Eleven projects across the UK are the latest to receive between £39,000 and £150,000 each of previously awarded funding to explore aspects of how disabled people can live as full citizens in our society.
The projects, which include exploring employment opportunites, housing and social care services for disabled people, are the latest to be funded by DRILL (Disability Research on Independent Living and Learning) programme, a £5 million research scheme led by disabled people and funded by Big Lottery Fund.
The announcement coincides with DRILL’s call for new bids for funding, which is announced this week – it is looking to allocate another £1 million.
All DRILL projects are led by disabled people or people with long term health conditions, working in co-production with academics and policy makers.
The latest grants were approved by the DRILL Central Research Committee, which is chaired by Professor Tom Shakespeare. He said:
“Once again, a terrific set of applications to the DRILL scheme. The Research Committee are delighted to be able to support work about adapted housing, autism, young disabled people, disabled parents and other important issues, from all parts of the United Kingdom. It’s particularly rewarding to see the strong new relationships which are emerging between disabled people’s organisations and university researchers.”
Lead partners on the latest projects to be awarded funding are:
England
CHANGE (Leeds) - Employing peer support workers with learning disabilities in learning disability services
Learning by doing together is a community / university participatory research pilot project to employ peer support workers with learning disabilities in community supported accommodation. It will translate the peer support model of employment into learning disability services, and specifically supported accommodation.
Research Institute for Consumer Affairs (RICA - now research institute for disabled consumers) - Rate it! Consumer product reviews by disabled people
Rate it! will be an accessible and inclusive product review website dedicated to product reviews by disabled people for disabled people across the UK. The project plans to: build on best practice and learning from existing product review websites: develop guidance and a review structure that delivers valued reviews across disability and experience.
Sheffield Occupational Health Advisory Service - Exploring employer perceptions on barriers to work for disabled people
‘Disabled people getting on and staying on’ will explore how employers perceive the barriers to and in employment faced by disabled people. The research will be done by disabled people engaging directly with employers, in order to understand employer’s perceptions of disability and support employers in employing disabled people.
University of Coventry - Defining quality and rights-based Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) for disabled young people
Q-PLANS’ is disabled young people researching and producing a quality and rights based framework to benchmark the delivery of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) in Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, with implications for EHCPs across the UK. The research addresses a gap in evidence concerning quality in decision making for disabled children and young people, and quality in the development of EHCPs which will impact on their live now and in the future.
University of Bedfordshire - Exploring how to support disabled parents
The large research project is about working in coproduction with disabled parents to develop solutions that aim to keep families together through independent living. The project partners are individual disabled parents and co-researchers working in partnership with the University of Bedfordshire, to challenge the negative assumptions made by previous research on disabled parenting.
Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living - Exploring the transition from childhood to adulthood for disabled people
ImaYDit, led by the Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living, will explore the transition from childhood to adulthood for disabled young people, in partnership with the University West of England and Wiltshire Council. The project will work with 10 young disabled co-researchers to explore the enablers, barriers and opportunities of independent living for young disabled people.
Northern Ireland
Praxis
Scotland
University of Stirling
Horizon Housing
University of Glasgow
Wales
Cardiff University
Launched in 2015, the DRILL programme is fully funded by Big Lottery Fund and delivered by Disability Rights UK, Disability Action Northern Ireland, Inclusion Scotland and Disability Wales. DRILL is expecting to fund up to 40 research pilots and projects over a five-year period, all led by disabled people.
Potential projects have until 8th August to put their bids in for the new round of funding.
More information on DRILL can be found at www.drilluk.org.uk.
Ends
Notes to editors:
Details of the funded projects are below.
England
|
CHANGE |
Employing peer support workers with learning disabilities in learning disability services - Project cost £150,000 |
|
Coventry University |
Defining quality and rights-based Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) for disabled young people - Project cost £99,375 |
|
Research Institute for Consumer Affairs (RICA) |
Rate it! Consumer product reviews by disabled people - Project cost £149,485 |
|
Sheffield Occupational Health Advisory Service |
Exploring employer perceptions on barriers to work for disabled people - Project cost £39,551 |
|
University of Bedfordshire
|
Exploring how to support disabled parents - Project cost £99,256 |
|
Wiltshire Center for Independent Living
|
Exploring the transition from childhood to adulthood for disabled people - Project cost £63,696 |
Northern Ireland
|
Praxis |
Researching the experiences of people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities of decision making processes - Project cost £90,708 |
Scotland
|
University of Glasgow |
Examining the barriers faced by people with autism - Project cost £99,808 |
|
Horizon Housing |
Researching rented accommodation for disabled people - Project cost £92,538 |
|
University of Stirling |
Researching the costs and benefits of good self-directed support - Project cost £92,071 |
Wales
|
Cardiff University |
Researching barriers to employment in the legal profession for disabled people - Project cost £88,077 |
The DRILL programme is being delivered by Disability Rights UK, Disability Action Northern Ireland, Disability Wales and Inclusion Scotland.
Each country has a National Advisory Group, including disabled people, academics and policy makers, who provide advice, scrutinise research proposals, make recommendations and help promote and disseminate the findings. A Central Research Committee, made up of disabled people, academics and policy influencers from across the UK makes the final decision on which research proposals receive funding.
Professor Tom Shakespeare is senior lecturer in medical sociology, Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia.
The Big Lottery Fund is the largest funder of community activity in the UK. It puts people in the lead to improve their lives and communities, often through small, local projects.
It is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by National Lottery players for good causes. Every year it invests over £583 million and awards around 12,000 grants across the UK for health, education, environment and charitable purposes.
Since June 2004 it has awarded over £8 billion to projects that change the lives of millions of people.