Impact case study database

International Level: Global Priorities and Expert Guidance

“UCLan’s research has…helped shape the influential Okanagan Charter…[and] had significant impact at institutional, national and international levels – with the theoretical and empirical insights having far-reaching influence on health promotion policy and practice across the globe, benefitting the wellbeing of students, staff and wider campus communities” [A].

Dooris was opening keynote speaker at the influential 2015 International Health Promoting Universities and Colleges Conference, with 375 participants from 33 countries spanning practice, policy and research. Insights from his research led to requests to distil findings into practitioner resources for use in other countries. For example, ‘The Eight Ps of Health Promoting Universities’ from an early research paper [1], for Healthy Minds, Healthy Campuses in Canada. A key conference outcome was the Okanagan International Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges [A]. Strongly shaped by our research [1, 2], this offered a framework to guide and mobilise action and research; and issued calls for universities to embed health in campus culture and provide local and global health promotion leadership. To maximise the Charter’s impact, an International Health Promoting Universities and Colleges Network was set up in 2016 to support global adoption and implementation. This produced a policy- and practice-focused website profiling our research [1,4]. This has representation from 12 national/cross-country networks, including, Asia, Canada, Germany, Ibero-America, New Zealand and the UK [B]. Spanning more than 35 countries in five continents, these represent over 400 universities adopting the Healthy Universities approach. This shifted institutions from ad-hoc interventions to a strategic systemic approach. This means that responses to student- and staff-related health challenges, such as mental ill-health, no longer rely on free-standing campaigns or projects, but co-ordinate these with enhanced service provision. This includes curricular reconfiguration and health-promoting campus design, thus embedding evidence-informed programmes across the whole institution. Additionally, Dooris has been called on to share practice insights from our research [1-6] with emerging initiatives and networks (e.g. India, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Turkey). In terms of significance and reach, the impact of this is evidenced in the USA: “As Director of Health Promotion Strategy at the University of Southern California…I have been inspired by and drawn on Mark’s research...[He] has a global reputation and is seen as an international thought leader in…Healthy Settings and Health Promoting Universities. The conceptual and empirical research conducted by his team leads international thinking in these areas…[and] he has played a key role in facilitating theoretical constructs and research findings to be translated into practical actions with real-world impact…I have been able to share this learning and begin to influence practice across the USA…Since his monumental contribution to the creation and initial adoption of The Okanagan Charter, Dr. Dooris’ work is spoken of in every conversation here in the States as pivotal to the future of Higher Education” [C]. In a recent global study examining leadership for a whole university approach [5], Dooris and Farrier (collaborating with Sue Powell, MMU) illustrated the impact of their research by generating institutional case studies. Implementation at the University of Sydney (70,000 students, 7,500 staff), informed by our research, has used the Self-Review Tool [4] to facilitate identification of priority areas for action. It has also built on work initiated by ‘champions’ to secure senior leaders’ commitment to Healthy Universities and align this with changing cultures and environments to advance student and staff wellbeing and performance. New activity with wide-ranging buy-in includes an online course for undergraduate students to learn about nutrition, physical activity, sleep, alcohol and drugs and mental wellbeing. The University of British Colombia (65,000 students, 16,000 staff), has pioneered Canadian action for Healthy Universities [A], a model informed by our research, demonstrating a whole organisation approach through a distributed leadership model. It has prioritised ‘health in all policies’, embedding the Okanagan Charter in its Frameworks for a Physically Active and Nutritionally Sound Campus, Green Building Plan and Mental Health and Resilience Framework. It is now drawing on the Okanagan Charter and Dooris’s wider research [1-6] to guide evidence-informed practice for student, staff and community health: “The…research carried out by Mark and colleagues has pioneered an understanding and proposed early models of what a whole university approach can look like in the context of health promotion, helping to validate and inform approaches taken at…the University of British Columbia and across the Canadian Network” [A]. Dooris’ research has also been implemented in the 2020 National Student Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Framework for Ireland [D]. The reach of our research is also evidenced by Dooris delivering numerous invited keynotes at major policy and practice events, attracting thousands of high-level decision-makers concerned with real-life application of learning. For example: the 2019 IX Ibero-American Health Promoting Universities Congress (Mexico), the 2019 2nd ASEAN Universities Network Health Promotion Conference (Philippines) and the 2018 NASPA Well-Being and Health Promotion Leadership Conference (Portland, Oregon), attended by 1,300 people: “Appreciating his trailblazing research…I proposed Mark as an opening panel member and keynote speaker…This ensured that a broad spectrum of professionals engaged mainly in service delivery and practice within universities and colleges across North America and beyond were able to benefit from the learning and insights that his research has generated” [C].

