Dr Thomas Spielhofer

I am a quantitative and qualitative Principal Consultant / Researcher at the Tavistock Institute and lead our research strand on children, families and relationships. I have a strong track record of leading research projects in the UK and Europe relating to children, families and relationships. I am particularly interested in conducting research on children and families facing specific difficulties, including alcohol dependency, adoption and disengagement from mainstream education. Currently, I am working on the evaluation of the Children of Alcohol Dependent Parents’ Innovation Fund for the DHSC, PHE and DWP – this uses a theory-based methodology to support nine LAs to evaluate the impact of the innovation fund on their local systems and treatments for parents and children. I’m also leading the evaluation of an innovative programme, Inside Out, which aims to support young people in care to achieve placement stability and move onto more successful outcomes. At the same, I am conducting an evaluation of the Reducing Parental Conflict programme for DWP working in collaboration with IFF Research. This evaluation builds on several related studies, including a previous research project for the Department for Education (DfE) between 2011 and 2014 for which we used quantitative and qualitative methods to measure the impact of three types of relationship support on couples in the UK. I am also involved in several European projects, including assessing the impact of an innovative model to help young people who are NEET to re-engage in education or training. I am also working on a Horizon 2020 funded project to explore the use of software platforms to collect, manage and analyse data during economic, physical and social emergencies. This project builds on a previous large-scale study which explored the use of social media during emergency situations.

Recent relevant publications include:

• Reuter, C., & Spielhofer, T. (2017). Towards social resilience: A quantitative and qualitative survey on citizens’ perception of social media in emergencies in Europe. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 121, 168-180.
• Reuter, C., Kaufhold, M. A., Spielhofer, T., & Hahne, A. S. (2017). Social media in emergencies: A representative study on citizens’ perception in Germany. Proceedings of the ACM: Human Computer Interaction (PACM): Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 1(2), 1-19.
• Reuter, C., Ludwig, T., Kaufhold, M. A., & Spielhofer, T. (2016). Emergency services׳ attitudes towards social media: A quantitative and qualitative survey across Europe. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 95, 96-111.
• Spielhofer, T., Corlyon, J., Durbin, B., Smith, M., Stock, L. and Gieve, M. (2014). Relationship Support Interventions Evaluation. Department for Education.