Population Health and Social Care Division

We host leading experts from a range of backgrounds to design studies to evaluate the impact of interventions and policies.

Research areas

• Impact of UK and devolved nation policy on population health
• Design and evaluation of interventions delivered at the setting level (eg schools, heath-service research, organisations)
• Design and evaluation of interventions delivered at the group and individual-level

Key areas of expertise

Populations and settings

• Children’s social care
• Vulnerable and marginalised populations
• Early years, child and maternal health
• Family-based and parenting interventions
• School-based interventions
• Evaluating multiple risk factors influencing cardiovascular and mental health
• Health Services Research (eg diabetes care / chronic disease management, cancer screening and health promotion)

Research methods

• Design and evaluation of complex interventions: Interventions with several interacting components and which may vary operate at multiple levels, involve multiple behaviours and stakeholders, be flexibly applied and impact on numerous outcomes
• Use of administrative data and record linkage: Using existing administrative data to inform the selection or outcome assessment for study populations
• Natural experiments: Using naturally occurring exposure or non-exposure to an intervention / policy to assess outcomes.
• Qualitative methods: Often used solely or in combination with quantitative methods to understand how interventions are delivered and lead to outcomes as part of process evaluations. Approaches such as ethnography which explore perceptions, behaviours and social interaction within groups such as clinical teams.

Capacity building

• Supervisory and mentoring support for doctoral, intercalating students and fellowships

Partnerships and collaborations

We work closely with a range of stakeholders across the UK including CASCADE, DECIPHer, HealthWise Wales, Public Health Wales.

Director and Deputy Director