About us
The Director of the Centre is Professor Alan Emond, with Professor Elizabeth Towner as Deputy Director.
The Centre for Child and Adolescent Health opened in May 2003 and is a joint initiative between the University of Bristol (UoB) and University of the West of England (UWE). The aim of the Centre is to promote the academic study of child health through inter-professional collaboration. It is staffed by a multi-professional team committed to research and teaching that makes a difference to paediatric practice, with an emphasis on the understanding of the current health problems of children and young people. The philosophy of the Centre is to integrate research with teaching and policy development.
The Centre is managed by a steering group, jointly chaired by the Deans of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Bristol and the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of the West of England. Administratively, the Centre is part of the School of Social and Community Medicine SSCM - head of School Professor Jenny Donovan.
The research programme is structured into themes: Child Development and Disability, Nutrition and Neuro-cognitive Development, Child and Adolescent Injury and Safeguarding, and Children with Complex Health Needs.
Teaching programmes run from the Centre include an Intercalated BSc in International Health, a module (Aspects of Child Health) on the BSc in Early Childhood Studies, and child health teaching for medical students (COMP 2 course). A course of postgraduate teaching is organised for registrars on the South West Specialist Training Programme in Paediatrics.
Staff at the Centre includes senior academics from UoB and UWE, research staff from both universities, and clinician-educators from North Bristol Trust (NBT), University Hospitals Bristol (UHB) and Bath.