SWRDU and SPRU to merge
SPRU and SWRDU are pleased to announce that we are starting the process of merging our two research units in order to combine our mutual research strengths in the area of children, families and young people.
Two major strands of SPRU’s research - on child health and disability and on child poverty and well-being - will be complemented by SWRDU’s social work research on looked after and vulnerable children and young people. Together, they will create a wide-ranging, interconnected programme of policy-related research focussed on children.
The University of York has agreed that SWRDU will become a fourth research group within SPRU, led by an Assistant Director who will have professorial status. Professor Nina Biehal has been appointed to this position and SWRDU will be called the Children and Young People's Social Work team, after the merger with SPRU in January 2008.
The move will create one of the largest and most successful groups of applied social policy and social work researchers in the UK. Bringing SWRDU’s and SPRU’s work closer together will enhance the development of our existing programmes and create a dynamic, multi-disciplinary environment for research aimed at improving the life-chances of all vulnerable children and young people.
The merger process will take place over the summer and autumn, with a formal launch of the new organisation early in 2008.
SWRDU is a leading social work research centre, established in 1992, working mainly on issues around vulnerable children and young people, looked after young people and young people leaving care.
SPRU was established in 1973 and its work is concerned with policy development and service delivery to support children and adults made vulnerable by poverty, ageing, disability or chronic illness.
