Research in Health and Social Care

Bringing together leading researchers within the fields of sociology, psychology and criminology, the work of the Department of Health and Social Care is focused in three broad areas:

• social care (social policy and social work);
• health (health, clinical and lifespan psychology and services);
• criminology (offenders, victims and criminal justice services).

We aim to explore key contemporary issues surrounding social deprivation, psychological vulnerability, social justice, and service adequacy. With a strong tradition of research and publication, much of our work is cutting edge. It is often conducted in multi/interdisciplinary teams, and within national and international arenas.

We engage actively with professional practice and with government bodies, voluntary and statutory agencies.

 

Departmental research activity

All of our research is underpinned by a set of basic concerns. In the work we do we aim to:

i) examine contemporary social issues, such as:

• social deprivation and exclusion in disadvantaged groups; conflict, risk and violence in relation to criminal justice;
• psychological and social vulnerability and resilience in relation to physical and psychological disorders or wellbeing and domestic abuse;
• the impact of the government’s modernization agenda for the social relations of health care.

ii) undertake work of methodological range and excellence that is based on sound ethical principles and procedures

• using a wide range of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods with clear theoretical underpinnings, and employing a variety of analytic strategies;
• engaging directly with vulnerable research populations, service-users and service-providers.

iii) carry out research that is multidisciplinary in scope:
Researchers in the Department draw widely on sociological, psychological, and criminological approaches and expertise.

iv) gives emphasis to partnership and application:
Departmental staff work with agencies locally in London and the South East, nationally in health, social care, social policy, and the criminal justice system, as well as with academic partners nationally and internationally

v) disseminated broadly and swiftly:
Our work is disseminated widely through international scientific journals, workshops, conference presentations and direct contact with practice agencies and policy makers, and through public engagement.

 

Ongoing studies

Understanding the Process of Online Grooming and Victim Selection: the Behaviours of Men who Target Children and Young People Online

European Commission funding has been awarded to study internet grooming of children for sexual abuse. The partnership is headed by Stephen Webster at the National Centre for Social Research, together with Professor Julia Davidson at Kingston University, Professor Toni Bifulco at RHUL and partners in Oslo (Professor Gottschalk), Belgium (Professor Pham) and Italy (Professor Caretti). The grant is for €430,000 over a 30 month period to scope out the legal and policy framework in member European countries of internet abuse and to investigate profiles of online groomers and to disseminate preventative messages to schools and parents in member countries. We are grateful for our partners for their support and contribution to this success.

The project will run until 2012 and is sponsored by the European Commission Safer Internet Plus Programme. (read project full press release, including notes to media editors and project contact information).

NHS Leadership study

We are delighted to announce that the NHS Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) Research and Development Programme is to fund a collaborative study between the Health and Social Care (HSC) Department and School of Management Department at Royal Holloway, University of London. The study is entitled:How is Leadership transmitted through health service organisations to effect service delivery? Professor Paula Nicolson (PI) will be working alongside Dr Graham Smith both from HSC and Professor Yiannis Gabriel & Christopher Howorth from the School of Management, and Dr. Kristin Heffernan on this study. The project has been funded at £ 400,000 over the next three years and will begin at the end of April. The study will identify the circumstances under which leadership can be an effective engine for change in the organisation of health care, especially for patient care and service delivery. We will explore three NHS organisations with different star ratings over a three year period choosing two units per hospital and will include data from patients, nurses, other professionals allied with medicine, non-clinical managers and senior managers in all phases of the data collection. Please continue to use this link for updates on the project.

JISC funding for Lifespan RADAR!(Lifespan Initiative for the Research and Data Archive Repository)

Lifespan Research Group has recently successfully secured funding from JISC (Capital Programme for Repositories Start-up) to raise the profile of its valuable collection of research data and scope out requirements for its preservation and future re-use. This represents an important step forward in Lifespan’s larger aim to complete its preservation and enable its re-use by the scientific community. The Life History, Health and Identity Research Cluster draws together researchers from a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences to realise the collection’s interdisciplinary potential. Those working directly on the development of the collection include Antonia Bifulco (Professor in Health and Social Care) who is leading the project, Graham Smith (Oral Historian) in an advisory capacity, and Ananay Aguilar (Musicologist) and Leonie Hannan (Historian), the researchers assigned to the project. We are assisted in this by Alison Pope from the IT department.

This grant-funded project (awarded in collaboration with the IT Department) will set the standard for an information environment for research data collections in the frame of the College-wide Digital Object Repository (DOR). It will involve the design of a digitisation strategy that defines best-practice solutions for long-term digital data preservation. It will also investigate the processes of creating, submitting and accessing current and future critical datasets in all fields of enquiry.

Visit Lifespan Collection website for more details.

Metropolitan Police—Child Victims in the Investigative Process

The Lifespan Research Group is part of a team looking at an exploration of young victims experiences and perceptions of the investigative process, undertaken on behalf of the Metropolitan Police Child Abuse Investigation Command. The research aims to begin the process of affording young victims an opportunity to express a view regarding their treatment in, and experience of, the entire investigative process from allegation to case conclusion, focusing upon positive and negative aspects. The research is being undertaken through the CATS (Centre for Abuse and Trauma Studies) centre with Prof Julia Davidson and Prof Toni Bifulco.

Specialist Homes Action Research Programme (SHARP)

St Christopher’s Fellowship has commissioned the Lifespan Research Group to undertake an evaluation of its Specialist Homes Action Research Programme (SHARP). This involves an enhanced assessment of the young people in the programme before and after the social learning model being implemented. The aim is to improve outcomes for young people in care. This is a Lifespan Research Group project led by Prof Toni Bifulco, together with Catherine Jacobs and Yael Ilan-Clarke.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Courses Project

Funded by West London Lifelong Learning Network, the projects is to develop CPD courses directed towards criminal justice workers, social workers, psychologists and workers in the legal professions, with the aim of covering issues around abuse and trauma, such as issues in assessment, treatment, human rights and research knowledge of victims and offenders. The courses would be integrated into a CPD Framework, which will be designed to enable a flexible learning pattern to match the needs of both qualified and non-qualified staff. This is held by Prof Toni Bifulco, with Amanda Bunn.

Research students

click here for a full list of PhD Theses