Health and wellbeing

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership provided vital support for Welsh charity Llamau in winning contracts and grants worth over £4 million and becoming the leading charity for their client group, rolling out services across Wales.

The 'CLEAR IDEAS' innovation development model has improved cost-efficiency in service delivery for public sector organisations - leading to savings of £1.7 million for social care services in Sheffield.

Since the introduction of the Children Act 1989 there has been increased pressure on agencies working with children to refer them to social care, but little recognition of the negative impact on families.

Dr Aisha K Gill's pioneering research on violence against women, 'honour' crimes and forced marriage has improved support for victims, raised awareness and enabled better prevention strategies and the successful prosecution of perpetrators.

Dr Jennifer Doyle's research is helping the social housing sector foster social change in deprived communities through improvements in measuring, monitoring and evaluating social impact.

Professors Jenny Kitzinger and Celia Kitzinger have created a much-needed online resource supporting relatives of patients in long-term coma states.

The ‘pre-proceedings process’ was introduced to ensure assessments are carried out prior to court proceedings, and to save court resources and complete care proceedings more quickly. Reforms have succeeded in reducing the length of cases, but courts are not taking the pre-proceedings stage into account.

Researchers have analysed the historical evidence of antimicrobial resistance to examine possible scenarios for epidemic outbreaks. Sound public health policies can substantially reduce the impact of antimicrobial resistance – focusing both on the supply pipeline of new drugs and the public consumption of antimicrobials.

Research shows that hospital performance varies widely across a wide range of indicators, but hospital competition can improve management and increase performance in terms of quality, productivity and staff satisfaction.

David Walker reviews eight social science areas that have benefited from ESRC funding in the past 50 years - looking at some of the social issues they have covered, and impact and influence of the research.