if so, in what way? This article outlines the nature of selected IGOs' work, explores the nature of their impact and seeks to explain the pattern that emerges. It also notes areas for…
Getting the Measure of Child Health and Development Outcomes (1): A Method for Use in Children’s Services Settings
Getting the Measure of Child Health and Development Outcomes (2): The Picture for a Local Authority in England
The school readiness of children living in a disadvantaged area in Ireland
This study examined the multiple factors that contribute to the school readiness and early school progress of children living in an urban disadvantaged area. Structured interviews were undertaken with parents of children who had recently started school to elicit information about those aspects of children's health, and their home and neighbourhood contexts that may influence their school readiness. Questionnaires were administered to these childr…
Autistic adults’ experiences of managing wellbeing and implications for social prescribing
Autistic people demonstrate poor outcomes on objective measures of wellbeing, yet research centring lived experience provides a more nuanced picture. There is growing support for person-centred, holistic and community approaches to enhancing wellbeing for autistic people. Social prescribing may be one such approach. This qualitative study explored the concept of wellbeing for autistic adults - including barriers and self-management - and the impl…
Can study tours help promote evidence-based practice in children's services
Interest in evidence-based programmes and the science underpinning them has mushroomed in the UK and Ireland in recent years as policy-makers and senior managers seek tried-and-tested methods of improving child well-being. This article examines whether study tours, a form of experiential learning, can help to promote evidence-based policy and practice in children's services. Participants on two study tours to the United States in 2005 to visit ev…
What's in a service
The measurement of ‘service’ in children's services is highly varied. We do not know in a meaningful sense what services children and families get. This paper sets out why it is important to measure services well. It outlines the dimensions of ‘service’, how they have been measured in research, policy and practice contexts, and the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. It then explores implications for the field and identifies potential a…
Engaging youth at risk of violence in services: Messages from research
Addressing youth violence is a public health priority given its prevalence, harms and costs to society. Services designed to prevent or reduce youth violence exist. However, their effectiveness depends on youth engaging with them. To our knowledge, there is no overview of the evidence on how to support this process. This article therefore aims to identify key messages from the scientific literature about how services can best engage youth at risk…
What works” registries of interventions to improve child and youth psychosocial outcomes: A critical appraisal
The last decade or more has seen a proliferation of online registries of evidence-based interventions designed to improve child and youth psychosocial outcomes. The purpose of these resources is typically to help decision-makers make sense of the evidence and thereby inform their decision-making about investment in interventions. Most registries are underpinned by standards of evidence, which are used to guide the rating of programs by a panel of…
Exploring the influence of international governmental organisations on domestic child welfare policy and practice
The influence of international governmental organisations (IGOs) on child welfare policy and practice in individual sovereign states is little explored. This article sets out the nature of these bodies’ main work with children. It then considers the mechanisms through which they seek to influence national child welfare policy and practice and the extent to which they can make nation states comply. ‘Soft’ mechanisms, such as awareness-raising, com…
Making Child Well-Being Data Work Hard: Getting from Data to Policy and Practice
Taking over the world or scratching at its surface
Conducting Needs Assessments in Children's Services
Recent years have witnessed a revival in the popularity of measuring need in developing and developed countries as a precursor to distributing health, education, housing, social security and social care resources. The concept of needs-led children's services has particular purchase in England and Wales, where there is a legal requirement for local authorities to identify and assist ‘children in need’. Yet, children's services agencies have consis…
Children's services in the UK 1997–2003: Problems, developments and challenges for the future
This article reviews developments in children's services since 1997 and considers their effect on children in need by examining government statistics, recent additions to the evidence‐base, and data from two studies conducted by the authors. It shows that there has been extensive service development, mainly beyond the Department of Health, and considerable effort to improve assessment and administrative data. The limits to what can be demonstrabl…
Research Review: Risk and protection in the context of services for children in need
The paper summarizes the evidence and provides definitions of risk, protective factors, resilience, coping strategies and need in the context of children in need. Definitions are offered for children in need and children's services. The way in which individual interpretation can alter objective assessment of risk is explored. A method for recording evidence relevant to clinical practice on behalf of children in need is offered. Implications for p…
Exploring the Potential of Shadow Controls in the Evaluation of Children’s Services
This article describes and presents a framework for an under‐used evaluation technique in the context of an evaluation of a programme for disaffected young people. Shadow controls—the use of expert judgement to estimate the success of a programme—are often dismissed in research design as an unreliable form of comparison, but can be useful in situations where there is limited scope for a control group or to enhance the causal inference attributabl…
Evaluating Children's Services: Recent Conceptual and Methodological Developments
This article considers recent innovations and challenges with respect to the evaluation of children’s services interventions. It sets out a method for designing and evaluating services that is based on research evidence gathered on individual cases and that permits revision of those services in the light of emerging results. It starts by describing briefly different ways of identifying a discrete group of children with similar needs. It then outl…
Child Welfare and Social Policy: An Essential Reader
by Harry Hendrick ( ed .) Bristol : Policy Press , 2005 ISBN 1861345666 , 558 pp , £25.00 (pb) This reader seeks to provide a broad framework within which to observe some of the complexities and ambiguities regarding children's well-being and to think about and analyse policy and practice. Aimed at students, it is intended to make them aware of different concepts and approaches used by researchers and policy makers and to stimulate their critical…
Refocusing Children's Services Towards Prevention: Lessons from the Literature
