Summary of the impact

Research by Professor David Archard on the moral and legal status of children has improved health policy and care for extremely premature babies through its contribution to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics report Critical Care Decisions in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine: Ethical Issues, released in late 2006. During 2008-13 the report's guidelines have come to be followed across the NHS in the clinical care of extremely premature babies and are regarded by doctors as the best available advice. Through its contribution to the Nuffield report, Archard's research has helped to bring improved and more consistent health care provision to extremely premature babies and their families across the UK.

Summary of the impact

A core claim in Emily Jackson's 2001 book and 2002 article was that the process for assessing infertile people's fitness to parent before being allowed to have fertility treatment was unduly invasive and discriminatory.

As a result of this research, the process was changed. In the UK, infertile patients are now presumed to be fit parents, and withholding of fertility treatment on child welfare grounds is only possible if the child would be at risk of serious harm. The link between the research and the policy change is affirmed by Professor Lisa Jardine, chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) between 2008 and 2012.

Summary of the impact

Sustained research on citizenship issues by Professor David Archard and Dr Jeremy Watkins has:

• Provided the intellectual content for a Philosophy for Citizenship course which has been undertaken by hundreds of children in schools across Northern Ireland since its inception in January, 2012;
• Improved children's intellectual and interpersonal skills by promoting better quality reasoning, listening and oral communication;

and,

• Delivered a sustainable model of citizenship education that is particularly tailored to the needs of post-conflict societies and that has been embedded in a number of teacher training courses in Northern Ireland.

Summary of the impact

In many aspects of family law, courts are required to take account of `children's welfare'. The courts have struggled with what this includes and, in an important case, turned to research on children's welfare by Professor Jonathan Herring for a better understanding of that concept. In Re G (Children) [2012], the Court of Appeal ruled on a dispute between the mother and father of five children over their residence, religion and education. Munby LJ discussed the concept of welfare of children in detail, citing work by Herring with his Oxford colleague, Charles Foster, on the issue. [R2]. Drawing on this research, the court held that it is only by considering the child's network of relationships that their well-being can be properly determined. This ruling changed the law governing important family interests throughout England and Wales.