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In response to the declining number of applicants for leadership posts in Further Education, David Collinson developed the Practitioner Research Programme. Funded by the UK Government's Learning and Skills Improvement Service, the programme offered FE leaders and managers the opportunity to produce research-informed answers to challenges they were facing in their own practice. Findings were developed into 88 practitioner research reports that were disseminated to every FE college in England and Wales and made available online. Research engagement enhanced knowledge and understanding of leadership issues, stimulating organisational change and improving the performance of individuals, teams and organisations. Key themes were presented at a national conference where outstanding projects received awards for the impact of research on their own FE organisation, the local community and leadership development. Findings were extensively cited in the `Independent Commission on Colleges in their Communities' report, and in the Foster Review of UK FE.
Preference-satisfaction models of welfare dominate environmental policy but are problematic both in respect to the value placed on environmental goods and as a basis for environmental decision making. The Philosophy Department at the University of Manchester (UoM) has developed an alternative characterisation of well-being, along with tools for its measurement and employment in policy making. Impact is delivered via a UK-based project on climate justice, focused on a need to conceptualise, measure and map vulnerability to the impacts of climate change associated with flooding and heatwaves. The framework developed has had a major influence on adaptation planning at both local and national levels, allowing authorities to identify concentrations of climate disadvantage, and to formulate policies that address specific sources of disadvantage in different locations.
Research into understanding and addressing the gaps between evidence and practice in health care has been conducted and applied at the University of Manchester. Working within the Department of Health funded National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for Greater Manchester, research teams have applied an evidence-based approach to knowledge mobilisation to improve the identification and management of two vascular related conditions: impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). As a result of the initial pilot projects in Greater Manchester 1863 new CKD patients have been identified with the success leading to a further implementation programme that has spread to other areas of the UK. The IGT pilot project has directly led to the improved health of targeted patients in two areas of Greater Manchester.
High global and national prevalence levels of child obesity and physical inactivity carry a substantially increased health risk. Exposure to this risk is exacerbated in north-west England where health inequalities are large. Consequently, the prevention of physical inactivity and associated conditions such as obesity are vital at the local level. This case study summarises the impact of research within the Research Institute for Sports and Exercise Sciences (RISES) that has focused on children's physical activity and health promotion in educational settings in the North West of England. This research has been utilised by the Local Authorities that have partnered with RISES to develop and deliver; health and physical activity monitoring (SportsLinx); evidenced-based programmes of physical activity for schoolchildren (school-based interventions); and educational practice development (teacher training) that have demonstrably enhanced children's physical activity and health.
This case study is based on the impact from the research constituted by the writing of this novel and on the wide discussions of science and genre arising from its reception. The impact consisted of enhancement of cultural life and public critical discussion, especially by:
1) raising questions in narrative about the politics and ethics of scientific research in relation to identity, power, gender and reproduction
2) enriching debate about possible differences and similarities between `literary' and 'science' fiction and how these are valued.
University of Manchester (UoM) research has made a key contribution to adaptation planning strategy for urban climate change, at a range of scales. Impact was achieved via the generation of data, and the creation and refinement of tools and frameworks that offer a distinct geographical perspective and a means of generating local evidence on urban climate risks, vulnerabilities and adaptation potential. Proof of principle was established within Greater Manchester, with extensive and ongoing use of research findings to support urban adaptation. Subsequently, the research has guided additional localities, and contributed to national policy formulation. More recently, a number of cities — including on mainland Europe and the African continent — have used the research within local adaptation planning, and related green infrastructure policy and practice.
Writing Lives is a community storytelling project. It develops creative writing with people and communities as a way of expressing their past and present, and has resulted in a self-sustaining model of community arts practice. It demonstrates the following impact:
Research conducted by Peter Elfer has shown the significance of attention to babies and under threes' emotional well-being in nursery if early learning is to be effective. Children who are continually anxious or distressed do not learn well. A sensitive, responsive and consistent relationship with mainly one or two members of nursery staff (now known as the child's `key-person') has been shown to promote in young children feelings of safety and security. The research has underpinned the development of the key-person role in nurseries, as the means for enabling individual attention to children. This research has had a significant impact in the following areas:
1) UK Government curriculum guidance and requirements
2) Training of the early years workforce and continuing professional development
3) The evolution of UK Coalition Government policy and public discourse
The reach of the research is extensive, providing the underpinning for attachment practice in English nurseries. The above developments have strengthened the expectation in national standards of greater attention to the emotions of babies and young children in nursery and have provided the detailed guidance on how this can be achieved in practice.
Based on knowledge exchange with international agencies and think-tanks, briefings to politicians, workshops with local government and police authorities, and a full-time secondment within central (UK) government, Dr Matthew Goodwin's distinctive work has become a crucial part of changing attitudes and influencing policy for dealing with the rise of right-wing extremism in the UK, and elsewhere. As one of the most-followed political scientists in the UK, Goodwin has used extensive social and traditional media engagement to bring this ground-breaking work to the attention of the wider public. One senior Government Minister reflects that Goodwin has `helped to develop government policy to counter the far right', and `provided government with a substantial evidence base which continues to change and inform policy'.[source 1]
Dr. Zoë Kinsley's research focuses on British home tour travel writing by women and a significant part of her work in that field has involved the study of manuscript travel journals held in libraries and county record offices, the majority of which had received little or no critical attention prior to her own research work. She has undertaken a series of public engagement activities within Greater Manchester and Yorkshire, focused on the manuscript writings of Dorothy Richardson and other women travelling in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which encourage greater use of and interest in local archive services, enrich understanding of local history in the North of England, and assist in the preservation of regional literary heritage. These events, all of which took the form of workshops which encouraged discussion and debate between participants, have taken place in partnership with Wigan Archives Service, Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre, and the John Rylands Library, Manchester.