Our aim in SAM is to develop a computer-based tool which can measure parent-child Attachment across the population in a cost-effective way. The National Children's Bureau states that "secure attachment promotes health and wellbeing" while the Early Childhood Forum advocates "the right of children to [...] form secure, long lasting attachment relationships [...] which shape their future capacities for wellbeing". When the problem is neglected, the consequences are dire: children who have abnormal family attachments are at much higher risk of aggressive behaviours. By early adulthood, individuals with aggressive behaviour cost society 10 times more than their peers and have a mortality rate almost 10 times higher, in part due to increased risk of suicide and violent behaviour, but also due to physical problems such as coronary heart pathologies. Identifying Attachment problems early, at a population level, would be of significant benefit to society and drastically reduce the costs of dealing with the resulting issues. Large-scale screenings of Attachment insecurity should be routine among children. The problem is that Attachment assessment methods are expensive and time-consuming. MCAST (Manchester Child Attachment Story Task) is the standard method used in middle childhood. During MCAST administration, assessors show vignettes to the child, using a dolls-house, which portray mildly stressful situations. They are then asked to act out what happens in the rest of the story using dolls that represent both the child and a caregiver. The way the child completes the story and their behaviour during the test provides the cues necessary to assess their Attachment status. Each MCAST takes 30 minutes to administer and a further two hours to be transformed into a usable medical record. Furthermore, professionals must attend expensive courses followed by lengthy reliability training to use MCAST, so accredited Attachment assessors are a rare commodity. This means that MCAST cannot be applied on a large scale, as needed to make a significant impact on population health and wellbeing. Our goal is to make large-scale Attachment screening possible by reducing time and costs required for MCAST assessment. Our approach consists of automating the key steps of MCAST to 1) reduce the time needed to complete the test (higher efficiency) and, 2) allow the involvement of personnel with no MCAST training (lower costs). We also expect the automation of MCAST to provide new insights into Attachment and its observable, machine detectable behavioural markers, enabling better future measurement of Attachment. We will develop a computer-based tool which can be used to measure Attachment across the population in a rapid, cost-effective way to support MCAST assessors. The children will be guided through the story vignettes by an on-screen avatar. The detailed movements and positions of the dolls in space will be captured in real time. We will also record speech sounds from the children to analyse prosody and vocalisations. Using these data, we will develop novel algorithms to categorise Attachment patterns automatically and rapidly, locating each child in one of the four Attachment categories (Secure; Insecure Resistant-Ambivalent; Insecure Avoidant and Insecure Disorganised/Disorientated) with a level of confidence. To do this, we will develop novel techniques based on Social Signal Processing (SSP), in which Vinciarelli is a leading expert With SAM, the screening sessions and preliminary data analysis can be done without the presence of trained MCAST assessors; they would only be needed if a child was tagged as being in one of the problem categories, where a standard MCAST assessment would be undertaken, allowing large-scale population screening of Attachment patterns for the first time. The development of SAM and the rapid screening of Attachment in large groups will create a paradigm shift in the treatment of child psychiatric disorders.

Focus of the project Eastern Europeans who have arrived in the UK in the last decade are the fastest growing ethnic groups in the UK. This study will be the first to focus specifically on Eastern European migrant children who have lived in the UK for at least three years, and to compare their everyday lives and sense of cultural and national identity and belonging in Scotland and England. The primary aim of the research is to inform public debate, policy makers and service providers on the issue of children of Eastern European migrants settled in Britain. The study will promote social inclusion, by exploring the experiences of settled migrant children in relation to the distinct discourses around migration, identity and citizenship in the UK and by ensuring that voices of children from the 'new' minority groups are taken into account in current debates on national identity. Settled migrant children's perspectives help us understand whether or not they are being socialised into their local communities' culture and can highlight the spatial and temporal dimensions of their social lives and opportunities for future. Concepts of ethnic and diasporic identity, belonging, transnationalism, culture and nation are taking new meanings across Europe and need reassessment and questioning when discussing national identity and social inclusion. Evidence to be produced By bringing together discourses on migration and integration of migrant groups with knowledge on how children experience these discourses in their everyday interactions, the study will generate new knowledge on the UK's new ethnic minority children and their long-term experiences of integration. Focussing on children aged 12-18 of Eastern European migrants living in the UK for 3+ years, the study will provide a unique understanding on migrant children's long term experiences of settlement, exploring family, peer and community social networks. Another key area of investigation will be children's expressed needs in terms of the array of services they use, issues in access and the extent to which services are meeting their needs. Third, we will explore the factors that enable children of Eastern European migrants to adapt to the new social, economic and political context of the regions in which they live, as they negotiate national, social, cultural and political identities in the context of a changing Europe. Data will be generated through a review of existing evidence, a survey of between 500-600 children across six urban, semi-urban/rural areas in the UK and focus groups with between 70-100 children. In depth case studies 16-20 families will also be conducted. A young people's advisory group will have a central role in the project development and dissemination. Originality, contribution to knowledge and anticipated impact The originality of the project stems from the consideration given to the ways in which Eastern European children living in diverse geographical spaces are engaged in on-going, dynamic processes of making sense of the world, and their place within it, at local, national and global levels. The study will fill a gap in information on newly settled migrant communities, with a view of informing policy and practice. Information on settled migrant children's social practices, educational achievement and aspirations, sense of cultural and national identity and belonging will provide insights into the extent of European migrant communities' integration in the UK, in the context of various representations of 'nation' that circulate in policy, political and public discourses. The study will address the relative absence of migrant children's voices in public debates and provide policy makers and the public with an improved understanding of the lives of children who were originally migrants, but have settled long-term in the UK. This information will be disseminated widely, to benefit children, service providers, policy makers and the general public.