Increasingly, western developed countries are committed to improving prevention and early intervention strategies that address risks in all areas of children's lives. This article considers the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of such refocusing activity. Five sets of strategies for refocusing are described: developing and using local evidence; designing, implementing and evaluating new services (alongside de‐commissioning); fiscal control; mainstreaming reforms …
The Well‐being of Children in the UK, 2nd edn
by Jonathan Bradshaw and Emese Mayhew ( eds ) London : Save the Children , 2005 ISBN 184187101X 370 pp , £19.95 (pb) This book updates the well-received first edition published in 2002. It provides an up to date and thorough review of data on the physical, cognitive, behavioural and emotional well-being of children in the UK. The 14 chapters have been written exclusively by researchers at the University of York and cover topics such as poverty an…
Enhancing Service Evaluability: Lessons from a Programme for Disaffected Young People
The effectiveness of children's services is often limited by a series of problems that also impede meaningful evaluation. This article describes and assesses research strategies to enhance the evaluability of a programme for disaffected young people, arguing that they have the potential to improve services more widely. It explores methods for developing a logic model, setting target group criteria, tightening programme components, identifying suf…
New directions, familiar challenges? A review of the first volume of the Journal of Children's Services
This article reviews the first volume of the Journal of Children's Services. In doing so, it discusses broader directions and challenges in research, policy and practice. The article focuses on discussion about outcomes, the ‘idea’ of children's services and the impact of interventions on children's health and development. It welcomes reflections on different approaches to outcome measurement, analyses of the practicalities of implementing policy…
The science of a good childhood: A review of Volume 2 of the Journal of Children's Services
This article reviews the contents of the previous year's editions of the Journal of Children's Services (Volume 2, 2007), as requested by the Journal's editorial board. It draws out some of the main messages for how high‐quality scientific research can help build good childhoods in western developed countries, focusing on: the need for epidemiology to understand how to match services to needs; how research can build evidence of the impact of prev…
A dark art comes to the water‐cooler: A review of some key texts on RCTs for children's services professionals and researchers
The need for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) to support evidence‐based services to improve outcomes for children is increasingly recognised by researchers and policy‐makers. However, this brings a pressing requirement to build research capacity for conducting RCTs and to address the concerns of practitioners who may be suspicious about the method. This article reviews a variety of texts on the subject, ranging from analyses of the historical …
An Evaluation of Youth at Risk's Coaching for Communities Programme
Anti‐social behaviour by young people is recognised as a social problem with wide‐reaching effects. Many of the programmes aimed at reducing anti‐social behaviour, however, have not been subject to rigorous evaluation. This article presents the findings from a completed experimental evaluation of an intervention for young people displaying low‐level anti‐social behaviour. The evaluation randomly allocated young people to an intervention (n=32) an…
Linking prevention science and community engagement: A case study of the Ireland Disadvantaged Children and Youth Programme
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are acknowledged to provide the most reliable estimate of programme effectiveness, yet relatively few are undertaken in children's services. Consequently, there are few models with a demonstrated impact on child well-being, leading to a concern not only that services may frequently be ineffective but also that some may be harmful. This article considers how this state of affairs has come into being and discusse…
The school readiness of children living in a disadvantaged area in Ireland
This study examined the multiple factors that contribute to the school readiness and early school progress of children living in an urban disadvantaged area. Structured interviews were undertaken with parents of children who had recently started school to elicit information about those aspects of children's health, and their home and neighbourhood contexts that may influence their school readiness. Questionnaires were administered to these childr…
Are Looked after Children Socially Excluded
The concept of social exclusion has become ubiquitous in the discourse of children's services in the UK over the last ten years. But is it a useful concept? Nick Axford sets out a definition of social exclusion and examines the extent to which it applies to looked after children, since they are commonly referred to as being ‘excluded’ or ‘vulnerable to exclusion’. He discusses the implications for how service providers define and help these child…
You can customise it ‐ but just make sure the wheels stay on
How to wine friends and influence people
Towards the anatomy of a kiss
Developing congruent children's services to improve child well‐being
This paper explores whether different concepts of child well‐being call for different ‘service styles’ and, if so, whether these styles can dovetail together to form a congruent pattern of children's services. The first part draws on the distinguishing features of five approaches to conceptualizing well‐being – need, rights, poverty, quality of life and social exclusion – and their empirical manifestations (‘conditions’) to identify different emp…
Measuring children's needs: How are we doing
Children's services in England and Wales are legally required to determine the nature and extent of children's needs in their areas as a precursor to providing needs‐led services. However, few needs assessments are ever published. This article analyses 83 such reports conducted between 1999 and 2007 in two local authorities in England (one urban, one rural), focusing on their quality and usefulness. It makes recommendations for improving practice…
Child well‐being through different lenses: Why concept matters
‘Well‐being’ has entered policy rhetoric in children's services in the UK and other Western developed countries as a companion to other buzzwords of recent years. In order to improve children's well‐being, we need not only a better understanding of what it is and how services can improve it, but also the ability to measure child well‐being in order to evaluate success. This paper explores conceptually and empirically the ‘lenses’ through which ch…
Subtract… be incisive ‐ here, borrow my knife
Getting the Measure of Child Health and Development Outcomes (1): A Method for Use in Children’s Services Settings
Getting the Measure of Child Health and Development Outcomes (2): The Picture for a Local Authority in England
Let's walk before we run
Psychology (42 works) · Political science (31 works) · Medicine (27 works) · Computer Science (24 works) · Public relations (22 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Business (15 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (15 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (14 works) · Child and Adolescent Health (12 works)