Many of you ask interviewers, or send messages to us through the website, about why we choose to ask certain questions in interviews. We have no problem with this we’re only too happy to explain why we do things.
Recently we’ve had a few queries about some new questions we included this year that asked about things to do with discrimination – people being treated unfairly because of prejudice about something they can’t do anything about such as their race, ethnicity, religion or sex.
The main reason we included some questions about these matters this year is that DCSF now has a responsibility under the Education Act to promote what is known as ‘community cohesion’. This is a term which covers a lot of things but in a nutshell it’s about encouraging young people to value the diversity of England today, enabling everyone to have the same opportunities in life and promoting a sense of belonging to our society.
There’s a great deal of debate about such issues and a wide range of views. It’s commonly recognised that because young people are the future of our society they are the most important here. You may have noticed, however, that although there’s a lot of claims made about what young people think about these issues, like in so many other cases, these claims about what young people think are based on very little hard evidence and may well not be the same as your opinions
We think it’s important that young people are given a voice on this and Next Steps, which regularly ask more than 12,000 young people about their views, is one of the best ways to do this. In short, those questions are there because we want to know your opinions. You may feel strongly one way or another about what we’re asking or you may be completely indifferent. Whatever your views we want to know them.
Finally, quite a few people commented that while we asked about things to do with religion, race and ethnicity we didn’t ask about gender or social class which they felt were far more important issues. We would like to have asked you what you think about those things but, for a number of reasons not least the limited time we have in the interview, we couldn’t this time around. We may come back to these issues later on in Next Steps.
The Next Steps Team
You can find out more about community cohesion and what it means at http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-00598-2007.pdf
I started work on what was to become Next Steps more than eight years ago in May, 2000. At that time the study didn’t even have a name, while my own Department’s name has changed at least twice since then (it could be more, I may have lost count). At first it was a minor part of my job but it grew rapidly until it not only took over all my work time it seemed, at times, to be taking over my life as well.
In the eight years since Next Steps has grown from being just a good idea into one of the largest and most complex studies of its kind in the world and one that is often referred to as an example of best practice in carrying out research like this. The eight years with Next Steps have been many things for me: eventful, stimulating, rewarding and, only very occasionally, frustrating. I’ve been working in social research for more than 30 years now and Next Steps is by far the best thing I’ve ever worked on. But even the best things must come to an end and its time for me to move on to fresh challenges. From August I’ll be working in a different team in the Department looking at other research issues, although still to do with young people and still using the information we get from Next Steps a lot of the time.
I couldn’t leave without letting you know how much I have appreciated the contribution that you have made to the study. It goes without saying that without you there would be no Next Steps at all. One of the things that has consistently surprised us from the beginning is the enthusiasm for and commitment to the study that both young people and their parents have shown. Over the last four years I’ve spoken to many of you or seen your e-mails and I’ve really enjoyed doing that, I’ve also been happy knowing that Next Steps is changing things for the better, that our policies and services are improving as a result of what you tell us in your interviews.
My best wishes to you all for the future and if you give my successor Helen Wood the same sort of commitment to helping us with the study you’ve showed in the last four years I’ve no doubt Next Steps will go on to be an even bigger success in the future.
Iain Noble
