The Department of Social Policy and Intervention is a multidisciplinary centre of excellence for research and teaching in social policy, the development and systematic evaluation of social interventions, and population studies. It carries out both applied and basic research and is home to a global community of academics and researchers with a range of disciplinary backgrounds, including social policy, sociology, demography, political science, geography and psychology.
Our graduate students are engaged in the study of comparative social policy - exploring welfare systems and policy developments across a range of different countries; and of evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation - learning about the development and evaluation of interventions to address social and public health problems. At undergraduate level, we teach an option course on Social Policy within the PPE and Modern History degrees. We also teach Demography on the Human Sciences degree.
The department’s research is international in outlook. We have contributed to academic debate and our work has had a significant impact on policy and practice, from the way in which government funds are allocated to the delivery of local programmes. Our two main research clusters are the Oxford Institute of Social Policy (OISP) and the Centre for Evidence-Based Social Intervention (CEBI). In addition, we host the interdepartmental Centre for AIDS Interdisciplinary Research at Oxford (CAIRO).