Social and public welfare
Research Topic
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Research problems linked to this topic
- How do we best assist early advice and support services to deal with changes in legal need in the population and the demand for services? How do we measure the impact of early advice on short, medium, and longer-term outcomes, and the economic costs and benefits?
- What can we learn from the COVID-19 shielding programme and other programmes that supported our most vulnerable groups during the pandemic? What were the costs and benefits of different interventions?
- How do we ensure a sustainable economic recovery post COVID-19 with environmental outcomes built in; and what is the potential for rural communities and businesses to contribute?
- Manage: Interventions to improve the management of multiple long-term conditions (for example, how to manage side effects in polypharmacy), prevent acute events (such as heart attacks, strokes and mental health crises) and ensure effective rehabilitation after these events to reduce long-term illness and disability.
- How to implement interventions which enable routine health services to continue during times of increased pressure (for example, modern, minimally invasive procedures, online booking systems, care at home)
- What role should government play in encouraging upskilling or reskilling for those in the labour market to make skills supply more responsive to local economic needs? What barriers do working individuals face when retraining?
- Treat: Interventions early in the course of disease progression (for example, social prescribing, early intervention for cancer or interventions to enable people to remain in or return to work).
- What new and better arrangements could be made to deliver effective health and employment support? What is the evidence base for effective joint working arrangements involving support delivered through, and beyond, the benefit system in partnerships involving DWP, the NHS, local authorities, the voluntary sector and other organisations?
- Equipping refugees for life in the UK and for returning home if/when they can.
- Understanding the barriers to recruiting and retaining staff in the NHS and social care and identifying solutions including supporting wellbeing
- Identifying how to structure the workforce to meet future health needs and how to drive cultural and behavioural change within organisations
- What are the needs and experiences of victims, defence witnesses, and those in distressing civil, family, or tribunal cases? How does this vary by protected characteristics, socio-economic or socio-demographic background and jurisdiction?
- Prevent: Interventions to prevent health problems, developing effective routes to reach those who are most at risk or marginalised, and understanding how to effectively implement proven interventions at scale (for example, antihypertensives, mental health programmes for children and young people, vaccines for cancer or workplace preventative interventions).
- Developing and evaluating technology-assisted workforce solutions to reduce burden on staff while maintaining patient outcomes (for example, diagnoses assisted by artificial intelligence, robotics to support surgery and care, remote monitoring of patients including hospital at home and virtual wards)
- How does PIP assessment (and reassessment) affect people?
- How can we understand the differences in participation in further and higher education and training routes - in particular how do issues of access or choice affect disadvantaged pupils?
- To what extent could increased progression help to move individuals out of poverty? How should in-work progression support be targeted?
- How can DWP support carers in their caring roles? Including any return to work or progression in the labour market?
- How can rural communities and businesses contribute to and benefit from the attainment of national economic, social, and environmental objectives?
- What capability and capacity in the food and farming industry is needed to deliver future rural community policy needs?
- How is disability changing over time? What is the role of the benefit system in this change?
- Identify: New ways of identifying those most at risk (for example, predictive analysis of GP records to identify those who would benefit from early intervention, new methods of cancer screening and new approaches to diagnosing the causes of chest pains).
- What criteria should we use to determine acceptable sectoral climate resilience scenarios across government departments, and when building preparedness externally?
- What is most effective in preventing people from falling out of the labour market? Does this differ for different groups? Who is best placed to deliver support?
- How to implement effective interventions to prevent avoidable admissions among vulnerable people (for example, warm homes, cool spaces, vaccination, hospital at home)
- Which interventions for disabled people are most effective in supporting movements into work? What barriers prevent disabled people and/or people with health conditions from moving into, and progressing in, work?
- To what extent is housing tenure (e.g. social rented, private rented, home ownership etc) driven by choice? What drives people’s choices? For example, is private renting seen as a ‘stepping-stone’ to home ownership? And how does this vary across different geographical areas?
- How to implement interventions that can reduce hospital stay, promote smart discharge and reduce staff burden?
- How to implement effective preventive and treatment interventions for illnesses that cause excess burden in winter (such as influenza), during extreme heat and infections with pandemic potential
- Developing and evaluating interventions to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of staff (for example, skills-mix, task-shifting and service integration)
- Which disabled people are supported by the benefit system and which are not? How do policy choices impact this?
- What are the career pathways and recruitment journeys into the judiciary? How do protected characteristics and social mobility affect recruitment?