Summary of the impact

A body of work from researchers in the Health, Social Care and Well-being Centre (HSCWBC) in the School, on the safety and well-being of vulnerable children and adults, has directly shaped three sets of policy and practice guidelines — from the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Home Office. The research has been used as an evidence base to underpin the guidance required by health and social care practitioners. Such guidance contributes to frameworks for practice and as such are key to the role and function of these practitioners.

Summary of the impact

The importance of person-centred social support has been recognised by successive governments as central to the development of effective and supportive social care services. The research led by Brunel and funded by the DoH and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, made a substantial contribution to the enhancement of UK social care policy and practice in relation to the personalisation agenda. Parliamentary committees and policy consultation used the research to develop new social care policy. Standards of service care delivery were developed and implemented in partnership with service users; these were adopted at a policy and practice level. The development and use of evidence based practice guides, training programmes and web resources facilitated the successful adoption and implementation of person-centred support nationwide. In summary, public debate was influenced, equality and empowerment for service users was advanced, national policy and practice enhanced, health and welfare improved and economic impacts achieved.

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.

Summary of the impact

This case study focuses on the researcher's work on witness protection arrangements put in place by police forces to ensure the safety of individuals and close relatives whose lives are in danger as a result of their willingness to give evidence in criminal trials. Typically this involves the permanent relocation of witnesses and their families to new communities and the adoption of new identities.

This research was the first of its kind in the world and its impact has been evident in:

• Changes in UK legislation with respect to witness protection arrangements;
• Changes in the organisation and delivery of witness protection in Scotland;
• Invitations to advise other jurisdictions on witness protection reform and to contribute to media and policy debates;
• Use of the research by police practitioners in the UK and internationally in the continuing professional development of police officers involved in witness protection programmes;

Summary of the impact

The research has had significant impact in three key areas:

• shaping the Care Bill 2013: it influenced the Law Commission's recommendations on legal reform and directly shaped key elements of the legislation;
• stimulating changes to the governance arrangements of Safeguarding Adults Boards (SABs): it produced a benchmarking template for SABs, informed guidance to Directors, and led to strengthened SAB governance arrangements;
• influencing procedures, practice and workforce development strategies in self-neglect work: supporting new multi-agency procedures in localities, and providing an evidence base that has improved capacity assessment and approaches to intervention, to the benefit of service-users.

Summary of the impact

This case study concerns a body of research by Dr Julie Ridley, Dr Helen Spandler and Dr Karen Newbigging into Self-directed Support (SDS) and Direct Payments (DPs), which examines perspectives and experiences of policies to promote choice, control and flexibility in social care, and provides a critique distinguishing between rhetoric and reality. Early qualitative and action research focused specifically on mental health, including work for the Scottish Executive (Ridley) and the Department of Health (Spandler), leading to cutting-edge policy critiques (Spandler), engagement with the field to distil key implementation themes (Newbigging) and later, to broader based evaluation of SDS policy implementation in Scotland. Collectively and over time, this work has had a direct influence on social care policy and law across the UK, as outlined below.

Summary of the impact

Research led by Professor Sue Yeandle at Leeds on working age carers has focused policymakers' attention on carers' contributions to society, their role in the health and social care system, and the issues they confront in reconciling paid work with unpaid care. The research findings have: (a) provided a vital evidence base, shaping policy work of the national charity, Carers UK, (b) influenced Government policy formation and evaluation, including playing a direct role in shaping the Government's National Care Strategy in 2008, and (c) informed wider policy and parliamentary debate supporting carers of working age.

Summary of the impact

A corpus of research developed over twenty years brings together experience and expertise of staff, students and researchers at Birmingham City University in the Early Years (EY) cluster. This has had effects on practice in contexts in which national and international EY policy, leadership and pedagogy are developed and produced, enacted and contested. It has affected specific areas of learning and development, e.g. mathematics, including thinking skills, creativity, information and communications technology.

Research that was policy, programme and issue-focused has stimulated discussion and action, locally, nationally and internationally, for instance in Europe, Central and South-east Asia and Australia.

Summary of the impact

Research at Newcastle has made a significant contribution to the public services modernisation agenda in the areas of inter-agency working and information-sharing. The research showed that effective information-sharing required not just that different information systems are made compatible with each other, but also that people from different professional cultures are enabled to work together through a common understanding of information governance issues. In active collaboration with a range of service providers, a number of processes and tools were developed for the significant benefit of service users. They have been implemented in a variety of policy settings, including children's services and adult social care, and have informed current programmes funded by the UK government.

Summary of the impact

Rapid response reports, commissioned from the IOE's Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) by the Departments for Education and Health specifically to inform policy-making, have helped to determine the financial and practical support for disadvantaged families and children in England for more than a decade. This important series of reports has achieved impact not only by producing robust findings that government departments can rely on but by building relationships of trust and mutual understanding between national policy-makers and researchers.