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Two charities specialising in support for people affected by substance use will collaborate with ºÚÁÏÍø academics in a bid to improve outcomes and services for clients.

Professor Susan McPherson and Dr Katie Peterson, of the Institute for Public Health and Wellbeing, are working with Essex Recovery Foundation and Open Road to support their capacity to collect and report on data.

Third-sector services such as the two charities provide vital support for people affected by substance use, however, they have traditionally been left behind in research and funding initiatives.

The two projects will be funded by Innovate UK’s Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT) programme, which addresses this gap by connecting knowledge bases such as universities with organisations for research skill sharing.

Through the research partnership, seeks to devise data collection strategies to allow them to contribute evidence on the effectiveness of interventions provided to people affected by substance use.

Open Road hopes to share the learnings from the project across the sector, and that baseline measures of performance created will help to inform future research into innovative interventions.

will also work with Professor McPherson and Dr Peterson to maximise its use of data.

This will enable the charity to demonstrate the impact and value of its work providing a voice to people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and using their lived experience to aid improvements to support services.

The charity will work with Professor McPherson and Dr Peterson to develop a pilot data collection protocol, which will support the creation of further data analysis systems in the future.

Professor McPherson said: “It is hugely important that universities share research infrastructure and expertise with third sector drug and alcohol services – who provide essential services despite limited resources – so that services are able to contribute valuable evidence into the most effective ways to support people.

“These two new projects will provide a much-needed boost to this critical area of work in Essex.”

Laurence Hickmott, Essex Recovery Foundation’s Chief Executive said: “We’re pleased to be partnering with the ºÚÁÏÍø on this essential research project into how community insight can shape better drug and alcohol services.

“At Essex Recovery Foundation, we’re proud to be championing a pioneering approach to commissioning that recognises lived experience as genuine expertise - one that has the power to transform recovery support across Essex.

“With support from Innovate UK’s Accelerated Knowledge Transfer programme and the University’s research team, we’re excited to evaluate and expand the impact of this innovative community-led model."

Sarah Wright, CEO of Open Road said: “We’re thrilled to be working with the ºÚÁÏÍø to build our research capacity.

“This partnership will help us use data to strengthen our services and improve outcomes for the people we support."