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A policy proposal to reduce the system of disability benefits received by 2.44 million over-65s across the UK was abandoned in 2012, partly as a result of research conducted at the University of Essex. The research team highlighted a flaw in the income analyses which were used in Government to suggest that disability benefits often go to older people without substantial financial needs. Defining income more appropriately, the team's research showed instead that recipients of these benefits would be on low incomes if disability benefits were not provided. The findings were quoted extensively by the Health Select Committee in making its recommendations, and the policy change has been abandoned.
Research by Jonathan Wolff provided the intellectual framework for pioneering work on self-directed support in social care by In Control, a national charity whose mission is `to create a fairer society where everyone needing additional support has the right, responsibility and freedom to control that support'. Wolff's work with In Control has shaped recent government policies including the Putting People First strategy (adopted 2008), which have improved health provision generally and service provision for disabled persons in particular. The specific impacts described here are (1) shaping government policy at both a national and local level and (2) improving the health and quality of life of more than 600,000 disabled citizens and their carers by improving service delivery.
Research by Professor Les Mayhew and Professor Ben Rickayzen at City University London on the question of how the public sector and the private market might jointly establish a better way of funding long-term care for the elderly has influenced policy thinking and development within the Treasury, the Department of Health, the Dilnot Commission, the actuarial profession and among ministers and parliamentarians. Evidence is provided here that shows that their research on population ageing has had an impact at the highest levels in Whitehall. In addition, Mayhew's work on integrated health and social care for Brent Council has helped to transform services at local level and provides a model that could be replicated more widely.
There has long been concern about the large number of people claiming incapacity benefits in Britain. Repeated policies to reduce the caseload have had little effect. Professor Richard Berthoud has addressed the issues by exploring the interaction between disabled people's impairments and employers' expectations. He has been continuously engaged with policymakers and has influenced the policy debates about these benefits. He has made presentations to the Department for Work and Pensions and social security adjudication judges, and has provided research and advice for the Office for Disability Issues, the Equalities Review and the National Equalities Panel, and the Citizens Advice Bureau.
`Scrounger', `cheat', `skiver' - Disabled people are feeling increasingly threatened by how they are represented in the media. University of Glasgow research has provided strong evidence of this negative shift in media coverage of disability issues. The 2011 findings have received widespread attention, have critically informed public and political debate and have substantially shaped the work of NGOs and advocacy groups. They have provided organisations with clear research evidence to inform their campaigns by defining and quantifying misrepresentations in the media and the effects on audience perception of these issues, helping to support calls for change in public attitudes to issues of inequality.
Anna Lawson's research into disability equality and human rights has shaped and strengthened the disability policy of the European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE).
The research formed the basis of a new EU-wide system for tracking the progress being made by 34 countries in implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006 (Disability Convention).
Lawson's research also shaped the content of a CoE Recommendation (issued to its 47 Member States) on the political rights of disabled people. In particular, her research influenced the CoE's ground-breaking decision to include an explicit recognition that mental disability never justifies the deprivation of voting rights.
A key challenge for UK Government is to identify how older generations can continue to live independently in their own homes. The UK's changing demographics, recent increases in the cost of institutional care coupled with its declining availability make this a priority for policy makers. A twelve stage research programme undertaken by Professor Tinker has investigated how improved home care and assistive technologies including aids and adaptations could be employed to enable older people to remain at home longer. It examined and costed these options and provided recommendations on how they, and other specialised housing types such as sheltered housing, could be provided. Central government, local authorities and housing associations have employed her findings in revising their approaches to housing support for this rapidly growing population. Her findings have recently been employed by governments in Europe, Canada, the USA, Australia and the Far East in their reappraisals of policy on assisted living in later life.
Research into participative practice and well-being with older people has contributed directly to the development and application of an ethic of care in policy and service delivery, as well as to practices in older people's participation, locally, nationally and internationally. The research has directly impacted on practitioners and practice developments in services for older people, with learning resources (co-designed with practitioners and older people) being used in professional education and training across the UK and in New Zealand. An innovative participatory methodology has both enhanced older people's participation locally and been adopted more widely by university community research collaborators working to enhance older people's citizenship and well-being (eg in Netherlands). Research has directly informed policy concerning older people's needs assessments by recognising the centrality of relationships to well-being in older age. The well-being research involving collaboration with service users and providers has been described as `exemplary' by the leading national charity Age UK.