Impact case study database

The collaborative and applied nature of this rehabilitative research has informed policymakers and charities on commissioning, practice and programme delivery. Importantly, it has improved participants’ engagement and experience of the interventions examined.

Impact on Policymakers

At a UK parliamentary debate on ‘Mental Health in Prisons’ in January 2018, MP Rebecca Pow used R1 as evidence to advocate for ‘using gardening as a therapeutic intervention’ within the justice system, noting that the research had ‘discovered…the [beneficial] long-term effects’ they had on prisoners’ lives (S1). Likewise R1 has become a valuable resource for horticultural organisations advocating social-prescribing of gardening: ‘The Food Tank’, an international body for food advocates, uses it as key evidence to advise affiliated bodies on the use of land-based programmes in prisons and other secure settings (S8).

Based on her ‘community-involved approaches’ to interventions research (R5), in 2016 Brown was invited to contribute to the West Midlands Youth Violence Action Plan (YVAP) for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, a regional approach to creating safer environments for young people (S9). Work led by Brown to gather insights from key community organisations, individuals, and ‘a core group of prisoners’ was used to produce a final commission report in 2017, subsequently ‘used as a model of good practice by the Home Office and other local authorities’(S9). Data collected for the report was used to underpin a successful application to establish ‘the first West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit (RU)’, launched October 2019 (S9).

Impact on Organisations Delivering Rehabilitative Interventions

CU research on rehabilitative interventions generated evidence of what works, how and why, providing a new evidence base around rehabilitation commissioning. The former Deputy Director of HM Prison and Probation Service states that Coventry’s work at HMP Wandsworth (R6) not only ‘broadened’ their level of expertise on rehabilitative environments, but also enabled an evidence-assured approach to ‘commissioning decisions’, making it far easier to ‘validate the use of taxpayers’ money’ (S6).

Charities delivering rehabilitation interventions have utilised CU research to demonstrate the effectiveness of their work to commissioners, and guide implementation. The former Operational Director for ‘GO’ stated R1 provided a ‘validation of what we do’, and improved understanding of what made interventions successful, ‘helping shape and design the delivery of projects’ going forward, and justify the value of interventions to funders (S2). GO ‘use this research every day’ to adapt programmes to a ‘difficult environment’ in ‘any circumstances’ S2). GO’s former Head of Sustainable Communities noted that CU’s research ‘provided an external validation of the intervention’s success….it builds confidence in commissioners that these projects are demonstrably effective’ (S2).

For the former Director of Kairos, the research ‘helped us to show just what impact our work has, and why it is cost-effective’ within a highly competitive funding landscape (S4). Similarly, the Director of Bringing Hope notes how useful this ‘objective evidence’ of their intervention’s effectiveness was (R5), particularly to the foundation who fund them: he praised the way ‘collaboration with CU…allowed us to develop further’, informing future work (S4).

The Conservation Foundation have used CU’s research (R6) to further promote uptake of the ‘Unlocking Nature’ programme within prisons (S5). Through this, in 2019 Brown presented the research on effectiveness at the Lambeth Palace ‘Green Health Live’ conference, feeding into strategic work of Church of England’s Environmental Group Work to encourage the use of the spaces around church buildings for therapeutic gardening (S5).

The research (R1, 4 and 5) has helped improve delivery by highlighting the importance of effective relations between staff, intervention practitioners and participants. The CU team delivered training events on best practice interventions in October 2017 and April 2019, in partnership with TSOs, practitioners and prison service representatives. These were delivered to over 70 frontline workers operating in fields including housing, criminal justice, domestic and ‘gang’ violence, to develop strategies for collaborative working and programme delivery (S7). After her work with researchers, a Kairos practitioner better understood that knowledge she had ‘previously just taken for granted’, could be used to improve future interventions (S4). Findings have been used by former Deputy Director of HM Prisons and Probation Service internationally in training material for the US ‘Warden’s Exchange Programme’, who have shared the research ‘more widely across the prisons service there’ (S6).

Impact on Participants

Ultimately research has helped charities and prisons reflect on their rehabilitation interventions, and find ways to better support participants. Work with Kairos and Bringing Hope (R5) led to changes including more targeted support on release; the development of further opportunities for peer support; and inclusion of training to access employment (S3, S4). Although too soon to gauge the broader impact of the work, CU researchers have engaged directly with 80 men and women in prison interventions, and feedback makes clear that this benefitted their rehabilitative process (S10). Participants have reported improvements to personal wellbeing, self-esteem, and self-control (‘helping keep busy and focus my mind to other areas of my life’) and shared hopes that interventions could ‘spread out across the prison estate’ and help rehabilitate ‘16-21 year olds…before it’s all too late’ (S10).