Projects include evaluations of:
- state-funded free schools that operate outside of local authority control
- the Opportunity Areas programme, which is designed to support social mobility in areas facing entrenched deprivation
While other projects will assess:
- the impact of on-demand bus services for underserved communities
- the effectiveness of the Sure Start scheme, which aimed to enhance the lives of young children growing up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods
Creating opportunities, improving outcomes
Funding for these projects comes from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) creating opportunities and improving outcomes strategic theme.
Professor Alison Park, head of UKRI’s creating opportunities and improving outcomes strategic theme, said:
Across the political spectrum, there is agreement that the regional disparities that exist in the UK do real social and economic damage.
Policymakers and researchers have tried various ways of addressing those disparities, but we often don’t truly know how effective they are – or if there at better ways of achieving our goals.
The projects announced today will help to fill this knowledge gap by evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions.
That way, we can ensure policymakers focus their efforts on the best ways to improve lives and opportunities across every part of the UK.
Testing and evaluating evidence
UKRI has provided £9.7 million of funding for 17 projects to evaluate evidence on ways of reducing regional economic, health and social disparities.
These projects cover a diverse range of topics. From assessing the effectiveness of a programme to help young people struggling with loneliness, to evaluating the impact of Opportunity Areas, the Sure Start scheme and Free Schools.
Assessing benefits
One project being run by the University of the West of England will assess the benefits of on-demand bus services for residents of rural areas.
It will provide evidence to decision-makers on the role they can play in reducing the inequalities those areas face.
Other projects include:
- testing whether using pharmacies to offer holistic support services improves health outcomes for homeless adults in Scotland
- an exploration of how cooperation between local planning authorities can tackle planning delays and improve housing supply
- an evaluation of the effectiveness of schemes aimed at accelerating local economic growth and innovation
The 17 projects are split into the Evaluation Development Fund and Trial Accelerator Fund programmes, which are receiving £2.36 million and £7.34 million respectively.
Further information
The projects
Trial Accelerator Fund projects
PHOENIx for severe and multiple disadvantage
The University of Edinburgh, Richard Lowrie
Six thousand people in Scotland face homelessness, criminal offending, and street-drug use simultaneously.
They suffer worse health and die 30-years younger (usually from overdose) than the rest of Scotland.
This project will test whether NHS pharmacists and third sector outreach workers, lower the risk of overdose, death or criminal offending, and improve health.
CHESS: Civic Health Equity: from Silos to Systems
University of Liverpool, Ben Barr
Organisations across Liverpool City Region (LCR) provide services for people in poverty, including, welfare advice, cash benefits and employment support.
This project will investigate their costs and health benefits, and how to adapt and combine them to maximise impact; redesigning services to benefit disadvantaged communities, in LCR and beyond.
Partnership for Change: randomised controlled trial of infant parent support teams to address place-based inequalities for struggling families
University of Glasgow, Helen Minnis
Partnership for Change is a randomised controlled trial of ‘infant parent support’, a coproduced poverty and neurodiversity-aware mental health intervention aiming to support struggling families.
Partnership for Change will involve around 180 families in Glasgow and London with children aged zero to five and aims to reduce the risk of abuse or neglect.
From the centre to the periphery: evaluating the Opportunity Areas programme
University of Bath, Michael Donnelly
This research aims to find out how to address the problem of geographic inequalities within the UK education system.
Robust evidence will be generated by conducting the first quasi-experimental evaluation of the Opportunity Areas programme, a £108 million investment that sought to improve education in post-industrial, rural and coastal areas across the country.
Evaluation Development Fund projects
National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) living standards evaluation project
NIESR, Max Mosley
NIESR and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation are undertaking a comprehensive study into UK living standards at the household, regional and country wide level.
Evaluating the impact of Sure Start (Northern Ireland) using a naturally occurring experiment and a longitudinal birth cohort
University of Cardiff, Meng Le Zhang
Being born into poverty is associated with educational and health disadvantages.
This project will investigate the impact of the early years’ intervention programme, Sure Start.
This will provide much-needed evidence on ‘what works’ to reduce inequalities from an early age.
