Building on the 2008 Next Stage Review, the 2010 Health White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, explicitly expresses the Government’s support for research as a core NHS role and its importance in improving patient outcomes and helping the NHS increase both quality and productivity. It re-affirms the Government’s commitment to hold the NHS to account “against clinically credible and evidence-based outcome measures.” The use of outcome measures, national audits and patient surveys will be expanded to enable greater patient choice and to act as a driver for quality.
Against this backdrop, engaging with and learning from health services research is essential to drive forward quality and productivity.
Past Fellowships
The SDO Network set up four Academic Placement Fellowship pilots in partnership with the Economic Social Research Council (ESRC). The placement schemes supported senior to mid level academics to spend time within a partner NHS organisation for between six to twelve months to undertake relevant health services research and develop the research skills of partner staff. The fellowships that took place were:
- Deborah Kelly developed a research framework to underpin the Productive Ward Programme for the East of England SHA
- Ashok Jashapara evaluated the South East Coast Ambulance Service use of Emergency Care Practitioners, which is outlined in a briefing on our publications page.
- Roy Marsh looked at research that provides an evidence base for the implementation of the Darzi pledges with the East of England SHA
- Irene Ng developed performance indicators to capture the added value of partnership working across the innovation architecture.
Read past updates from the Academic Fellows:
The benefits for NHS trusts
The benefits of the placements:
- They enabled an academic to conduct a relevant project within a trust for between 6-12 months.
- The scheme supported senior to mid level academics to spend time within a partner NHS Trusts to undertake relevant health services research and to develop the research skills of partner employees.
- Costs were shared between SDO/ESRC and the host trust, covering the full salary of the fellow, while the fellows remain employed by their academic institutions. The approximate cost to the host trust was £25,000 with the SDO/ESCR covering the remaining £50,000.
- The pilots were also used to assess the infrastructure the SDO Network would require if the scheme was rolled out on a larger scale.
Further information about the Fellowships is available in this call for proposals document.