National Level: Strategic Guidance and Expert Advice

The research [1-6] has made significant contributions to national strategy and guidance. As well as informing the Royal Society for Public Health’s Tackling Health Inequalities report, which highlighted the potential for healthy settings (including universities) approaches to improve health outcomes, Dooris’s research has influenced the widespread advocacy for and the adoption of whole university and whole system approaches to mental health. Universities UK’s 2015 Student Mental Wellbeing in Higher Education, widely used by HEIs to guide policy and practice, references Dooris [1] : “The last decade has seen increased interest in a holistic ‘healthy settings’ approach… Pioneering work undertaken at the University of Central Lancashire (Dooris 2001) has stimulated developments and initiatives in other institutions across the sector” [E]. Health Education England’s 2019 NHS Staff and Learners Mental Health Commission profiles our research [4, 5] and the contribution of Healthy Universities, noting: “it is important that the development and provision of services takes place within a broader commitment to developing as a healthy and health enhancing organisation” [F].

Student Minds’ 2019 University Mental Health Charter references Dooris’s research [3] and acknowledges the role of the Healthy Universities model in calling “for the sector to adopt a whole-university approach to mental health” [G]. Dooris has also contributed to the British Property Federation’s 2019 Student Wellbeing and Private Sector Student Accommodation guidance, which advocates a systemic approach. Dooris is an invited member of Universities UK’s Mental Health in Higher Education Advisory Group, which oversaw the formulation of the 2017 Stepchange Framework. Subsequently refreshed as Stepchange: Mentally Healthy Universities, this endorsed the approach and framework informed by Dooris and colleagues’ research, noting that: “The development of a whole university approach to mental health is informed by…the Okanagan Charter for Health Promoting Universities and Colleges and the Healthy Universities framework” [H]. Universities UK note that Dooris’s research has achieved significant impact through providing: “an important conceptual frame for the StepChange approach’ and informing ‘the establishment and support of a significant community of practice across the UK sector to support implementation” [I]. Supported by ministers and sector bodies, Stepchange was piloted by three HEIs (UWE, Cardiff, York) and adopted by many others as the basis for their own strategies [I]. It has also had significant international impact generating enquiries from Australia (where it is informing a strategic framework), New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Ireland and the Netherlands [I]. Additionally, Dooris’s research has directly informed the whole-of-university Australian Framework for Promoting Student Wellbeing in Universities, which focuses on environments, services, awareness, knowledge and curricula. Most recently, in the context of COVID-19, Dooris and colleagues’ research [5] is explicitly used to frame the wellbeing section of Advance-HE’s Capstone Report for its Creating Socially Distanced Campuses and Education Project [J]. Dooris has also drawn on his research to deliver expert guidance across UK administrations. He has, with Sue Powell (MMU), organised three high-level UK Healthy Universities Policy Summits in 2018/19, which profiled the University of Central Lancashire’s research [1-6] with invited representation from Universities UK, NUS, Advance HE, public health agencies for England, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland, Office for Students and funding councils for Wales and Scotland. These resulted in excellent feedback and commitments to strengthen collaboration within N. Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and initiate work across funding councils [K]. Dooris was an expert member of the Welsh Government taskforce developing the Healthy and Sustainable Higher/Further Education Framework [K]. Drawing extensively on our research [1-4] and specifically the Self-Review Tool [4], this calls on Welsh universities and colleges to develop and implement ‘whole university’ approaches to health, wellbeing and sustainability. This maps priority health issues against key organisational aspects. His research has also strongly informed the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales Well-being and Health in Higher Education Policy Statement [K]. He was invited by the Public Health Agency for N. Ireland to address an inaugural Student Wellbeing Networking Event and meet with Queen’s and Ulster Universities to discuss adoption and practical implementation of the Healthy Universities model. This work focused on connecting student, staff and campus wellbeing agendas through integrated service provision, cultural change and healthy campus design: “The research carried out by Mark and colleagues has been instrumental in spearheading Healthy Universities activity within Northern Ireland, helping to develop an understanding of and commitment to whole system approaches to health and wellbeing within the higher education sector…[and] in informing policy and investment within the public health system in Northern Ireland in the support of the wellbeing of our student population” [L].