Governments across the world have become increasingly aware of the social and economic problems caused by inequality. It's not just income inequality that is cause for concern but how different aspects of inequality-in health, education, employment and crime-combine to impoverish particular groups, and deepen divisions in society. For certain types of inequality, Scotland fares worse than comparable countries, particularly with respect to suicide, homicide, overcrowding and children living in poverty. As a result, the Scottish Government has launched a national strategy to create a 'Fairer Scotland'. For this initiative to be successful, however, it needs to have solid evidence which is based on a well-informed understanding of how the different dimensions of inequality interact and change over time. Our goal in this project is to achieve a step change in the quality and usefulness of the evidence base in Scotland by developing world-leading advances in how the multi-dimensional nature of inequality is understood. Working closely with policy makers at local and national level, we aim to support, guide and inform government policies with a view to achieving a genuine reduction in social inequalities. Our project is called AMMISS: Analysing Multi-Dimensional and Multi-Scale Inequalities in Scottish Society. It represents an ambitious and innovative research programme that will explore the causes and consequences of social inequalities in Scottish society in a much deeper and more joined-up way than has been achieved before. It is 'multi-dimensional' because we will explore multiple forms of inequality (e.g. poor health, low educational achievement, exposure to crime, failure to access the labour market, poor social mobility). Developing cutting-edge analysis we shall help policy makers understand how these different dimensions interact to affect life chances. It is 'multi-scale' because looking at inequality for a single level of geography or social unit can lead to a distorted understanding of inequality. So it is particularly important that we understand how inequalities impact at different levels both spatially (e.g. communities and cities) and socially (e.g. individuals and families). Our novel approach will allow us to analyse the causes and effects of multi-dimensional and multi-scale inequalities in a truly joined-up way, taking full advantage of Scotland's world-class administrative and survey data. AMMISS has two main themes. First, we will explore the way in which the neighbourhoods impact on how people experience inequalities and how changing patterns of poverty in Scottish cities impact on those experiences; for example, by affecting access to the labour market and exposure to crime. We will also examine how changing ethnic mix affects educational achievement and experiences of victimisation. Second, we will investigate how inequality impacts individuals over the course of their lives; for example, how experiences in early childhood affect social inequalities experienced later in life. We will also explore why some 'high risk' people and neighbourhoods remain 'resilient' to social inequalities, achieving positive outcomes against the odds. To make sense of such a broad range of issues we have brought together an impressive group of internationally recognised experts from various different areas of research. This will allow us to develop the innovative and insightful research needed to tackle inequality. Working closely with a range of organisations across Scotland, including central and local government and charities, will provide many opportunities for innovation and ensure that our work is relevant and useful for achieving a fairer society. Our ambition is to help those in positions of influence achieve real change. By making Scotland an exemplar for inequalities research, our work has the potential to influence and inspire policies to reduce social inequality around the world.

