Selected reports and work of interest
This is selection of past work, largely that which is available on-line.
Ignite: a story of activating early action (2021) Emma Bates, Sue Bent and Clare Wightman (Ignite) with Cathy Sharp (Research for Real)
“The human element was absolutely what it was all about. The whole thing was about relationships.” This reflective story of Ignite is likely to be of interest for anyone interested in the practice realities of early action or system change. In talking about the things that were successful or difficult, unexpectedly, or otherwise, this account conveys the bumpy experience of being a third sector organisation trying to create change in wider systems.
My Home Life and Learning and Innovating from Everyday Excellence (LIFE) (2013 to date)
A UK-wide Leadership Support and Community Development Programme to promote quality of life for those living, dying, visiting and working in care homes. My Home Life has been a significant part of our work and provides valuable experience of using appreciative inquiry and positive caring conversations as an approach to leadership development and whole system change. Many of the resources originally developed by My Home Life Scotland are now hosted by the My Home Life Charity UK. Selective reports and briefings available on request, including:
- Putting the human into human rights with Belinda Dewar (UWS) and Fairfield Care Scotland, February 2020 As part of Life Changes Trust funded Rights Made Real we tested and refined the use of the Learning and Innovating from Everyday Excellence (LIFE) approach Useful appreciative method for anyone interested in how to move from stories to action.
- 2016 Briefing Papers issued to mark 10 years of the My Home Life programme.
Personal Outcomes A video that discusses Personal Outcomes at the National Care Home Research & Development forum meeting held at the University of the West of Scotland Hamilton Campus on 25th May 2017.
What’s great about care homes in East Ayrshire? A digital story
Appreciative Inquiry in Mid North Coast Local Health District, NSW, Australia (2017) Varied facilitation support and co-design activities including;
- Design and facilitation of 2-day Future Forming Workshops, using stories and appreciative dialogue
- Development, piloting and briefing guidance on Learning and Innovating from Everyday Excellence (LIFE) sessions
- Co-facilitation of an Appreciative Inquiry Retreat
A poem about Caring Conversations
Cedar (Children Experiencing Domestic Abuse Recovery) (2009-2011)
“We thought they didn’t see” Cedar in Scotland – Children and Mothers Experiencing Domestic Abuse Recovery, Final report of an action research evaluation, June 2011
Cedar Interim Evaluation Report May 2010 Cedar Interim Evaluation Report, May 2010
See also Children Living with Domestic Abuse, Briefing for the Scottish Child Care and Protection Network, SCCPN, 2011
Work with stories
These Cedar Stories of Change came from the evaluation of the Cedar work in 2011. Listen and let us know what you think.
Taking Account of Change, Measuring the Impact of Space Unlimited, April 2013. This report describes the co-designed evaluation framework that provides a meaningful basis for gathering both stories and statistics. Using this framework Space Unlimited have produced a series of reports that show the impact of their work.
Other Evaluation and Research Reports
Learning and Outcomes from Leadership for Integration, Final Report 2018, NHS Education for Scotland, SSSC and RCGPS
Reducing Pressure Ulcers in Care Homes Improvement Programme – Case Studies, Scottish Patient Safety Programme, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, 2017
Practising Collaborative Leadership: Reflection and Learning from the Enabling Collaborative Leadership Pioneer Programme, with What Works Scotland, June 2016
Positive conversations, meaningful change: learning from Animating Assets, Glasgow Centre for Population Health and the Scottish Community Development Centre, 2015. Also see the digital stories.
Getting Better by Design Evaluation of a programme to support the voluntary sector in Scotland, Jo Kennedy and Cathy Sharp, May 2015
“It’s All in the Mix” – An Evaluation of the Lothian Living Leadership Programme 2013–14, Cathy Sharp, 2014
Caring to Ask – How to embed caring conversations into practice across North East Glasgow, Cathy Sharp, Jo Kennedy, Ian McKenzie and Belinda Dewar, 2013
A multi-component programme approach to tackle alcohol-related harm in communities: lessons from the Fife Alcohol Partnership Project, Cathy Sharp and Mark Bitel, September 2012
Devolution of Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans: Analysis of consultation responses, Cathy Sharp, Anne Birch and Dawn Griesbach, 2012
Healthy Weight Communities Lessons for programme design and delivery from the Action Inquiry Process Cathy Sharp, 2011
Doing with, not to: Community Resilience and Co-production, The Implications for NHS Education for Scotland, Stuart Hashagen, Jo Kennedy, Andrew Paterson and Cathy Sharp, July 2011
Staying afloat: an evaluation of the Health, Work and Wellbeing Management Support Project, Cathy Sharp, with Duncan Wallace, 2011
Evaluation of Homelessness Prevention Innovation Fund Projects, Cathy Sharp and Lucy Robertson, 2008
What do we Measure and Why? An Evaluation of the Citistat Model of Performance Management and its Applicability to the Scottish Public Sector, Cathy Sharp, Jocelyn Jones and Alison M. Smith, 2006
Enhancing Sexual Wellbeing in Scotland – A Sexual Health And Relationships Strategy – Analysis of Non-Written Responses to the Public Consultation, Cathy Sharp, 2005
The improvement of public sector delivery: supporting evidence based practice through action research, Cathy Sharp (2005)
Useful guidance and toolkits
Is this the best it can be? A reflective toolkit for artists, arts organisations, partners and participants, Creative Scotland, 2016. Guidance notes and tools are available to download here.
Older but still useful guidance on specific research methods is available here How to Gather Views on Service Quality This guidance is useful for anyone interested in improving public services. It was originally published by Communities Scotland and the Scottish Housing Regulator and is now published here with permission.
Cartoon © Kate Charlesworth
Think pieces and inspiration
When are you ever not piloting? (2012)
How action research can help to deliver better public services
Current debates about redefining the relationship between public services and communities can feel uneasy at a time when it feels more important to focus on saving costs and retain essential services. At the heart of current debates is the call for public services to be more responsive by involving individuals and communities in shaping the way services are designed and delivered.
We’re at a critical time. Actions are needed to equip public sector staff and key agencies with the skills and capacity to work with disadvantaged communities to help them respond effectively to current economic conditions. There are calls for a radical, new and collaborative culture within public services. At the same time, almost daily some commentator says we don’t need evaluation. Certainly our many strategies, plans, good practice guides, procedures and targets have not led to expected improvements in outcomes and that, in some cases, inequalities have become worse.
Is it research we need? Given that questions about how we should act and what difference we are making will always be with us, perhaps it is time to build-in a different type of ‘research-in-action’ into the fabric of our everyday practice?
This short article When are you ever not piloting? is written in the hope of generating debate about these issues. It is hoped to interest people from many kinds of organisations and communities.
See also the creative storyboard here
Inspiration
I think it is very important to hold to the idea that action research is one way to break down this barrier between living an inquiring life and research in a formal sense, and to see inquiry as part of a well-lived life, and of a healthy organisation and society. 
So I love this quote from the great American playwright, Arthur Miller:
“There is hardly a week that passes when I don’t ask the unanswerable question: what am I now convinced of that will turn out to be ridiculous? And yet one can’t forever stand on the shore; at some point, filled with indecision, scepticism, reservation and doubt, you either jump in or concede that life is forever elsewhere”.
This means that action research is an attitude toward inquiry, not just a methodology.
Taken from Peter Reason, Choice and Quality in Action Research Practice, Keynote address, ALARPM 6th World Congress, PAR 10th World Congress, Pretoria, September 2003