Institutional and Population Level: Adoption of the Healthy Universities Model

The research has had far-reaching influence on institutional practice, impacting on population health and wellbeing through adoption of the Healthy Universities approach set out in the Okanagan Charter by 86 UK HEIs. Case studies from recent research illustrate this [5]. At the

University of Central Lancashire (23,000 students, 3,400 staff) Dooris has championed Healthy Universities for 25 years, its initiative constantly being informed by underpinning research [1-6]. Informed by use of the Self-Review Tool [4], it is widely regarded as a beacon of good practice for its joined-up whole institution approach. Its action plan spans priority areas such as food, mental health and physical environments and contributes to key corporate commitments, such as: teaching and learning, changing the culture and civic engagement, thereby enhancing student, staff and community health. It has developed a holistic approach to mental health across the university and produced guidance to ensure that capital projects maximise their positive impact on health and sustainability, for example, through natural light and nature-connectedness. The University of the West of England (30,000 students, 3,000 staff) has championed a whole system perspective informed by our research, embedding health in all policies and processes and breaking down siloed working. It has secured executive-level leadership, aligned its health and sustainability commitments, and engaged stakeholders across faculties, services, the Students’ Union and external bodies to develop whole university approaches to issues such as alcohol, drugs, sexual health and mental health. It has used the Self-Review Tool to catalyse cross-silo communication and facilitate reflective self-assessment to enhance positive health impacts for students, staff and the wider community [4]. It has piloted Stepchange through its Mental Wealth initiative. The UK Healthy Universities Network, convened and co-chaired by Dooris, is continually informed by the above research [1-6] and plays a key role in supporting a growing number of HEIs (86 UK; 27 non-UK – up from 47 UK in 2008) to apply the Healthy Universities approach. As of 30th November, there has been 55,409 unique visitors from 186 countries to the Healthy Universities website.

Scrutiny of Disabled Children’s Rights in UK, Europe, Japan by United Nations Committee

Evidence from The Centre’s research [3] was cited in the UK Children’s Commissioners’ report to the UN and in the Review of Evidence for the 2016 Council of Europe Strategy on the Rights of the Child [A1]. Our evidence about the impact of poverty on the rights of disabled children and the need to include disabled children in policy making were subsequently highlighted by a UN Committee as rights violations, leading them to call on the UK Government to review and mitigate the impact of welfare reform on disabled children [A2]. This demand was echoed in the Council of Europe Strategy for Children’s Rights 2016-2021 [A3]. Subsequently, disabled children were involved in participatory activities to review this policy and to inform new recommendations [F2].

The theoretical framework and methodology developed from this research was presented to the Japanese Citizen and NGO Committee, who also report to the UN. They supported young researchers to implement the methodology in Japan. The theoretical insights informed the alternative committee’s 2018 report to the UN which challenged dominant Japanese perspectives on childhood and highlighted children’s agency [B]. The empirical finding, developed by the University of Central Lancashire-led young researchers and Oberlin University in Japan [5], were sent to a UN Committee scrutinising the Japanese government. Subsequently, the Committee picked up on concerns about special education within Japan and recommended changes in line with our report [F4].

Children’s Participation in Europe**

Larkins’ insights into impactful and inclusive participatory processes drawn from analysis of practice in the UK, Finland and France [1,2,3,4,5,6] have informed the 2019 EU presidency’s declaration on new participatory mechanisms for children in EU decision making. This was achieved through advising on mechanisms for strengthening EU participation structures; through citation of her work in EU and Eurochild papers on strengthening participation structures; and her role as the only academic expert advisor to the 2019 EU presidency for the Bucharest Declaration on child participation [C1]. Paragraph 47 of the EU Parliament Resolution 2876 subsequently called on the Commission and the Member States for full implementation of this Declaration. Her approach has also been used to guide the 2017-18 EU programme of youth structured dialogue (facilitated by one of her doctoral students) and a unique event in the European parliament in which children aged 13-15 lobbied the EU Brexit negotiating team. She is now advising the Council of Europe on strategies for children’s participation in their parliamentary processes. [F2]

In the context of Covid-19 the European NGO network for children (Eurochild) has used evidence from The Centre’s research [6] in contributions to the Council of Europe steering committee on children’s rights (CDENF) and to the EU post Covid-19 policy and budget decision-making [F2].  Larkins also spoke at a Council of Europe Committee on the impact of Covid-19 on educational exclusion. The CDNEF subsequently references The Centre’s Research in its call for greater commitment to digital inclusion and children’s participation in Covid-19 related policy making [C3].

