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This case study draws on research on homeless and multiply excluded adults dating from 1997. The research has mainly been undertaken in collaboration with the Framework Housing Association in Nottingham, but has addressed an issue at the heart of government policy since 1990. The research has influenced the shaping of recent government responses to multiple disadvantage, guided commissioners and service providers in the field of supported housing and, through the use of participatory methodologies, enhanced the employability of some homeless people.
Summary of the impact (indicative maximum 100 words) The University of Westminster carried out research which made a major contribution to the development of the Purple Flag scheme. This government-backed scheme accredits night-time town and city centres that reach a bench marked standard of good management. Better managed night-time town and city centres provide multiple benefits for businesses and visitors in terms of the promotion of partnership working; reductions in crime and violence; increased diversity of offer; increased accessibility and a rise in footfall. The University's research also had a more diffuse impact with regard to raising awareness of the environmental dimension of an expanded night-time economy.
Research by Prof Jillian Anable and colleagues in the Centre for Transport Research (CTR) at the University of Aberdeen has made a leading international contribution to a specific approach to sustainable transport planning known as `Smarter Choices' or `soft measures'. These have been used to develop non-coercive transport policies that inform people of their travel choices, and seek to improve services to make these choices feasible.
These measures rely on understanding the processes and mechanisms for people to change their travel behaviour voluntarily in response to locally tailored initiatives using a combination of social marketing, travel planning, information provision and investment in alternative transport infrastructure. The research at Aberdeen has used a combination of methods to assess the potential of Smarter Choices, and has also been used to calculate the expected carbon emissions reductions that would result from different combinations of policy measures. This research has also developed a specific quantitative methodology involving segmenting the population to give a flexible interpretation of behaviour, allowing different policies and messages to be targeted to different groups.
The research has directly influenced English and Scottish transport and climate change agendas, being taken up in policy guidance, evaluation frameworks, new funding mechanisms and the inclusion of Smarter Choices in carbon reduction targets. The research has also been used by several local transport authorities in the UK and mainland Europe and as underpinning evidence by many transport and environment NGO's and community groups.
The impact of this research has been achieved through developing evidence-based recommendations for personal advisers in Jobcentre Plus — the UK's one-stop service for administering state benefits and helping claimants into work. By opening the `black box' of adviser- claimant interviews for the first time, the study produced the following key impacts:
Beneficiaries were those claiming state benefits, Jobcentre Plus advisers and managers, and DWP and other Government policymakers.
The Cambridge-led Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration (ERFC) is a global consortium involving individual-participant data on 2.5 million participants from 130 cohort studies. The ERFC has helped optimise approaches to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment by: 1) quantifying the incremental predictive value provided by assessment of risk factors 2) evaluating the independence of associations between risk factors and CVD and 3) addressing uncertainties related to the implementation of screening. ERFC publications on lipids, lipoproteins, and inflammation biomarkers have been cited by 9 guidelines published since 2010, including those of the European Society of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.
Research conducted at the University of Bath has helped in the design and implementation of effective service recovery interventions, leading to improvements in the delivery of public services. The research has addressed an on-going question for changes to service delivery: what can be done by central government when it determines that local government performance is unacceptable? The findings of a detailed empirical study of English and Welsh central government interventions led to a typology of intervention options designed to guide actions based on the type of problem and the improvement capability available. Recommendations from the research have led to improvements in the effectiveness of Welsh Government interventions when local government service delivery is (or is at risk of) failing. The research has established a set of pragmatic operating principles for all Welsh Government interventions with corresponding benefits for policy makers, practitioners, communities and citizens.
The body of research commences with the UK's first published assessment of accommodation and other (health, education etc) needs of Gypsies and Travellers (G/T) in accordance with the 2004 Housing Act. The research had a direct influence on Government policy making process, impacting the development of new data sets, statutory guidance on the content of assessments and demonstrating the viability of innovative collaborative research methodologies with nomadic/sedentary Gypsy-Traveller populations. The Fundamental Rights Agency and INVOLVE subsequently cited the research as `best practice' for research focussing on `hard to reach' communities.
Alliance research has been used by the UK and Scottish governments to direct more of the £10bn p.a. public investment in affordable and social housing towards higher demand growth regions. It has produced a range of affordability-based housing needs models which have been commended as exemplars of good practice guidance for local authorities and adopted by industry consultancies. One tool, used to assess policy options in the context of HM Treasury's 2010 Spending Review, has been described by the Department for Communities and Local Government as "invaluable" and stimulated the development of an equivalent model for New Zealand, influencing investment by the state housing agency, Housing New Zealand, in assets worth $15bn. The research has also led to the cost-effective targeting of low cost and shared home ownership programmes and stronger use of planning powers to deliver affordable housing across the UK and Ireland.
This case study brings together research focused on the ways in which social groups defined by a range of marginalized identities are excluded from participation in economic and social opportunities, particularly in the North East of England. The research has informed public discussions of inclusion and policy debate at the national and European level and has influenced approaches and practices of a number of partner organisations in their attempts to facilitate social inclusion.
Policymakers worldwide have struggled to identify the optimum size for units of local government. The received wisdom has been that large councils are more efficient but less responsive to local needs. Researchers at the Centre for Local and Regional Government Research (CLRGR) in Cardiff Business School (CBS) undertook the first comprehensive empirical analysis of the impact of size on the performance of local authorities and studied whether partnerships between councils offer a better way of gaining the critical mass needed to achieve economies of scale than reorganising councils to produce larger organisations. The results directly influenced the policies of Welsh Ministers to encourage collaboration between councils and informed the decision by the Coalition Government to halt local government re-organisation in England.