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Advanced practice roles in nursing (APN roles) have been developed widely across a range of healthcare settings and organisational boundaries in response to government policy directives. A programme of research has been undertaken to generate robust evidence of the contribution of APN roles to healthcare. Research outputs include a theoretical framework to evaluate the impact of these roles. This framework has been used to underpin the development of a practical toolkit to assist practitioners to demonstrate their impact on patients, staff and the organisations in which they work. Beneficiaries include policymakers, professional organisations and NHS providers and individual practitioners.
Departmental research identifying skills, knowledge and competency frameworks is used by a range of Governments and professional associations internationally to inform and improve contemporary information service provision and professional practice.
The development of robust frameworks and methodologies has resulted in a maturing knowledge and skills base for the information profession. Research on competencies contributed directly to the future education and training framework for the Australian library and information profession. The design and evaluation of Continuing Professional Development frameworks ensures that information and library professionals acquire and maintain the knowledge and skills required to deliver quality information to industry, the public and society as a whole.
Inter-professional collaboration to prevent social exclusion of children and young people is an emergent work practice, reflecting major changes in welfare policy in the UK and beyond. Research conducted at Oxford since 2005 on these systemic changes, and the new demands they have made on practitioners and services, has contributed to the reconfiguration of children's services locally and nationally, and to the analysis and planning of services beyond the UK. Knowledge exchange is built into the studies to produce immediate and long-term impact on practices and policies, and findings have been integrated into commissioned reports, teaching materials for service leaders, and practitioner and policy summaries.
1.1Through the development of national Research Development Fellowships (RDFs) and the national Exploratory Research programme, SUNCETT has worked in collaboration with policy professionals from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), (now the Education and Training Foundation, ETF) to contribute to changes to public service practices and policy guidelines for the sector. Through the same work, SUNCETT has improved standards of teaching, learning and practitioner research across the sector using a model for educational improvement, originally applied in schools by Fielding et al (2005),described as `Joint Practice Development' (JPD). Through JDP, SUNCETT has enabled policy professionals and practitioners to incrementally improve practice across the FAVE sector in research-informed, realistic and sustainable ways. These applications of JPD have been led nationally by SUNCETT and the improvements in practice achieved as a result of this approach have been recognised externally in the form of the LSIS Legacy Report (2013) (Source 1), in various OFSTED inspection reports (Source 2) and by the British Education Research Association in, Why Educational Research Matters (BERA, 2013) (Source 3).
Research directed by Andy Friedman (Management), has had impact through the Professional Associations Research Network (PARN) which was established at the University in 1998. This encouraged professional bodies to adopt:
a) new governance structures and processes facilitating strategic decision-making;
b) CPD policies, to make them mandatory and measure them by outputs, thereby raising competency and evidence for it among millions of professionals.
Early adopters from 2001 contributed to benchmark data produced through PARN, adding to the subsequent research impact by encouraging further adopters. For post-2008 impacts and adopters see sources [b], [c], [d], [f], [j] for governance changes and [c], [h], [i].for CPD.
The North East of England has seen a rapid decline in traditional heavy industry, leading to high levels of unemployment. The Business School recognised that traditional pedagogies were less than effective at engaging managers within the region, and developed a programme of on-going research to inform management curriculum development. Initially the research focused on developing an innovative model of work-based learning, and has subsequently developed into four core themes of professional identity, inter-professional working, creativity and coaching. This case study describes the developments since 2001 and the resulting impact since 2008 on policy, local business and individuals.
Trevor Marchand's anthropological research into how craft skills are learnt, developed by his own acquisition of building and woodworking skills in different societies, has translated theory into practice and the practical. He has contributed to the resistance against the UK's downgrading of craft skills and he has directly impacted upon the way in which crafts have represented themselves and their importance. His impact has been felt in the crafts movement, among architects, and in the FE sector. His work on acquired practical knowledge and its theoretical insights continue to inform debates in the UK and the US in particular.
The capability development model for Government Departments and civil service communicators, designed by Anne Gregory for the UK Cabinet Office, was adopted across Whitehall. This work includes continuing input into the development of communication capability in Government. It has also underpinned best-practice policy development in the Department of Health, and is currently being applied across the NHS as well as being used in local government and in the private sector. Overseas governments, NGOs and private organisations as well as the Global Alliance (the international confederation of PR and communication management associations) have all adopted Gregory's approaches and recommendations on capability development.
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.
Cummings's grasp of the poetry [of Macbeth] is so complete, and his raw emotional immersion in it is so total, that the audience remains absolutely gripped by the narrative; and unable to resist the sense of being pulled by the story towards the very brink of hell... (The Scotsman 16/6/13, Joyce McMillan)
If the whole thing was disbanded tomorrow, [Black Watch] would ensure the National Theatre of Scotland's place not just in the history of Scottish theatre but theatre everywhere. (The Times, 2010).
Black Watch and Macbeth are productions that are infused with the insights of Ros Steen's practice-based research on the voice in theatre. Steen's research takes as its starting point the voice work of Alfred Wolfsohn, Roy Hart and Nadine George, placing the unique connection of the individual's voice to the self at the centre of the creative process in production. Her research, which has been developed since 1997 and is unique in theatre, ensures a visceral and transformative experience for performers and audiences alike.
The impact of her work is felt within individual productions; in their critical reception; and in the development in Scotland of an integrated community of practice embracing writers, actors and directors — a positive creative ecology that has helped to radicalise views of what is possible in the theatre.