Coveted Queen's Anniversary Prize for Bradford world-leading Dementia research

The announcement was made by the Royal Anniversary Trust by kind permission of Her Majesty The Queen at a reception at St James’s Palace attended by Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Cantor and Professor Murna Downs, Chair in Dementia Studies at the University.

Bradford is one of only 21 institutions in this round to receive the prestigious accolade, which honours world-class excellence and achievement. It is the highest form of national recognition that UK higher education institutions can achieve. The University has been honoured for its leadership in developing person-centred dementia care, and for influencing policy and practice in the UK and internationally.

First awarded in 1994, the biennial Queen’s Anniversary Prizes are awards within the nation’s honours system. They recognise outstanding excellence, genuine innovation and practical benefit across a range of work taking place in UK higher and further education. The Royal Anniversary Trust administers the scheme and its Awards Council makes recommendations for awards to The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister.

The University’s research has been central to the transformation of care for people affected by dementia. Bradford’s role and impact is based on sustained excellence, spanning research and high-quality teaching and learning, with an unmatched record of engagement with care providers, regulators, and people with dementia and their families.

Bradford’s work in dementia care has had outstanding impact, reaching a wide range of care settings in the UK and beyond, including working with care providers and national bodies on new approaches to developing a highly skilled workforce, and measuring the quality of care. The University has trained over 10,000 care staff across four continents and enabled adoption of person-centred approaches in policy and practice.

The University’s research focused on two key themes: helping people to live well with dementia, and improving the quality of care for people with dementia, both driven by the School of Dementia Studies.

Living well with dementia examines the experience of dementia from the perspectives of both the people living with the condition and their families, from diagnosis through to end-of-life. The aim is to apply this knowledge to ensure optimal wellbeing for people affected by dementia. Research projects examine a range of influences on the experience of living with dementia including social, cultural and family contexts; relational and personal history; unique cognitive changes associated with different types of dementia; and user involvement and empowerment.

Improving the quality of care for people with dementia focuses on developing ways to understand, evaluate and improve care, with a focus on care provision by paid staff. The principles of person-centred care, developed within the School of Dementia Studies, are a core part of this research theme. The School continually seeks to test, evaluate and improve the tools and materials it has developed around person-centred care. Its Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) tool, developed to help implement these principles, is currently being evaluated in a multi-site, £2.4m project funded by the National Institute for Health Research. The aim is to assess the effectiveness of DCM in helping staff reduce agitation in people with dementia and improve their quality of life, as well as improving the working environment for staff, increasing the quality of their engagements with patients and reducing staff sickness and absence.

The Prize consists of a Prize Medal naming the institution, a Prize Certificate signed by The Queen and the entitlement to use the Prize scheme logo for four years. The Prize Medal and Certificate will be presented by The Queen, with The Duke of Edinburgh, at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday 25 February 2016.

Professor Brian Cantor, Vice-Chancellor of the University, said: “We are extremely proud and honoured to be awarded The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for our dementia research, education and training. The University has an established record in carrying out truly great research that significantly impacts on the world. This is the first Queen’s Anniversary Prize that we have been awarded, and it demonstrates the difference that the University of Bradford is making in influencing policy and care for the most vulnerable people in our society, in the UK and across the world.

“One of the University’s key academic themes is advanced healthcare, and dementia studies is a key element of this. An ageing society, with increasing long-term conditions such as dementia, poses considerable global challenges, creating increasing demand on services with fewer resources to deliver them. Bradford’s leadership in delivering solutions in the field of dementia care, both in improving lives and quality of care, puts real meaning into the fact that 96 per cent of our research is ranked as world leading or internationally recognised.”

Jo Johnson, Minister for Universities and Science, said: “The UK is a world leader in science and research and The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes celebrate the achievements of our universities and colleges. The outstanding academics recognised with these awards bring benefits to the everyday lives of millions of people in the UK and deserve this high honour for their work.”

Pictured are (l-r) Professor Jan Oyebode, Professor of Dementia Care, and Professor Murna Downs, Professor in Dementia Studies and Head of the School of Dementia Studies.