Oxford University Social Policy and Intervention

What makes parenting support programmes effective, and how can successful approaches be scaled to reach more families?

In this article for The Conversation UK, DSPI’s Inge Vallance and Genevieve Haupt Ronnie (University of Cape Town) examine evidence from the Parenting for Lifelong Health for Teens programme implemented across eight African countries.

Their findings highlight what works and why investing in evidence-based parenting programmes matters.

🔗Read the article, 'Better parenting starts with knowing what works. We tested a project in 8 African countries’: https://f.mtr.cool/xlfshedcnc

Better parenting starts with knowing what works. We tested a project in 8 African countries An eight-country study assessed whether parenting programmes that were developed through research also work when offered at a wider scale in real-life conditions.

Congratulations to Professor Zachary Parolin, Professor of Social Policy, Inequality and Opportunity, on receiving two prestigious international early-career honours for his contributions to the understanding of poverty, inequality and social mobility.

Professor Parolin has been awarded the 2026 William Julius Wilson Early Career Award and received an Honorable Mention for the 2026 Henrik Enderlein Prize, recognising outstanding European researchers under 40.

His research has helped inform public policy at both national and international levels, including the European Commission’s Anti-Poverty Strategy and Minimum Wage Directive, as well as major policy debates in the United States such as the expansion of child benefits.

🔗Find out more: https://f.mtr.cool/ribgjiwizg

Nuffield College, University of Oxford INET Oxford

Professor Zachary Parolin receives two early career awards Professor Parolin recognised for contribution to the understanding of poverty, inequality and social mobility

Are asylum-seeking children to blame for England's children's social care crisis?

In a new Expert Comment for University of Oxford, Dr Michelle Degli Esposti, Associate Professor at DSPI, examines this claim using five decades of data and reveals the factors behind the crisis.

‘England's children's social care system has reached crisis point. But if we are serious about protecting the next generation of children and building a sustainable social care system, we need to stop looking for scapegoats in asylum-seeking children and start asking why so many children are only coming to the attention of services once they require state protection.’ - Dr Michelle Degli Esposti

🔗Read the full Expert Comment: https://f.mtr.cool/rurzizbhqn

Expert Comment: Are asylum-seeking children to blame for the care crisis? Dr Michelle Degli Esposti, Associate Professor at Oxford's Department of Social Policy and Intervention, examines the claim that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are driving England's children's social care crisis, and what five decades of data reveal about the real causes.

🚨We're hiring: Part-time Research Assistants (2 positions)

Are you a PhD student interested in inequality, social policy and social mobility? Join Professor Zachary Parolin's research team working on economic and social inequality in high-income countries.

Successful candidates will work in one of two areas:
📈 Labour market institutions and their relationship to social and economic outcomes
📑Public policy analysis

We’re are looking for applicants who:
✅Are working towards a PhD in a social science discipline (or relevant data science field)
✅Have an interest or research in economics
✅Have experience in data management and analysis

Details:
- Part-time (12 hours per week)
- Fixed term until 28 February 2027
- Opportunity to work closely with Professor Zachary Parolin, building your research experience and contributing to publications

📅Application deadline: 2 September 2026

🔗Find out more and apply: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecruit/erq_jobspec_version_4.display_form?p_company=10&p_internal_external=E&p_display_in_irish=N&p_process_type=&p_applicant_no=&p_form_profile_detail=&p_display_apply_ind=Y&p_refresh_search=Y&p_recruitment_id=187917

INET Oxford

Missed one of our seminars? You can still catch up anytime on the Department's YouTube channel.

Our seminar series bring top researchers from around the University and the world to talk about their work and share the latest thinking on pressing issues.

Recent topics include the green backlash, urban climate strategies and much more.

🔗 Watch the recordings:

Department of Social Policy and Intervention Oxford The Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, is a multidisciplinary centre of excellence for research and teaching in social policy and the development and systematic evaluation of social interventions. We are the top-ranked Social Policy department in the UK, and third gl...

Africa’s adolescent cohort is growing fast. Can parenting support help?

🔗 Read Professor Lucie Cluver's blog for Bond UK calling for governments and NGOs to invest and scale-up:

Africa’s adolescent cohort is growing fast. Can parenting support help? | Bond Africa’s adolescent population is likely to reach almost half a billion by 2050 – and as it increases, so too does the need for scalable, evidence-based approaches to parenting support.

Congratulations to Dr Tobias Schillings on being awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship for his project, ‘Reforming Solidarity: Healthcare Expansion and Welfare Legitimacy in the Global South’, which explores how healthcare reform reshapes solidarity, state responsibility, and inequality across societies.

By comparing reform trajectories across the Global South, the research will provide new insights into how institutional design influences welfare attitudes, trust in the state, and support for redistribution.

🔗 Find out more:

Ten Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships awarded to Oxford social scientists A remarkable ten Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships have been awarded to social scientists at the University of Oxford, across more than five disciplines. 

Why does knowing who is likely to vote for a political party often tells us little about that party’s overall electoral success?

New research from DSPI’s Professor Tim Vlandas and University of York's Professor Daphne Halikiopoulou explores a key challenge in contemporary political analysis.

Advances in data and analytical methods have improved our understanding of how individual attitudes shape political preferences. However, seeing how these individual-level insights explain national election outcomes is not straightforward.

Doing so can lead to the atomistic fallacy – the mistaken assumption that relationships observed at the individual level explain patterns at the aggregate level.

The result? Potentially distorted interpretations of elections and misguided policy responses.

As political analysis becomes increasingly data-driven, distinguishing between individual behaviour and collective outcomes remains essential.

🔗Read the research in European Journal in Political Research: https://f.mtr.cool/soqmtujcfy

The (forgotten) atomistic fallacy in political science and its implications for how we interpret elections | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core The (forgotten) atomistic fallacy in political science and its implications for how we interpret elections

ICYMI - research published in the BMJ Global Health shows that parenting programmes delivered at scale can dramatically reduce violence against adolescent girls.

Click on the link below to find out more.

Parenting programmes can reduce violence against teenage girls by over 60% when delivered at scale - discover NEW research published today in BMJ Global Health ⬇️

The study examined the effectiveness of World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF- endorsed parenting programmes for caregivers and adolescents in reducing violence against adolescents, strengthening parenting practices and improving mental health.

It examined data from over 123,000 participants in parenting programmes delivered through government and non-governmental partners across 8 countries.

The research was led by Professor Lucie Cluver and Professor Jamie Lachman at DSPI, and Emeritus Professor Francesca Little and Professor Catherine Ward at the University of Cape Town.

Discover key findings and hear from the authors: www.spi.ox.ac.uk/article/parenting-programmes-reduce-violence-against-teenage-girls-by-over-60-0
Read the research in full: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2025-020422

Stepping Stones International Parenting for Lifelong Health Clowns Without Borders South Africa