Foreword.

AuthorJackson, Anne

This 24th issue of the Social Policy Journal of New Zealand is devoted to the second Social Policy, Research and Evaluation Conference, "What Works?", convened by the Ministry of Social Development in November 2004. The conference, emphasising evidence-based policy and practice, succeeded in bringing together the policy, provider, research and evaluation communities. Issue 24 does the same, with a selection of keynote addresses and refereed papers developed from conference presentations.

The three keynote speakers addressed the question of "What works?" from their three distinct social and cultural perspectives and concerns: New Zealand, First Nations of Canada, and the United Kingdom. In their papers, they consider the historical and political complexities inherent in providing an answer to this question.

Mason Durie, Professor of Maori Research and Development at Massey University, asks the question, "Do policies based on race or ethnicity work?" He answers it with a review of race-based policy across New Zealand's history and an assessment of 21st-century research findings. There are interesting parallels between Mason Dude's paper and the paper written by Cindy Blackstock, Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, and Nico Trocme of the University of Toronto. In particular, they share an historical perspective and a focus on racially and ethnically oriented policies. Blackstock and Trocme's paper, reflecting their practitioner-based concerns, draws on the lived experience of First Nations children and argues that these children's needs call for a response that comes out of their own community.

Helen Roberts is Professor of Child Health at the City University, London, and head of its Child Health Research and Policy Unit, which examines evidence-based health and social care of children, and the gap between evidence and practice. Her paper focuses on the real complexities of social interventions, and the political complexities that may be encountered when implementing what the evidence supports. The paper by Kristin Liabo, a Research Fellow in the Child Health Research and Policy Unit, is on a closely related topic. Kristin Liabo writes about her participation in the "What Works for Children?" project and the project's efforts to improve the links between research and practice by making relevant findings accessible and usable, and identifying the specific research needs of service planners and practitioners.

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