Power of Reading – 

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE)’s literacy programme, The Power of Reading, is designed to support teachers to understand the underlying interconnection between language, reading and writing. Through training and resources, primary schools are supported to develop a high-quality and cohesive English curriculum using the best-quality children’s literature to develop oracy, reading fluency, comprehension, writing and stamina and composition. This trial will be targeting teachers and pupils in Year 5.

PALS-UK Effectiveness Trial – 

This is the second trial of PALS-UK evaluated by PERU-ELSIE. The idea is to replicate the study findings from the previous trial and test the intervention in a less structured environment at a larger scale.    PALS-UK is a whole class structured paired reading intervention that aims to improve reading fluency and reading comprehension. It is delivered by teachers to the whole class for 35 minutes, three times a week. It is centred on pupils working together in pairs to engage in four activities: partner reading; retell; paragraph shrinking; and prediction relay. This trial will see teachers deliver the programme to Year 5 classes over 20 weeks.

The PALS-UK programme is being delivered by Dr Emma Vardy (Nottingham Trent University) and Professor Helen Breadmore (University of Birmingham). PALS was originally developed by Douglas Fuchs, Lynn Fuchs, and other researchers from Vanderbilt University. The PALS-UK programme has been adapted for the UK by Dr Vardy and Professor Breadmore.

We are evaluating PALS-UK through a randomised controlled trial. The evaluation will be an effectiveness trial meaning it will test the impact of PALS-UK on pupils’ reading attainment in circumstances that are as close as possible to everyday conditions. It will also evaluate the impact of PALS-UK on oral reading fluency, oral reading comprehension and pupils’ engagement with reading. The evaluation includes a follow-up assessment of the impact of PALS-UK on pupils’ KS2 reading scores.

Schools have a 50% chance of being allocated to the intervention group (receiving the PALS-UK programme). Schools allocated to the control group will continue with business as usual and not receive the PALS-UK programme. An implementation and process evaluation will be conducted alongside the impact evaluation to explore how schools implement the programme, and their perceptions of PALS-UK.

Manchester Policing Academic Centre of Excellence

M-PACE aims to support policing partners in understanding, developing, and mobilising the evidence and tools needed to effectively address contemporary challenges. Through a programme of co-produced knowledge mobilisation activities, M-PACE synthesises and shares existing research and practical resources to strengthen the capability and capacity of the next generation of policing researchers and practitioners.

With a long-standing leadership in evidence-based policing research and practice, M-PACE brings together a team of world-leading scientists and social scientists. The team has an extensive track record and an ongoing commitment to meeting the research and innovation needs of policing in the UK.

By combining robust evaluation, innovative tools, and multi-agency collaboration, M-PACE delivers a forward-looking, impact-driven approach to shaping a policing landscape that is future-ready, accountable, and grounded in ethical practice

Research spans four interconnected areas. Analytics focuses on data quality improvement, spanning measurement error adjustments to the establishment of synthetic datasets; tools to streamline decision-making via automated reporting and social network analysis; the integration of ethics into analytics, including research on reporting barriers and fostering trust; and public appreciation of the uses of AI. Crime Prevention focuses on understanding and addressing violent crime, including VAWG, child exploitation and drug-related offences; evaluation of investigative practices and policing interventions; tracing organised-crime cryptocurrency; public health approaches to violence reduction; addressing virtual and augmented reality risks; and risk assessment tools to support multi-agency safeguarding. Enduring Challengesinclude procedural justice, confidence and legitimacy; reducing racial disproportionality; ethical and proportionate uses of AI; data analytics; POPS policing; leadership; the carbon cost of crime; and organisational resilience to climate change. Interconnectivity focuses on integrating diverse datasets (data fusion), enhanced by a focus on competence and reliability in digital systems; privacy, anonymity, secure data sharing and processing research; and public trust in, as well as policies and practices of using, advanced technologies.