Local Authorities Research Consortium (LARC)

What is LARC?

LARC, the Local Authority Research Consortium, was formed at the start of 2007. Its purpose is:

to enable Children's Services teams to identify where they are (individually and collectively) with integrated working at a locality level
to help authorities identify how to make faster progress on improving outcomes
to report findings and recommendations nationally.

Background

In 2007/08, LARC comprised a group of:

fourteen English local authorities
the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER)
the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA)
Research in Practice (RiP)
the Local Government Association (LGA).

In June 2008, all Round 1 authorities received feedback on the findings of the research in their individual authority, as well as copies of the final reports for the project.

LARC Round 2

Round 2 involves 30 authorities. There are representatives from all Government Office Regions and all types of authority. The Children's Workforce Development Council is also on the Steering Group.

LARC 2008 research questions:

Does the CAF process support the achievement of better outcomes for children and young people?
What are the key factors that promote the effectiveness of CAF in different contexts?

LARC 2 interim findings were reported to the LARC consortium during September 2009. The final report will be published at the end of 2009 and disseminated during 2010.

LARC Round 3

Preliminary work is underway to determine the focus of LARC 3, but it is likely that LARC 3 will continue to explore integrated working around early intervention and prevention building on the success of LARC 2.

If your authority is interested in joining Round 3 - and in getting involved in planning it - then please contact Jane Lewis, Director of research in practice, email: jane@rip.org.uk.

For further information about the LARC consortium, please contact LARC@nfer.ac.uk

TImescales

LARC 1 timescale: 2006 - 2008
LARC 2 timescale: 2008 - 2010
LARC 3 timescale: 2010 - 2011

Research reports/findings

Contacting NFER’s LARC team

Alison Riley should be the first point of contact for all telephone queries. Alison can be contacted on 01753 523156.

Please send all email enquiries to larc@nfer.ac.uk