Health and Social Care (Children and Young Adults)
The Children and Young Adults Health and Social Care Research Group is led by Professor Bryony Beresford. The group conducts research on policy and practice-related issues related to children, young people and young adults with long-term conditions and/or disabilities, and their families.
The group’s work and expertise primarily concerns with health and social care; however the group also has expertise in housing, and play and leisure. Transition and young adulthood are core interests and this means projects can span children’s and adult services. The group’s portfolio of work on health is wide-ranging, covering physical and mental health, and palliative and end of life care. The group has a longstanding interest in parents’ needs and experiences, including parent and family support interventions.
Core areas of research are:
- mapping and evaluating services and models of service delivery, including multi-agency working
- the lived experiences of individuals with long-term conditions and/or disabilities, including their experiences as service users
- parents’ and other family member’s needs and experiences, including parent and family support interventions
- managers and practitioners experiences of developing and delivering services
- evaluation of health and social care interventions.
The group has expertise in quantitative and qualitative research and many of its projects use a mixed-methods design. It also conducts scoping and systematic reviews, both as standalone projects or incorporated into a larger study. Members of the group have been at the fore-front of designing projects and developing methods which enable those with communication impairments, learning disabilities and autistic spectrum conditions to participate in research.
We have long established and influential Parent and Young People's Consultation Groups.These groups inform what we study and the way we go about doing our research. View a short video here, showing ourwork with the Young People's Group.
Care Co-ordination Network UK is a registered charity set up to establish a network of co-ordinated services for disabled children and their families. It started from a project in SPRU and has grown from there to become an independent charity which retains links to SPRU. Information on the aims of the network and how to find out more.
Click here to go to a list of our current research projects.
