About the Centre for Health, Social Care and Disability

Staff and doctoral students affiliated with our Centre undertake applied and theoretical research with a particular focus on inequality and social justice across health, social care, wellbeing, nutrition, physical activity and disability policy. We specialise in innovative and impactful research, evaluation, advisory support, policy engagement and research skills development.

Expertise

Our Centre members are from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, including:

  • social policy, sociology, socio-legal studies, psychology and disability studies
  • social work, social care and gerontology
  • global health, epidemiology, and public health

Our principles

The following principles guide our approach to research and engagement that improves wellbeing, health and social care for diverse groups and entire populations:

  1. Our efforts are strongly aligned with partner movements and organisations that seek to identify and address inequality. We integrate and apply theoretical understandings of the social, political and commercial determinants of health and wellbeing throughout our work.
  2. Our approaches to research are guided by the values of co-production wherever possible, which acknowledges and centres the expertise of those with lived experience alongside academic practice; and at all times our ethics recognise and actively address the presence and flow of power in research encounters.
  3. We work, where appropriate, to inform organisational and government policy and service provision. We recognise and seek to help resolve some of the key challenges of systems integration in a public service context.

Collaboration

We often collaborate with members of the School’s three other Research Centres. Many members of our Centre are co-affiliated with Specialist Research Centres and Research Groups, in particular the Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies and the Specialist Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences.

Our commitment to co-production and collaboration rests on strong partnerships across the University of Bristol, global academic institutions, and local councils in our region. Our work is frequently embedded within and undertaken alongside diverse voluntary organisations and initiatives of different sizes and scopes, such as:

Find out more about our research projects, and view our staff members’ profiles.

Our funders

We carry out research and consultancy with a wide range of funders, including:

International

  • World Health Organisation
  • United Nations
  • Global Forum for Health Research

National

  • Nuffield Foundation
  • Joseph Rowntree Trust
  • NIHR School for Social Care Research
  • Department of Health and Social Care
  • Department of Education and Skills

Local councils

  • Bristol
  • North Somerset
  • Bath
  • South Gloucestershire