Scrutinising and shaping policy affecting marginalised children in the UK and beyond** Following recommendations from young researchers in PEER, for the first time, Roma are included in advocacy services for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities in Wales. The service was allocated funding by the Welsh Government and continues to implement some of the learning developed from PEER [F3]. In Wales, empirical evidence of violations of care leavers rights, and guidance on developing participatory responses to Covid-19 was fed into a Welsh Government Committee and helped shape a service providing digital access to care leavers in Wales. In the UK, children will receive increased opportunities to become involved in the work of DEFRA and Natural England. For example: leading to the establishment of a youth element in the Government’s 25-year Environment Plan and establishing youth perspectives as evidence and input into decision-making about policy areas, such as nature recovery [F5]. Advising the Home Office on methodologies for including children in information design, Larkins, with colleagues at Liverpool University, has helped shape the information supplied to children about how to apply for the Brexit EU Settlement Scheme. Through an EU ambassador mission to Mongolia, Larkins presented her participatory approach [4] to child protection to Ministers and made recommendations for increasing the budget for child protection alongside stressing the importance of child participation. A year later the Mongolian President stated that, as a result of the meetings of the previous 12 months, a year of Children’s Development and Protection was declared, involving stressing the value of child participation and allocating further budget [D1, D2]. Evidence from The Centre’s rapid study on children’s participation in the context of Covid-19 (April 2019) contributed to NGO challenging government practice in EU member states.

Eurochild Participation Strategy**

Since 2013, Larkins’ and Thomas’ publications and advisory work has steered the development and piloted an improvement of the Participation Strategy of Eurochild [C2, F2], a European NGO network representing 185 organisations working with children in 35 European countries. This has produced structures enabling marginalised children to represent their views to the European Union. The first Eurochild Children’s Council was established in 2017, with eleven 12–16-year-olds (from 10 countries) representing the views of marginalised children and meeting with MEPs. Pilot ‘feeder’ structures were also established in Estonia, Malta and Bulgaria using participatory action research to enable representation of more excluded children. The model is now embedded in the work of Eurochild and many of their member organisation. It has enabled children to create spaces in which to have direct dialogue with EU and national officials and to initiate consultations with other children [F1, F2].

Advocacy with and by Roma youth and marginalised children

The PEER study [4] provided unique guidance on engagement with one of the most marginalised communities in Europe (PI Larkins, with 13 universities and NGOs). We trained over 400 professionals and young Roma leaders across nine countries to develop capacity for participatory action inquiry. In total, 550 Roma youth used this methodology to inform changes in practice within schools, communities and relationships with local authority services. For example, the training in Cyprus, was attended by a representative from the Ministry for Education who committed to taking a participatory approach to policy making regarding school bullying. Furthermore, the subsequent National Strategy for the Prevention and Management of Violence in School 2018-2022 places a strong emphasis on children’s participation. In France, in 2016 Roma children were able to influence a municipality so that a cycle path was built. In Lithuania, in 2015, Roma children highlighted antiGypsyism and held the first ever child-led Roma Holocaust conference. In Ireland children set up a diversity and inclusion committee and campaign, educating schools about how to be inclusive. [F3]

This methodology is continuing to inform practice by professionals across Europe. For example, in Bulgaria, Larkins delivers training and consultancy on the PEER model. Also, with the European Federation Missing Children Europe (representing a network of 30 NGOs in 26 European countries), Larkins delivers training and consultancy on methodologies for participation. Further impact derives from Larkins’ methodologies and theoretical insights having been included in three European training materials [F1, F2].

Lives of c hildren and young people and their communities

Across Europe, marginalised children, as our fellow co-researchers, have reported the personal impacts of participation in these activities; helping them build confidence, gain skills in research and activism and enabling some of them to access mainstream education, university courses, work experience with politicians and employment in research and youth work.

Through leading and taking part in participatory research [3,4,5,6], the 80 young people who have worked most closely with The Centre in the current REF period have brought about enormous personal change, including for young Roma in other EU countries [E1] and disabled young researchers in the UK and Japan [F4, E3]. Young people have experienced travel to Switzerland, Ireland, Japan, Belgium, Croatia and Canada to present their findings to professionals and other young people [E2]. In the UK, children, who were attending special educational provision and who felt unable to speak in class, are now confident conducting research and addressing public meetings [E3]. One of the young people who have moved from educational disengagement to attending University summed up the benefits for him and other disabled group members:

“I've learnt how to talk to people and I've learnt how to talk in front of people … I'm proud of this [research], helping me from when I was in my dark days … I think I'm just a better person because of it … before, I had nothing to think positive about, nothing to aim for.”

The views of over 1,100 children and young people have been fed into local, national and international policy processes, meeting with local, national and European politicians, children’s ombudsmen and government officials, through policy papers distributed internationally and through travelling exhibitions [2,3,4,5,6 and other studies not listed in section 3]. This work has had a wide impact on the well-being of children and families [E3, F2]. For example, after presenting findings of the Covid-19 research [3] and direct email correspondence with an NGO network member who attended that presentation, the NGO’s advocacy work, attempting to reduce the confinement of children, was intensified. Within one week their government reduced the restrictions placed on children’s access to outdoor environments, replicating the exemplar practice that had been reported in the research.

