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Research by Melanie Nind of the University of Southampton and her collaborator (Hewett) has had a national and international impact on the practice of professionals who teach people with severe learning disabilities. The Intensive Interaction approach is included in UK National Curriculum guidance, the Government's Strategy for people with learning disabilities, and it is used across education, psychology, social care and speech and occupational therapies. Nind's research has shaped the implementation of Intensive Interaction, and provided practitioners in Eastern Europe, New Zealand, and Australia with new data and concepts that help to inform practice to enrich the lives of a vulnerable population.
The site-specific performance Capel: The Lights are On increased public understanding of the importance of place and belonging and empowered people with learning disability to articulate cultural capital and heritage through creative intervention. It impacts on civil society and cultural life. It reached a diverse audience of first time and regular theatre goers, people with learning disability, and professional artists. Beneficiaries include its audiences, its participants and the wider circle of professional support, families, friends, and the community of Ceredigion. It facilitated better understanding of rural Welsh life. It temporarily re-opened a former focal point for community and cultural life. It revealed ability rather than disability by making equality between participants clear.
Impact is primarily economic and organizational, resulting from more effective leadership processes and practices by small firm owner-managers. The mechanism of impact was a programme known as LEAD (leadership, enterprise and development), which drew a significant community of owner-managers of smaller firms in Greater Merseyside into the Management School, to enable them to use research findings about managerial and entrepreneurial learning, leadership and business support in the running of their firms. The resulting impacts were on management practices and processes, and firm performances. Practitioners engaging with the University of Liverpool Management School (ULMS) LEAD programme experienced turnover increases averaging 21%. The beneficiaries are small firms, their employees and business support partnerships.
In a series of training studies on children between the ages of 5 and 12 years, a research team at the Department of Psychology successfully demonstrated that substantial improvements in roadside decision-making and behaviour can be achieved in children as young as 5 years. Based on their findings, the team developed and evaluated a training intervention (Kerbcraft) aimed at improving children's pedestrian skills through practical roadside activities which was formally adopted by the UK government. Since 2008, the majority of 5-7 year old children in the UK have received formal pedestrian skills training using Kerbcraft either in its full or adapted form. Kerbcraft now plays a key role in the UK Government's road safety strategy and has been cited as an example of best practice by the World Health Organisation and safety agencies across Europe, the US, Australia and in developing countries such as Ethiopia and Bangladesh.
The Visual Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR), which focuses on understanding and removing the barriers that prevent people with visual impairment accessing education, has been particularly effective in: securing legislative change for braille readers (e.g. the braille labelling of medication); influencing policy documents of NGOs involved in supporting people with visual impairment (by providing reliable and up to date statistics on employment, and the factors associated with employment); and influencing the professional training of teachers who support visually impaired pupils (by improving teacher reflection and systematic record keeping).
Profitnet®, established in 2004 by researchers at the University of Brighton's (UoB) Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM), has influenced the performance of over 1,100 small businesses in the UK, Ireland and South Africa, working with the leaders of these businesses and affecting the working life of around 15,000 employees. The University has established 84 peer-to-peer networks in these countries, transforming the profitability and sustainability of the participating small companies. Evidence from the county of Sussex shows that Profitnet-participating firms in Sussex increased their gross profits by 9% while the overall population of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the county experienced a decrease of 15.2% in profits during the same time.
Eating disorders affect 5-10% of young people and in many cases persist into adulthood. At their most severe they can evoke intense emotional responses from those closest to the person. King's College London (KCL) research established that the response from others, combined with personal factors and beliefs, were key maintaining factors in the disorder. As a result, KCL researchers developed self-help materials that reduced distress and improved carers' ability to manage the person they were helping. This intervention programme has been adapted into a workshop, a self- help book, a DVD and a clinical handbook. The programme has been adopted by two of the largest UK eating disorder charities (BEAT and SUCCEED) and is recommended by the USA-based international charity FEAST and forms the basis of local NHS and international services including in the USA and Australia.
The research undertaken by the Social History of Learning Disability (SHLD) group at the Open University (OU) has not only shaped the policy and practice of service providers but has transformed the learning skills of the disabled people taking part, some of whom have gone on to develop international profiles as advocates and campaigners. Its work, looking at the history, policy and practice of learning disability, has been pioneering in its use of an inclusive approach, as well as innovative life story work for the benefit of person-centred care. As a result it has this year been shortlisted in the Department of Health's 2013 Good Practice Project, which was initiated in the wake of the Winterbourne View patient abuse scandal.