£1.1m for research strengthening communities’ role in securing well-being

The Nuffield Foundation, in collaboration with the British Academy, has awarded £1.1 million to six research teams that will inform policy and practice on how communities can improve social well-being across the UK.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis have highlighted the essential role communities play in individual and collective well-being. Deep seated inequalities of ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status have also been exposed and exacerbated.

Over the next two years, the six projects will engage with communities to improve our understanding of the characteristics that make some communities more vulnerable or resilient than others.

Understanding Communities

The six projects were developed during an Understanding Communities research innovation workshop. The workshop brought together early- and mid-career researchers from different disciplines, national and local policymakers, and people working in local community organisations. Together, the projects aim to improve individual and collective well-being. The research will include towns, cities and rural areas across the four nations of the UK.

About the projects

Nature-based integration: connecting communities with/in nature led by Dr Azadeh Fatehrad (Kingston University), and Davide Natalini (Anglia Ruskin University). Awarded £199,350 over two years.

With an estimated 14% of UK residents born overseas, migrants and migrant-background communities play a crucial role in society. However, the UK continues to face challenges in promoting and supporting inclusion and connection in diverse communities. This project will explore the effect of different types of integration practices in a variety of natural environments, including green spaces. By considering the challenges and barriers to nature-based integration strategies, the research team will create a framework for local and national integration initiatives.

Using administrative data to understand community well–being led by Professor Lasana Harris (University College London). Awarded £120,397 over two years.

This project will explore whether the administrative data about behaviour, already gathered by local authorities, can be ethically used to provide insights into community well-being and to inform policy. A behavioural data algorithm will be developed using simulated data to test its efficacy as a measurement tool and to evaluate the effectiveness of administrative data to predict well-being.

The role of communities and connections in social welfare legal advice led by Dr Sarah Nason (Bangor University). Awarded £198,377 over two years.

Social welfare law includes benefits, debt, employment, housing, immigration, education, and community care. People seeking social welfare legal advice often have very low incomes and limited access to legal aid.

This project examines the social welfare legal advice-seeking behaviours of people through the lens of four local case study areas, their community characteristics and social networks. The research team will analyse the role of locality and identity-based organisations in helping people access advice and explore how access to advice services interacts with community connectedness, equality, and well-being. The project will provide evidence for policymakers and practitioners to respond to local needs and overcome barriers to access.

Rural assets: Policy and practice insights from the devolved nations led by Dr Danielle Hutcheon (Glasgow Caledonian University). Awarded £199,841 over two years.

Rural communities face long-standing challenges, such as out-migration of young people and geographic isolation, that affect local socio-economic development and threaten community resilience and well-being. The acquisition of local assets, such as land and buildings, is promoted across the UK as a means of strengthening local networks and community empowerment. The research will explore divergence in policy application and local level practice in each nation to compare the impacts of the different processes on rural communities’ empowerment, resilience, and well-being.

The direction of the research will be informed by knowledge exchange events across all four nations attended by people from policy, practice and rural communities, including those directly or indirectly involved with asset acquisition processes.

Transformative Justice: Women with convictions and uniting communities led by Dr Tirion Havard (London South Bank University). Awarded £184,442 over two years.

Women with convictions have complex needs. They account for 13% of deaths of people on post-release supervision (MoJ 2021), but under 5% of the prison population. This research aims to establish whether Transformative Justice supports women with convictions to reintegrate into communities and if it facilitates social connections and promotes equality. The findings will be used to develop a toolkit which will form the basis of a training programme for interested organisations.

Beyond school gates: Children’s contribution to community integration led by Dr Mona Sakr (Middlesex University). Awarded £246,782 over two years.

Community integration is a central part of the government’s levelling up agenda, but the role of children and schools remains underexplored. This project will investigate how children’s perceptions, experiences and attitudes contribute to community integration. The research team will focus on nine state primary schools across three large, ethnically diverse towns in Northwest England. The team aim to inform local and national policymakers on how children’s social cognition, experiences of integration and friendship networks impact community integration.

The British Academy and Nuffield Foundation Understanding Communities collaboration builds on the Academy’s ongoing Cohesive Societies project, which explores how societies can remain cohesive in the face of rapid political, social, economic and technological change.

“Place, local communities, and social well-being are connected, but in complicated ways. Together these new Understanding Communities projects will inform policy and practice by enhancing our understanding of how communities – local and dispersed – can increase or mitigate inequalities.

“By bringing together researchers, policymakers and people working in community support settings, these projects will help to identify practical proposals for action to help the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in our society.” Professor Ash Amin, Co-Chair of the Understanding Communities collaboration, Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation and Fellow of the British Academy

Professor Dominic Abrams, Co-Chair of the Understanding Communities collaboration and Fellow of the British Academy, said:

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis have exposed the vulnerabilities of communities up and down the country and pose a generational threat to our collective and individual well-being. Understanding how communities work and why some weather crises more effectively than others will be vital if we are to come through these challenges and create a robust, inclusive and resilient modern economy.

“We are delighted to partner with the Nuffield Foundation on this timely and distinctive collaboration and wish the research teams the best of luck with their projects. We look forward to seeing the results.”