National policy on Relationships and Sex Education

Extensive national and international coverage of the Safeguarding Teenagers’ Intimate Relationships (STIR) study [1] findings on coercion and abuse in young people’s intimate lives included front-page coverage in the national press [A]. Barter acted as consultant and appeared on Panorama’s ‘When Kids Abuse Kids’ in 2017. She was subsequently invited to act as an expert adviser to the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence in Schools [B]. Stanley drew on findings from the Preventing Domestic Abuse for Children and Young People (PEACH) study [6] to give evidence to the Committee, addressing the prevention of sexual violence and abuse by boys. The STIR research was referenced five times in the Committee’s report which recommended that Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) be made statutory. The Government drew on this recommendation in 2017 in announcing the extension of RSE to children in all primary and secondary schools in England and Wales. Stanley and Barter advised on the drafting of a Parliamentary Briefing Paper that informed debates in both Houses of Parliament on this issue and contributed to relevant guidance [C1, C2]. RSE (secondary schools) and Relationships Education (primary schools) became a statutory part of the curriculum in September 2020 and is influencing the attitudes and behaviour of over nine million children.

Health and social care responses to children experiencing violence through professional guidance, training, new tools and service innovation

Stanley’s research on the service response to domestic abuse [5] resulted in an invitation to join the NICE Guideline Development Group and the NICE Quality Standard Committee on domestic violence and abuse [D]. This NICE guidance is widely used in training events, practice and planning throughout the NHS. Stanley’s contribution has been influential in alerting health practitioners across England and Wales in settings such as A&E, community health, primary care, midwifery and sexual health services, to the impact of domestic abuse on children. She also advised on the development of a practice focused SCIE/NICE guide (2020) for social workers.

Her research has informed the development of a new model of intervention in Iceland where police and social workers attend domestic abuse calls at households together [E]. Stanley’s work on ‘whole family’ domestic abuse interventions influenced interventions in Doncaster and the ‘For Baby’s Sake’ programme piloted in two sites in Southern England and now rolled out to a further two sites in Blackpool and Cambridgeshire.

Barter’s work on interpersonal violence and abuse (IPVA) in young people’s relationships ensured that both private and public forms of violence, were central programme objectives of a GBP5,000,000 programme with elite football clubs and BBC Children in Need on the targeted prevention of the cycle of abuse. This is currently being delivered to over 600,000 young people. The Head of Insight at BBC Children in Need said: “Dr Barter’s evaluation findings on the impact of Breaking the Cycle of Youth Violence Pilot programme were critical in supporting the decision of BBC Children in Need and the Premier League to move from a pilot programme working with 10 clubs, to a 3 year programme now working with 45 clubs.” [F]

The STIR study [1] produced an app on healthy relationships directly accessed by young people in four European languages. Stanley’s research review [4] and Barter’s (2016, 2020) briefing paper on violence in young people’s relationships have informed practitioner training delivered to over 3000 practitioners across the UK and Ireland by Research into Practice, Making Research Count, Safeguarding Boards and third sector organisations.

Developing national and international child protection strategies, services and knowledge through work with international charities and child abuse inquiries.

Connect Centre researchers produced two research reports for national abuse inquiries in England and Scotland, giving oral evidence on three occasions [G]. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) proceedings were disseminated live on YouTube and the research on abuse in care in Scotland reached diverse audiences through extensive media coverage. These studies are informing the ongoing work of both Inquiries.

Radford’s research has shaped international knowledge on child abuse. Following her UNICEF review [3], she was invited to join an international expert group advising on the redesign of UNICEF’s national surveys on violence against children. Case studies and briefings were prepared on ethical issues to inform the guidance on child maltreatment data collection for UNICEF [H] and International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) [I]. The research has also informed the Australian Royal Commission on Child Abuse recommendations on best practice in conducting self-report surveys with children [J] and the Office of National Statistics’ current plans to introduce a supplementary module on childhood abuse within the Crime Survey England and Wales.

UNICEF promoted implementation of Radford’s child sexual abuse evidence reviews at events in 2014-15 with policy makers and practitioners in six countries. Her research informed the development of UNICEF’s child protection strategy in South Africa and the theory of change underpinning UNICEF’s Global Child Protection Strategy [H]. Recommendations on sexual abuse prevention were used in UNICEF’s Six Strategies for Action which has guided the development of frontline services for children in low to middle income countries [H].