Community, Health and Education Studies Research Centre (CHESs)

The School of Health, Community and Education Studies brings together a comprehensive range of expertise in the caring and enabling professions. Our academic staff, supported by library and learning resource staff, administrators and technicians, work to deliver high-quality education and research in health, nursing, teacher education, social work and social care, midwifery, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and public health. 

Our learning experiences are recognised as excellent by teaching quality assessments, having recently been designated by OfSTED to be a Category A provider across all of the School’s provision for Initial Teacher Education programmes. External professional and regulatory body review, such as the Quality Assurance Agency consistently ranks our nursing, midwifery and health visiting and education studies programmes to the highest standards.

The School has a strong reputation for research excellence and advances its disciplines to reflect the context of user involvement in a multidisciplinary environment. Northumbria is a leading modern University, which sustains research quality commensurate with its excellent teaching and learning profile. As well as high quality research, the School emphasises working in partnership with a wide range of external agencies, and the integration of research and practice, to reflect the complexities of developing knowledge in a user-centred environment. In the 2008 RAE, Nursing and Midwifery at Northumbria University achieved the following result:

4* (world leading in quality)                         15%

3* (internationally significant quality)             35%

2* (internationally relevant quality)               35%

1* (nationally relevant quality)                     10%

Unclassified (sub-national or missing output)    5%

The School of Health, Community and Education Studies aims to undertake original collaborative research and enterprise in a supportive and inclusive environment, generating knowledge of the art and science of practice, service and policy for both professionals and service users which has regional, national and international significance.

To this end, the research and enterprise philosophy of the school is expressed through:

• An orientation to the users of the research outcomes.
• Collaboration, accessibility, inter-disciplinarity, and relevance of the research and enterprise.
• Integration with all aspects of the School’s endeavours, providing clear and inclusive career paths, and an affirmative learning environment, for academic and research staff and students, and contributing to the educational function of the School.
• Activity that is regionally engaged and (inter)nationally relevant.
• Focus and direction of knowledge generation and transfer, emphasising the development of professional policy, practice and services in relation to defined communities of users.

Community, Health and Education Studies Research Centre

A school-wide framework of themes and programmes are led through a research, PGR and knowledge translation intensive environment in the School; the Community, Health & Education Studies Research Centre (CHESsRC). CHESsRC is an integral part of the School, forming a critical mass for research and knowledge translation.

At the heart of the School’s research and enterprise activity is adherence to three knowledge translation themes:

These themes exist in the context of diverse groups of people and communities who are both enabled and disabled by their health, social or educational experiences. Most often these experiences exist in a complex pattern such that no single focus on health or social or educational opportunities is appropriate and the research questions need to be asked and addressed in a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency way that emphasises a whole system approach and that challenges service, professional and disciplinary boundaries. 

The cognate elements of such a research focus are:

(i) The ways in which knowledge is used and created in communities and services – including  (re)conceptualising community and service user needs; exploring lay and professional decision making; developing cognitive and practice skills; analysing community and professional learning.
(ii) The interaction of consumers, policy, services and professional practices – including (re)conceptualising the role of policy, services and practices; developing the evidence base for professional interventions and interactions.
(iii) The ways in which communities and health are developed – including (re)conceptualising the whole system and its impact on communities and health; exploring the impact of knowledge movement in a system; analysing the context and culture of development.

CHESsRC has the following aims:  

The School takes this work forward through five interlinking research programmes: 

·         Disability and Long-Term Conditions

o        Disability Studies

o        Rehabilitation and Long-Term Conditions (including the Dementia Development Alliance)

·         Ageing Studies / Centre for Collaborative Gerontology

·         Education and Organisational Learning

·         Children, Young People and Families

·         Health Improvement