Spotlight Articles, News & links- September 2003

Centre for Evidence in Ethnicity, Health and Diversity (CEEHD) website!

The ESRC Centre for Evidence in Ethnicity, Health and Diversity (CEEHD) has been established as part of the ESRC research programme on evidence-based policy and practice. The Centre is located in two academic centres, the Centre for Health Services Studies (CHESS) at the University of Warwick and The Mary Seacole Research Centre (MSRC) at De Montfort University, Leicester

Six other centres are funded in the UK as part of this ESRC initiative, together with a co-ordinating centre in London. The resulting Network of Research Centres is working closely together to improve the use of social science research findings in policy and practice.

Within the Network, CEEHD aims to provide a resource which is currently lacking in the UK, and also more widely in Europe.

The main role of the Centre is to identify, assess and disseminate research evidence in the multidisciplinary field of ethnicity and health. Research findings which can help user organisations in health, social care and other sectors to develop ethnically-sensitive, appropriate and cost-effective services and policies.

The main elements necessary for the development of evidence-based policy and practice are already present in the area of ethnicity and health:

• there is an existing research base which can be brought together, but which has not to date been analysed in a consistent or coherent manner;
  
• ethnicity represents an area which has high policy relevance;
  
• and there is a constituency of policy makers, professionals, and users who are disposed to, and able to make use of, research findings.
  

The evidence available takes a number of different forms, including academic articles, unpublished or 'grey' literature, and large and small scale datasets. The challenge will be to turn this 'information' into 'intelligence' on which policy makers and practitioners can act.

General enquiries about the Centre for Evidence in Ethnicity, Health and Diversity should be addressed in the first instance to:

Dr Anil Gumber, Senior Research Fellow, CHESS
ESRC UK Centre for Evidence in Ethnicity, Health and Diversity
Centre for Health Services Studies
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL
Tel: +44 (0)24 7652 3985
Fax: +44 (0)24 7652 3719