In partnership with Jobs Australia, the Social Policy Institute, together with the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute and Centre for Social Research and Methods at ANU runs a series of workshops exploring major social policy concerns. The workshops bring together academics, researchers, senior public servants and others from the policy community.

In February TTPI is hosting distinguished visitor, Professor Jane Millar OBE, a renowned British expert on social security, poverty and family policy. She is a Professor of Social Policy at the University of Bath. This workshop will explore issues in the use of qualitative longitudinal methods in policy research. It is based on a 15-year project in the UK which has been following a sample of low-income lone-parent families. The first stage of the project took place between 2001 and 2008. The initial sample of 50 lone mothers and their children were interviewed in 2002/2003. The women had all recently started work and were receiving tax credits (a means-tested benefit for low paid workers).

This study included three important elements – the longitudinal qualitative data, the focus on children as active participants in the family, and an ongoing engagement with policy and policy change.

The workshop will discuss:

• The background to the project
• Aims, design and methods, including analysis and ethical issues
• Key themes from the research
• Policy Engagement

Jane Millar, Professor of Social Policy with research interests in social security and family policy, lone parents, employment and poverty. Jane studied social psychology at the University of Sussex and worked in health and social care before returning to academic study to focus on social security policy. She was a researcher in the Department of Health and Social Security and then completed her doctorate in social policy at the University of York. Her first lectureship was at the University of Ulster and she came to the University of Bath as a lecturer in social policy in 1988.Jane was awarded an OBE in 2001 for ‘services to social policy research and teaching’. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Jane is elected chair of the Social Policy Association, chair of the nominations committee of the Academy of Social Sciences, and chair of one of the three inter-disciplinary Grant Assessment Panels of the Economic and Social Research Council. She is a Trustee of Lankelly Chase, which supports work to improve the lives of the people currently most disadvantaged in our society, and of First Steps, a local Bath charity and social enterprise that provides Sure Start Childrens’ Centres and nurseries. Jane was Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Bath 2008 to 2015.

This workshop series is in partnership with Jobs Australia and is by invite only.