Creating better opportunities in the south-west through a growth-mindset-of-opportunity intervention
University of Exeter, Paul A O’Keefe
This project will help recent university graduates from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to cultivate new and better employment opportunities in the south-west.
This will be achieved by designing and evaluating a novel intervention to foster a growth mindset of opportunity, the belief that opportunities in life are changeable, not fixed.
Tackling youth loneliness in urban areas: measuring feasibility, acceptability and benefits of a social interaction intervention
Queen Mary University of London, Jennifer Lau
‘The Great London Friendship Project’ is a community-based intervention for young adults who may be experiencing loneliness.
This research project will assess the programme in terms of its’ viability, acceptability and benefits.
It will also explore whether the programme reaches people who struggle to access formal services.
Tackling planning delays and housing under-supply across England: can inter-municipal cooperation between local planning authorities help?
University of Southampton, Han Wang
This project aims to make housing supply quicker and more efficient in England by improving how local councils work together.
By looking into the ways councils share services and plan housing together, new approaches will be developed that:
- make the planning process smoother
- help address the shortage of homes
- support economic growth and community access to housing
The role of demand responsive transport in connecting people to opportunities in less densely populated areas
University of the West of England, Kiron Chatterjee
On-demand bus services are being piloted in low-density areas not served well by conventional buses.
This project will assess their role in unlocking educational, employment, social and other opportunities for residents.
It will provide evidence to decision-makers on their contribution to reducing place-based inequalities and the case for funding support.
Evaluating the BabblePlay app intervention to encourage vocalising in infants with Down syndrome
University of York, Tamar Keren-Portnoy
BabblePlay is an app that encourages babies to make sounds with their voice.
This project will investigate if it can help improve language outcomes for babies with Down syndrome.
Together with families, people with Down syndrome and with health professionals, a future clinical trial with BabblePlay will be designed.
Harm reduction in homelessness services: evaluating Simon Community Scotland’s Safer Spaces approach
Kings College London, Hannah Piggott
Simon Community Scotland’s Safer Spaces uses harm-reduction approaches for people accessing homelessness services who use drugs.
There is limited evidence on harm-reduction policies in UK homelessness services.
This project will investigate how the programme works and pilot future research approaches.
This will support improvements in homelessness services to tackle housing and health inequalities.
Parent Power: evaluating a UK-wide place-based parental engagement intervention to reduce educational inequalities
King’s College London, Susannah Hume
King’s College London and The Brilliant Club will evaluate Parent Power, a scheme that empowers parents to tackle educational inequality.
Through community organisation, it helps parents advocate for better opportunities for their children.
The research will assess the programme’s impact on parents and its potential to improve children’s school performance and access to higher education.
Unlocking innovative potential: experimentation fund
NESTA, Albert Bravo-Biosca
The Innovation Growth Lab will work in partnership with practitioners and researchers to evaluate how the UK might grow and diversify the background of future innovators.
The project aims to unlock the potential of communities who have traditionally been kept out of innovation processes.
The effectiveness of public support for high-potential businesses
NESTA, Albert Bravo-Biosca
The Innovation Growth Lab will provide policymakers with robust evidence on how they can support local growth and innovation.
The project will do so through the rigorous evaluation of three past programmes, examining how they achieved their objectives and what can be learned to improve future programmes.
Co-Stars feasibility evaluation
University of Birmingham, Sian Griffiths
Co-Stars is a training package co-developed with, and delivered by, Black youth with lived experience of mental illness.
They deliver training to a range of community stakeholders, including mental health professionals, places of worship, members of the criminal justice system and underserved communities across Birmingham.
It aims to improve awareness of issues faced by Black youth with mental illness and to promote more equitable access to care and recovery.
Do Free Schools increase opportunities and reduce disparities in economic and social outcomes?
Manchester Metropolitan University, Will Cook
Since 2010, the government has facilitated the opening of ‘Free Schools’ in England as a means of increasing educational performance.
This project aims to provide a rigorous and in-depth evaluation of the impact of Free Schools on pupil outcomes, including investigating the longer-term impacts of the policy.
Top image: Credit: Chunyip Wong, E+ via Getty Images