Summary of the impact

This case study describes the impact of research on new approaches to the organisation and delivery of social work services for children in out-of-home care, with international work led by Bilson and work in England involving Stanley, Bilson, Larkins and Ridley. The national evaluation of Social Work Practices has had significant impact on the development of this model of service delivery, and is shaping the long-term future of independent social work organisations in England. The international work has contributed to reducing the use of institutional care for children in developing countries and has provided tools for developing social services.

Summary of the impact

As a consequence of research carried out at the University of Stirling as set out in this case study, monitoring and evaluation of sport for development programmes has been enhanced:

• Organisations (NGOs/charities) in Africa and India have developed more systematic programmes for the monitoring and evaluation of their work;
• Project workers have acquired the knowledge and skills to be able to use quantitative and qualitative research techniques to design, collect, analyse and report evaluation findings;
• Monitoring and evaluation has become an integral component of sport-for-development work in the organisations that participated in the research;
• UK funding and sponsoring organisations have adapted approaches to supporting sport-for-development programmes and overseas organisations to include monitoring and evaluation.

Summary of the impact

Clinical, observational and biographical research developed at UEL has produced and supported the novel application of a practice-near methodology adapted to evaluate social work practice and social problems. The benefits of this are described here in the context of two illustrative examples exemplifying the adaptation of the UEL methodology to address self-harm/suicide prevention and the safeguarding of children's rights in London's African communities. Those benefits accrue to practitioners, policy makers, community organisations and individual health and social care service users, and include: the delivery of training leading to positive changes in professional practice; and contributions to discussion, debate and policy and guideline formulation. The research has also been used to enhance public awareness of important social and cultural issues.

Summary of the impact

This collaboration between the UoE and six local authorities developed social work interventions to improve engagement with `involuntary' services users. The impact of the research is seen in the sharing and implementation of knowledge about `what worked' within and across the participating local authorities and in gradually shifting practice cultures within these authorities. The impact is evident at several levels:

• practitioners changing how they work with service users, including greater ability to challenge risk averse practice in, for example, working with young adults with learning difficulties;
• three participating local authorities incorporating project findings into policy and staff induction and training;
• knowledge exchange activity via a thriving practice panel with representation from one local authority and UoE. This has led directly to six events each attracting around 60 practitioners;
• use of findings in wider academic, policy and practice communities through distribution and uptake of 500 `Good Practice' booklets;
• practitioners pursuing further study, one enrolling for a PhD, another writing a book and others going on to participate in a subsequent KE project following on from this one.

Summary of the impact

Between 2009 and 2012 Clemens Sedmak was lead coordinator of a research project in collaboration with the international development NGO `SOS Children's Villages International'. Founded in 1949, this organisation is a service provider in the areas of care, education and health for children, as well as a child rights actor advocating for vulnerable children's rights. It runs 2,407 programmes in 133 countries and territories, providing over 80,000 children and youth with family-based care worldwide. It has been nominated 16 times for the Nobel Peace Prize and is recipient of numerous highly esteemed international awards (see 5.2.4 below). In 2011, total income was €886.8 million (see 5.2.1). Sedmak's research underpinned the design and implementation initially of a pilot project to improve quality of foster care in SOS Children's Villages in Namibia and Nicaragua. Specifically, the research applied Sedmak's own reworkings of the `capability approach' (discussed below) to children aged 8-13 and youths aged 14-18 who have lost parental care or are at risk of losing it. The beneficiaries of Sedmak's research are the NGO and also foster children and their families. The final report, published in February 2012, identified major challenges and opportunities for programme planning and evaluation. It also developed a theoretical framework based on primary data for subsequent application across the SOS Children's Villages globally.

Summary of the impact

Research at Oxford has played a central role within the recent restructuring of the nursing workforce to improve healthcare quality in a context of growing service demands and tightening resource constraints. Much of this restructuring has been heavily dependent on the use of the Healthcare Assistant (HCA) role, provoking much controversy. Presented as a flexible, low cost resource, these HCA roles are also unregulated and therefore seen as a potential source of patient risk. Oxford researchers have fed into this debate across a number of projects, strengthening the evidence base on the nature and consequences of the HCA role. Examining the role from the perspective of different stakeholders, these projects have impacted on national, regional and local policy and practice centred on the management and use of HCAs. In so doing, the research has contributed to the development of a more productive and safer nursing workforce.

Summary of the impact

UWE research has informed the implementation of HR policy to support front-line managers more effectively in their role as people managers in diverse organisations (e.g. Selfridges, the Royal United Hospital, Bath, and the MOD). This research has provided empirical evidence that front-line managers (such as team leaders) are critical to organisational effectiveness and makes recommendations on the supportive conditions necessary to improve their behaviour in people management. It has also directly influenced the policies and learning materials of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, as well as advisory materials produced by ACAS, and a variety of public policy documents that have informed organisations' HR practice in supporting and developing front-line managers.

Summary of the impact

Marco Manacorda's research on social assistance programmes has been a major influence on the design and evaluation of a flagship poverty alleviation initiative in Uruguay known as PANES. Manacorda's work has:

1. enhanced the programme itself by supplying an analytical underpinning for the targeting of resources and a scientific basis for evaluation of its effects;
2. influenced the government's decision to scale up the programme by providing credible evidence of its impact on beneficiaries;
3. shaped the public debate on the design and effects of social assistance measures more generally, both in Uruguay and internationally; and
4. affected administrative practices in the public sector by stressing the importance of collecting good data and using it effectively to improve service provision.

Summary of the impact

This case study concerns the development, adoption and dissemination of innovative `community-owned' approaches to the sustainable management of social-ecological systems (SES) within the Guiana Shield region of South America. Spanning the countries of Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and areas of Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia, this region is of recognized global significance for carbon storage, fresh water resources and biodiversity. Its indigenous, Amerindian communities have a potentially crucial role to play in sustainable conservation policy and practice. However, local economic and cultural changes, extractive industries, and global dynamics such as climate change are bringing profound challenges to these local communities and their SES. Research at Royal Holloway has responded to these challenges by involving indigenous peoples in both biodiversity science and sustainability policy. The work allows indigenous communities to identify, through participatory research methods, the most effective practices they have for surviving and thriving sustainably.

The impacts of the research are of four main types:

• The use of research data and approaches in shaping local, national and transnational policy initiatives;
• The production of `community-owned' solutions to the socio-ecological challenges faced by indigenous communities;
• Intensive `capacity building' via training of local researchers, the promotion of local `champions' of successful best practices, and the support of autonomous action research by communities;
• Enhancing public understanding of conservation in the region, especially via primary education.

Summary of the impact

A major element of modernising English adult social care is the introduction of individual, user-directed budgets. The Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) led a major, multi-method and multi-centre research programme evaluating the Individual Budget (IB) pilot projects in England; and a linked study of the impact of IBs on family carers. Through this, SPRU has influenced: the content of the Department of Health's (DH) good practice guidance for personal budgets; the DH's approach to piloting and evaluating NHS Personal Health Budgets; the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) piloting and evaluation of `Right to Control' trailblazer projects; and, the agenda for an Audit Commission investigation into financial management of personal budgets. Most importantly, it has helped shape the agenda for national and local organisations striving to successfully implement personal budgets, particularly for older people.