34School of Health, Community and Education Studies . Service evaluation and development including community- based rehabilitation and the mapping of services. . The impact of service user involvement and inclusive practice on neuro- rehabilitation. . Describing and analysing interventions in a range of other long- term conditions, including cancer. 2. Ageing Studies Research Programme/ Centre for Collaborative Gerontology ( CCG) The Centre for Collaborative Gerontology is a research and development centre which aims to promote and support research for and with older people. The CCG has a commitment to: reflect the experiences of service users and providers by exploring access to, delivery of and outcomes from the range of services and agencies which provide them; developing innovations in provision, beginning with the experience of service users and the needs and preferences that they have and planning and evaluating provision accordingly; the development of knowledge which is led by service users. These studies involve older people as co- researchers, project managers, data analysers and presenters and have been carried out locally, nationally and internationally. Also CCG has developed guidelines for care in care homes, as part of our membership of the National Care Homes R+ D Forum and the development of guidelines for older people's involvement in research, policy and planning and leading the research strand of the Years Ahead Initiative. 3. Education and Organisational Development Research Programme The Education and Organisational Development Research programme contains some essential strands that complement each other, for instance: ' Service Improvement and Leadership' and ' Education'. Research from the former has focused upon systems to develop professionals in the workplace in order to improve patient care, for instance, the Health Care Assistants' development programmes and evaluation of the Leading Empowered Organisations programme. Both of these studies were interested in the impact of an educational initiative on individuals and hence the way in which this leads to organisational development. Education research similarly has centred on the impact of the work environment on the development of the individual teacher. Other research straddles these strands, such as the impact of the use of the world wide web in teaching nursing and the way that this affects clinical decision- making. 4. Children, Youth and Families ( CYF) Research Programme The Children, Youth and Families ( CYF) Research Programme develops and promotes high- quality research, scholarship and publications which will improve the quality of life of children, young people and their families on a regional, national and international basis. The CYF programme is equipped to provide research, evaluation and consultation to professionals and agencies in the fields of health, social work, education and related children's services, including:

www. northumbria. ac. uk35 . Research to underpin children's services strategies. . Evaluation of new and established interventions. . Consultation / advice about the design of existing and new services and the development and delivery of inter- agency initiatives and plans. . Supervision and advice in relation to research degrees in the area of work with children, young people and families - up to and including doctoral research. 5. Health Improvement Research Programme The Health Improvement Research programme ( HIRP) has two themes of Public Health and Primary Care, which are both central to the Government health and public service improvement agenda. Our aim is to build capacity for health improvement through: developing the health improvement workforce, developing knowledge for health improvement practice, service innovation and education. Our work can be identified under four headings. . Well- being: contextualisation, understanding, needs analysis ( of communities and professionals). . Interventions for Health & Wellbeing: professional roles and processes. . Activities: research, teaching and learning, networking, consultancy. . Methodologies: systematic reviews, health impact assessment, soft system methodology, realist evaluation, participatory research social marketing. Jason Scott PhD student profile " I chose to do my PhD at Northumbria University as I had heard about a particular funding opportunity that really appealed to me. On top of this, I had heard great things about the University and in particular the staff. My area of research is in service user involvement in patient safety. This particularly focuses on developing a service user definition of patient safety in care transfers, and using this definition to create a mechanism that will allow service users to identify and report safety incidents when undergoing a care transfer. This aspect of this research really appealed to me as I felt like I'd be able to make a tangible difference in the care that people receive. I also felt that doing a PhD would greatly develop my skills as a researcher and open up more career opportunities, particularly in academia. The postgraduate community is excellent here, with everyone ready to help each other out. We're also in the process of rolling out an online community for postgraduate students in HCES, so that even the people who can't regularly make it into the office can still keep in touch and share their experiences with others."