Supporting children and families

Our work is based around creating a better start in life and supporting care across childhood.

Our research aims to develop better integrated health and social care for children and their families, improving outcomes and reducing inequalities.

This includes reducing social inequalities in health status and access, mobilising community resources to support the management of chronic conditions, and listening to children’s voices in diverse communities.

Our early projects include:

• Tracking the impact of perinatal mental health through to childhood, investigating the longer term impact on the mother, child and wider family
• Developing an asset-based approach to supporting families and children informed by local communities
• Testing different models of supporting children with common conditions e.g. telehealth for asthma
• Investigating the impact that public involvement and community engagement can have on the way that services are configured
• Developing an integrated data system for public health and social care across our Applied Research Collaboration.

We work closely with the Great North Children’s Research Community – a group of over 500 practitioners and academics with specialities in nursing, health visiting, midwifery, the allied health professions, social work, paediatrics, medicine and associated academic specialities.

We also work closely with Children North East, a major local charity focussed on children and young people’s perspectives and family-focused intervention.