Introduction

This chapter surveys the final years of the Research Programme, from the publication of the Third Report of the Joint Working Party, to the appearance of the first books in the Heinemann series in the early 1980s. The changing responsibilities of the Organising Group can be seen through its periodic progress reports to the Joint Working Party. In the spring and summer of 1977, for example, it was meeting fairly frequently, considering outline applications, looking at progress reports, and thinking about commissioning papers on subjects including race relations, education, housing, occupational status, the extent of deprivation, and the transmission of wealth. By the summer and autumn of 1978, it was meeting less frequently, looking at fewer research outlines and applications, and at more progress reports and final reports. The chapter explores attempts by the Joint Working Party to respond to referees’ reports on the projects that had been funded, and evaluate the Research Programme as a whole. It traces efforts to compare projects across the two main themes of familial processes and socioeconomic factors, and the commissioning of the final report from Muriel Brown and Nicola Madge. It further explores the attitude of the DHSS to the Research Programme, and the broader reaction to it through reviews of the early Heinemann books in academic journals, newspapers, and other periodicals.

An overview of the direction and achievements of the Research Programme is provided by the Joint Working Party's Third Report (SSRC–DHSS, 1977), which was slightly more substantial than the sketchy Second Report (SSRC–DHSS, 1975). By then, some 21 projects had been funded, six papers commissioned, and four seminars held. Particularly large-scale projects, measured by the size of grant awarded, were those on childhood experiences and parenting behaviour, by Michael Rutter and David Quinton (£80,431); adult delinquency and social deprivation, by Donald West (£47,619); intergenerational continuities in low income, by Tony Atkinson and colleagues (£44,381); and adoption and special needs, by John Triseliotis (£30,075). Thus the Joint Working Party claimed that it was covering the four original domains of concepts and definitions, intergenerational continuities, causal mechanisms, and intervention (SSRC–DHSS, 1977, pp 1-10, appendix ii).