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This is the first time we have made a submission to UoA20 Social Work and Social Policy. We are a relatively small unit. We have eight members of staff (7.7 FTE) based in the NU Population Health Sciences Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences (FMS).

Our interdisciplinary social work and social policy research and impact activities seek to understand social problems. We look at their impacts both nationally and internationally.

Our submission to UoA20 focuses on the two themes of health policy and ageing.

Health policy 

Our social work and social policy research addresses issues around quality and equality in health policy. It looks at how politics influences policy making.

These issues are augmented with invited commentaries in major medical journals. With these, we exert influence on health care decision making.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Allyson Pollock has helped shape public policy debates. She's a member of . She co-authored an influential I-SAGE on inequality. She's been a source of critique of the government .

Ageing

Our research on ageing addresses inequalities in later life. It considers:

• risks of social exclusion faced by older people
• the role of age-friendly cities and communities in helping people to age better
• relations between generations

ROSEnet

A key achievement has been our work in the COST Action (2015–2020). It's a network of 180 researchers from more than 40 countries in Europe and other world regions.

Thomas Scharf is Vice-Chair and Suzanne Moffatt is a management committee member.

ROSEnet has generated new knowledge on social exclusion in later life through:

• multiple publications
• related funding applications
• active support for early-career researchers

Thomas Scharf co-authored ROSEnet’s of research on social exclusion in later life. It featured in the European Journal of Ageing. It has already been accessed more than 10,000 times and cited many times.

Impact cases

Our impact cases focus on:

• informing national and international debate to address geographical and socio-economic inequalities in health
• tacking social inequality and injustice by democratising water politics, policy, and management

Our commitment to research that has an impact is exemplified in Suzanne Moffatt’s 2015 study of the impact of the 'Bedroom Tax'.

Research findings were reported in . Moffatt was being consulted by Baroness Quin. Her research used as evidence in a House of Lords debate on the health impact of the Bedroom Tax in 2015.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Thomas Scharf has challenged negative media representations of later life. He's done this through , , , and .

Ãå±±½ûµØ Centre of Research Excellence

Researchers involved in UoA20 Social Work and Social Policy research are linked to two NUCoREs. 

Regulatory science

The NUCoRE in Regulatory Science (approved in June 2019; directed by Pollock) is the UK’s first such centre. The Centre grew out of the shared concern of researchers in the University’s three faculties.

These centred on societal and public health implications of rapid advances in medical therapies and technologies. We wanted to address the scientific challenges thrown up by this.

Ageing and inequalities

The Centre for Ageing and Inequalities was approved in April 2020. It's co-directed by Scharf. It builds on our internationally recognised interdisciplinary strengths in research on ageing.

We focus on the key challenges associated with unequal ageing.

Research case studies