Royal Statistical Society Social Statistics Section
and the Social Research Association
9 November 2006, 5.00pm, at the Royal Statistical Society (tea from 4.30pm)
The 2006 Cathie Marsh Memorial Lecture
The efficacy of Randomised Control Trials in policy evaluation
Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) are commonly used in medical research.
Recently however, there has been an increase in their use in other areas,
for example in crime, labour market and education research. But are RCTs
always suitable for use in social research and policy evaluation? What are
the research and ethical questions raised? These are some of the issues that
will be addressed at the Cathie Marsh Memorial lecture this year.
Chloe Chitty, (Assistant Director of RDS NOMS, Home Office) will consider
whether RCTs have a place outside health research. Her presentation will
focus on the use of RCTs within the Home Office in informing the evidence
base on 'what works' to protect the public and reduce re-offending. Carol
Torgerson, (Senior Research Fellow, Department of Educational Studies,
University of York) will talk about the suitability of using RCTs in
education research. She will outline best practice as well as some of the
problems and pitfalls. The final speaker is Phil Davies (Executive Director,
Campbell Collaboration). Phil will focus on why public policy needs RCTs.
Susan Purdon, (Quantitative Methods Advisor, National Centre for Social
Research (NatCen) will be the discussant for the presentations. Adrian
Alsop, Director of Research and Training at the Economic and Social Research
Council, will chair this event.
The lecture will take place at the Royal Statistical Society headquarters,
12 Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX (see
http://www.rss.org.uk/about/direction.html for a map and directions). It
starts with tea/coffee at 4:30pm, and ends with a drinks reception at
7:00pm, kindly sponsored by NatCen. There is no charge for this event;
however demand for places is expected to be high. It is strongly
recommended that you register in advance either by email [log in to unmask]
or by phone: 020 7638 8998.
The Royal Statistical Society and Social Research Association look forward
to welcoming you.
Sponsored by the National Centre for Social Research
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