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Child protection policy and practice has largely ignored young people's experiences of child sexual exploitation (CSE) and peer-on-peer violence. Law enforcement and child protection responses are not integrated, resulting in oversimplified interpretations of young people's victimhood and criminality. As the only research centre in Europe exclusively targeting these problems, The International Centre: Researching Child Sexual Exploitation, Violence and Trafficking has had direct impact on:
Research on the impact of exposure to pornographic and sexualised material online and offline and the links to sexual exploitation, addresses major issues in contemporary society and raises awareness and improves policy and practice responses. The research has led to several impacts including: 1) improving policing and child protection practices through training with the Metropolitan Police and Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) on online grooming of children; 2) informing public debate on pornography, healthy relationships and sex education through extensive public engagement; and 3) impact on governmental policies regarding child protection and internet service provision. The key beneficiaries are vulnerable children and agencies working to protect them from sexual exploitation and exposure to pornography.
Research on health promotion in schools undertaken by UWE has demonstrated that vulnerable young people at the centre of the Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy can be reached via their involvement in interactive sexual health drama and further work has had direct influence on national policy in England. Following recommendations from research at UWE, Bristol, 12,000 Bristol school pupils have benefited from the introduction of sexual health clinics. UWE research demonstrated how school meal take-up and healthier eating behaviour has been increased by the work of the Food for Life Partnership. This research contributed directly into the development of the English National School Food Plan particularly into the business case for investing in increased school meal take-up.
Coppock's original research has impacted upon children's workforce development strategy and child/adolescent mental health services in England - specifically in workforce up-skilling to provide inclusive, child-centred mental health services. Coppock's research provided intellectual and empirical underpinning for a highly successful training programme 'Mad, Bad or Misunderstood? Interactive Multimedia Training for Professionals Working with Children and Young People' (MBM Training). MBM Training has been delivered to over 4,000 participants including: teachers/social workers/health workers/police officers/residential care staff/parents/carers/foster carers and volunteers and is recognised by the Child and Maternal Health Observatory (ChiMat) as an important tool in mental health promotion and tackling stigma.
Impact: Research defining the victim demographics and mode of online grooming led to the joint coordination of a G8 meeting and subsequent Declaration, formation of a Global Alliance and input into international sentencing procedures.
Significance: As a result of formal policy, legislative changes, and advice given to people who work with children, more child victims of online pornography are protected and supported; more perpetrators are identified, prosecuted and sentenced appropriately.
Beneficiaries: Vulnerable and abused children; governments and non-governmental organisations; teachers, youth and social workers; the police and judiciary.
Attribution: Quayle, UoE, led the underpinning research and was the main co-ordinator for expert content at the G8 and Global Alliance meetings.
Reach: Worldwide; 48 countries on five continents have committed to the goals of the Global Alliance. The work has informed legislative proposals and sentencing in USA, Japan and Russia. 80 million child pornography images were identified between 2002 and 2012.
In response to a new NHS policy initiative to create child-friendly hospitals, an ESRC funded research project (Space to Care, 2004-7) explored children's own perceptions and experiences of hospital space by seeking out the views of children aged 4-16 who were hospital patients. Through revealing the importance of age as a key differentiating factor in children and young people's views about hospital space, the result of adopting this child-centred approach was to demonstrate that the government's concept of a `child-friendly hospital' was failing to address the different needs of all children up to the age of 16. The findings from the study were therefore used to develop a set of key design principles and evaluation toolkits for healthcare professionals, architects and healthcare planners to help make hospitals more child-centred. These have: (1) informed the health-care design practices of architects, nationally and internationally; and (2) assisted health-care professionals in the UK and Australia to improve their existing facilities.
The Greenwood Institute of Child Health is a unique collaboration between the University and public service providers such as the NHS, which aims to improve psychological outcomes for children in high-risk settings. From 1993 to 2013, Greenwood's research has highlighted the increased risk of mental health, drug dependence and criminal activity among children who suffer trauma — through abuse, living in care, homelessness or war. Greenwood's programme of research has identified the complex and persistent needs of vulnerable children and contributed to changes in policy guidelines and service provision across social care in the UK (foster care / adoption, juvenile detention and homelessness) and abroad (war). Collaboration between researchers at the Greenwood Institute, service providers and practitioners has been instrumental in the establishment of clinically relevant and cost-effective care pathways, while community engagement has led to improved service provision and outcomes for vulnerable children and their families / carers in the UK and further afield.
Edinburgh Napier University led on a large quasi-experimental study which evaluated a National Health Service (NHS) Demonstration Project called Healthy Respect. Healthy Respect was a complex public health intervention based on the latest evidence and theory, which combined school sex education with sexual health drop-in clinics in or near to schools, and was supported by large media and branding campaigns. The research was commissioned by the Scottish Government (2006-2010). Our findings were reported directly to Government and the NHS and were synchronized to fit their policy-making cycles. It shaped Government policy and steered service provision in the NHS.
This case study describes the policy and practice impacts of a series of studies by Claire Fox and colleagues on children's and young people's social and emotional wellbeing, in particular counselling provision in schools and domestic abuse prevention education. The research on the effectiveness of school counselling has been used by the Welsh Assembly to argue for a national roll-out of counselling in Welsh secondary schools. It is also being used by those responsible for commissioning counselling services in England and Northern Ireland. The research on young people and domestic abuse (DA) centres on the evaluation of a particular DA prevention programme delivered in North Staffordshire by local charity Arch. This organisation has benefited substantially from the research findings in terms of sustaining their work in schools. The research has also had a broader impact in terms of influencing UK, and European, policy on DA prevention education in schools.
Research in the area of Critical Disability Studies carried out at Manchester Metropolitan University has directly led to a change in government policy on the family finding process for 4,000 children in the UK currently awaiting adoption. At both national and regional level, the research has influenced the provision of services for disabled children and their families, ranging from the commissioning of short break services to funding decisions for charity. The research has also influenced the strategy of Scope, the disability charity, with regard to resilience in disabled people's lives, and contributed to the training of teachers for children with learning disabilities.