Research at the Norah Fry Research Centre is grounded in a social model of disability. Staff at the Centre undertake applied research intending to make a positive difference to the lives of disabled people, with a special interest in people with learning (intellectual) disabilities and their families. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in our research, and our projects are conducted as inclusively as possible, with staff actively striving to seek the involvement of disabled people and creating conditions to allow their maximum contribution in the research process.
Current research projects and completed research projects encompass a wide range of interrelated topics including:
Norah Fry Research Centre has also recently completed a scoping and review exercise for the NIHR (National Institute of Health Research) to determine research priorities in Learning Disability over the next ten years.
The Centre is committed to the inclusion of disabled children and adults with learning disabilities in society at large. We have a particular interest in the critical analysis, evaluation and development of policy and practice initiatives, and the investigation of inequality and exclusion. It is important that academic research contributes to developments and to changes in practice, and the focus of research at Norah Fry Research Centre is therefore on research that will lead to positive change in the lives of disabled people, and an understanding of how change can happen.
We aim to combine rigorous research methods with a strong commitment to ethical practice. We use accessible methods of dissemination to get research messages to practitioners, policy makers, family members and to people with learning disabilities.
Prior to formally joining the School for Policy Studies staff members joined with their colleagues in the School for the last Research Assessment Exercise: the result was the only 5* in social work in the UK. Projects at the Centre are funded entirely by external research grants that can vary from a few months to several years. At any one time, between 10 and 20 projects are in progress. Our current funders include: the Baring Foundation, the Big Lottery, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the ESRC, and the Social Care Institute for Excellence.