Summary of the impact

This case study describes the reach and significance of research conducted by members of the interdisciplinary Sidney De Haan Research Centre for Arts & Health. The examples below focus on the impact of singing as a health and wellbeing intervention for adults within clinical and non-clinical populations. The research has shown that singing has had a beneficial impact on individuals and influenced fields of professional practice in health and social care in the UK and US, service delivery in the UK, and policy development in the UK through the work of the Royal Society for Public Health.

Summary of the impact

In 2008 the Philosophy Department decided to organise its impact strategy around the research activities of the Essex Autonomy Project (EAP). EAP research has been conducted in two distinct strands with different research outputs and impacts. This case study summarises the impact of our interdisciplinary research on the legal/psychiatric concept of `mental capacity.' Through the EAP practitioner network, Summer School, and on-site workforce training programme, that research is now informing and changing the assessment of capacity undertaken by frontline medical professionals and social workers acting under the 2005 Mental Capacity Act.

Summary of the impact

The Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) undertakes practice-led socially responsive design research, including visualisation of crime problems and innovative responses for design education, government and industry. Research outcomes deliver crime prevention by design, addressing bag theft, bike theft, ATM crime, shoplifting, graffiti and counter-terrorism. Outputs include products, resources, conferences, exhibitions, competitions and papers. Research has been applied by national/international bodies undertaking practice, policy, and guidance in design and crime prevention. The Centre's work has been recognised by the Sir Misha Black Award (2006), was described by an AHRC Impact case study (2008) as `pioneering', and shortlisted in the Environmental Impact category of the UK Impact Awards (2009).

Summary of the impact

Impacts of this case study are national, regional and local in government departments and providers of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) services and in lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) specialist services. They include evidencing DVA in same sex relationships as a considerable social problem; identifying and improving understanding about specific vulnerabilities, abusive behaviours and help-seeking behaviours; the development of training across mainstream, DVA and LGBT sectors; the development of existing risk assessment tools to better reflect the experiences of victim/survivors in same sex relationships; and in raising awareness of DVA in same sex relationships in LGBT communities.

Summary of the impact

Dr Neil Brownsword's research focuses on the associated histories of ceramic manufacture in North Staffordshire, and its recent decline. Through his artistic practice, this research has been disseminated beyond academia to enhance public awareness of the social, cultural and economic effects of this downturn, on people, place and heritage. The impact of this research culturally, has arguably positioned Brownsword `at the forefront of current experimental and conceptual approaches to clay in Europe and Scandinavia' (Fielding 2008). In preparing programmes dealing with ceramic history, the BBC has presented Brownsword's expertise to communicate a broader public understanding of the region's post-industrial landscape.

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 is based on two areas of research, both focused on young women's sexual health, conducted by Hoggart and Newton between 2009 and 2013. The first concerns abortion, and the second concerns long-acting reversible contraception (hereafter LARC). The research has had the following impacts: sexual health policy has been influenced; the delivery of sexual health service has changed; guidelines have been informed; practitioners have used the research findings; new clinical processes have been adopted; professional training has been influenced by the research; and industry has invested in research.

Summary of the impact

Mowlabocus' research (2006-present) on gay men's social-media-use practices and new sexual-risk behaviours has led to new understandings of the role of media in health interventions. It has also led to changes in the health promotion and intervention practices of sexual health charities including the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), as well as in statutory services, including those offered within Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust, which covers an area with the highest UK percentage LGBT population and a very high incidence of HIV diagnosis and infection. These changes include, in the case of THT, the development and use of a new information website and intervention toolkit — designed to decrease the spread of HIV amongst those engaged in unsafe behaviours — which is being used in training for its staff across its 31 regional offices in the UK.

Summary of the impact

This case study focuses on two related areas: the issue of violence against female students and how this is framed by `lad culture' in higher education (HE). It documents five areas where Alison Phipps' research has either directly led or indirectly contributed to change:

• work with the National Union of Students (NUS) which has informed their policies and interventions;
• improved public and policy understanding of the issues of violence against female students and `lad culture' in UK HE;
• Students' Unions and other groups adopting `zero-tolerance' policies in relation to sexual harassment and abuse and attempting to tackle aspects of `lad culture';
• institutions developing procedural frameworks around reporting and addressing violence against female students; and
• governmental, public and third-sector organisations including students as a key demographic in their policies and initiatives around violence against women.

Summary of the impact

Organ of Corti is an experimental instrument by David Prior (Associate Prof. Falmouth University) and Frances Crow that filters the sound around it into new listening experiences. Winner of the `Performing Rights Society (PRS) for Music Foundation's New Music Award' in 2010, Organ of Corti toured England in the summer of 2011. The piece was presented in partnership with nationally recognised regional music festivals reaching an estimated audience of over 400,000 during its tour, both live and via National and International media coverage [Section: 5, Ref:14-23].

Organ of Corti has received recognition from a number of International awards within the disciplines of new music, acoustics and technology [Section: 5, Ref 10-12]. The project has contributed to research within the areas of meta-materials, policy implementation on `soundscape design' and new ways of listening [Section 5, Ref: 5-9]. Organ of Corti has received planning permission for a permanent sound sculpture on the banks of the river Severn in Worcester [Section: 5, Ref: 25].