Patterns of migration have changed dramatically over the last 20 years and increased freedom of movement for people living in countries once separated from western Europe by 'the iron curtain' has played an important part in this. The UK has seen new flows of migration coming from Central Eastern Europe and other parts of the former 'Soviet bloc'. Within the UK, Scotland presents a particularly interesting and distinctive case, due to: the specifics of its economic and demographic situation, related political discussion of the need for migration, and the division of responsibilities between UK and Scottish parliaments and local authorities for migration. Both the Scottish Executive and many local authorities have expressed a wish to attract and retain migrant workers. However, challenges have also been highlighted relating to demand for and adequacy of service provision. Meanwhile the experiences and perspectives of migrants themselves remain little understood. This project aims to study perspectives and experiences of 'social security' amongst migrants from Central Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union in Scotland. Through its long-term and deep engagement with migrant communities, the project will deliver significant new and original empirical data. It will generate important new academic insight through its innovative synthesis of existing theoretical frameworks. Moreover, the project proposes a groundbreaking approach to developing practical and policy outcomes and solutions through the use of a participatory action research approach. A first phase of research will identify key themes and areas of concern, drawing particularly on the experiences and perspectives of migrants themselves. This will be followed by the phase of participatory action research, during which we will work directly with migrants, migrant organisations, policy makers, service providers and employers to develop practical projects addressing particular issues. The process of developing these projects will be evaluated as will their short, medium and long-term outcomes with a view to determining 'best practice' and the potential for replication in broader local, regional and national contexts. We use 'social security' to mean the ways in which migrants are able to make themselves socially, economically, personally and culturally secure in a new environment and their strategies for dealing with every day risks. The project will examine the ways in which migrants' experiences and perspectives on 'social security' affect their longer term intentions regarding settlement in Scotland. Migrants' experiences and needs differ depending on their levels of education and skill, the kinds of work they do, their language abilities, their age, which country they come from, whether they are male or female and which part of Scotland they have come to live and work in. Levels of service provision, local economic and demographic needs and local community perceptions of and responses to migration differ quite markedly between, for example, large cities and more remote rural areas. These differences also impact on migrants' experiences and aspirations. The project will pay attention to these various forms of diversity. The research will be conducted in eight locations in Scotland: two cities (Glasgow and Aberdeen) two medium-sized towns (Peterhead and Arbroath) and four more remote rural locations in Aberdeenshire and Angus. In each location, the project will explore the different kinds of resources, networks, structures and services which migrants draw on in order to make themselves materially and emotionally secure within the places where they live and work. It will also tease out which aspects and perceptions of security (economic, personal, cultural, social) are deemed particularly important by migrants and how these influence migrants' decisions to settle in a particular location, to move on, or to return to their countries of origin.

Through our parent-practitioner-community (PPC) partnership, consisting of parents with children involved with social work, infant mental health practitioners, researchers, and community stakeholders, we have coproduced Infant Parent Support teams (IPS), in Glasgow and London. IPS are mental health teams offering high quality therapeutic interventions to struggling families. IPS teams aim to reduce the risk of child maltreatment (CM) and improve parent and child mental health. In this study, we propose to further develop the place-based features of IPS teams and test the clinical and cost-effectiveness of IPS in a definitive randomised controlled trial (RCT). Place-based inequalities in health begin early in childhood: young children experiencing poverty and/or racism are more likely to develop health problems earlier in the lifespan than their peers. Children in the most deprived 10% of small UK neighbourhoods are over 10 times more likely to be in care or on protection plans than children in the least deprived 10%. Social determinants of health and child welfare are "systemic, population-based, cyclical and intergenerational" resulting in certain geographical areas being plagued by overlapping physical and mental health problems and addictions. Infants and preschool children rely on parents and practitioners access services - a process vulnerable to structural inequalities. Our novel aim is to redress this. Our coproduction has led to enhancements of IPS, including neurodevelopmental awareness, poverty awareness, and the employment of parents as practitioners and managers in IPS, and we have mapped the local contexts in which the IPS teams are embedded. We are currently conducting a feasibility randomised controlled trial (f-RCT) investigating how best to involve the families who can benefit most from IPS. In this new study, consisting of four work packages (WPs), we aim to reduce place-based inequalities through: WP1, co-creating a new theory of change for IPS that takes the local context in which IPS teams are embedded into account; WP2, implementing findings from our f-RCT and WP1 to make IPS teams fully place-based, i.e., further embedding IPS teams within their local communities and enhancing each local community's ability to make best use of IPS; WP3 (contiguous with WPs 1, 2 and 4), conducting a definitive RCT to examine the clinical and cost-effectiveness of IPS in reducing the risk of child maltreatment and improving mental health; and WP4, conducting a realist process evaluation examining what works best, for whom and in what context. RCT outcomes will also include measures of community connectedness and IPS costs, consequences and cost-effectiveness. At two adaptation points during the RCT, all four WPs will work with an expert scientific advisory group and the PPC-partnership to examine whether we are reaching our desired target population (including marginalised families) and, if not, to enhance our recruitment strategy to achieve equality of access to the study by employing recruiters who come from or have links with under-served populations, and/or targeting specific geographical areas through our extensive networks across Greater Glasgow and in ten diverse London Boroughs. Our success in reducing place-based inequalities will be measured by whether our RCT has recruited a trial population that demographically mirrors our target population. The techniques most successful in achieving this will inform recommendations for post-trial implementation of IPS to ensure that future IPS teams can reduce place-based inequalities by embedding optimally within their local community/service context, and targeting the families likely to most benefit.