The Centre for Health and Development (CHAD) was established as an innovative partnership between A fundamental part of this is working in partnership, bringing together local government, academia and local communities, an approach described by Professor Sir Michael Marmot as being ‘exactly what is needed’ at the formal launch of CHAD  View here.

CHAD was established at a time of diminishing public sector resources and evidence of increasing health inequalities. The two Local Authorities recognised the need to be able to evidence effectiveness of public health interventions locally, whilst developing the evidence base of not only what works, but how interventions work to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities.

In partnership with Staffordshire University, they identified 3 years of funding to establish CHAD as centre for translational research which would focus on health and social inequalities and respond to local priorities. Initial funding for CHAD was made available from July 2015 to August 2018, and CHAD has been fully operational from July 2016.

Since August 2018, CHAD has been adopted and supported as a mainstream Staffordshire University research centre, whilst continuing to maintain and develop links with external partners to operate as a collaborative research centre.

Partnership and collaboration remain at the heart of CHAD delivery and are a pre-requisite for the kind of multi-disciplinary research that can impact practices and policies to improve health and reduce health inequalities. Much of CHAD’s work align with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 Good health and well-being and 10 Reduced inequalities.

The CHAD team maintain a busy programme of research and evaluation activities, and a programme of professional and public engagement, particularly through the webinar series co-hosted with the Faculty of Public Health.