VI Sector Social Research Group Minutes

4 November 2005

Present:

Mike Brace VISION 2020 UK

Nigel CharlesRNIB

Angela McCullaghThomas Pocklington Trust (Chair)

Keith McKeeWilberforce Trust

Femi Nzegwu Guide Dogs

Deborah BrownThomas Pocklington Trust (minute taker)

1Apologies

There were no apologies.

2Minutes of Previous Meeting – 10 August 2005

Agreed.

3Matters Arising

a)Sharing current programmes

A lot of this information was already being shared through the e-mail bulletin although not everyone would want all their project work to be made public knowledge. It was agreed that it would be useful to have this information internally between partners.

It was agreed that Angela McCullagh, Nigel Charles and Femi Nzegwu would compile a list of the social research projects that their organisations were undertaking and send the information to Mike Brace by 2 December to collate. The detail required would include the name of the project, estimated start and finish project times and the name of the organisation/university carrying out the work. Action: NC, AM, FN

b)Prevalence

Nigel Charles reported that this work was now with the RNIB’s Communications Department to progress. Fazilet Hadi or Lynne Stockbridge from the Communications Department would be able to give a progress report if one was needed.

c)Warwick Evaluation of Low Vision Services Committee

Mike Brace reported that the Low Vision Implementation Group had now been stood down but that the views of SRG about continuing attention being given to the need for research/evidence would be taken to the next meeting of the new group.

4Feedback from Vision Rehab Research Group

The draft minutes from the meeting held on 1 November had now been circulated to attendees. There had been discussion at the meeting about whether this group should continue to meet and about the overlap with the work of SRG. The consensus from the 1 November meeting was that this was a worthwhile forum and that it should continue to meet twice per year.

The vision rehabilitation group had however broadened the topics it was considering wider than rehabilitation and there was a potential overlap with SRG. It was thought that the additional people from the vision rehabilitation research meeting, including some more budget holders, could be invited from time to time to an expanded SRG meeting and that this would be the way the vision rehabilitation meetings should ideally continue.

5Terms of Reference

The Committee considered the draft terms of reference. A revised version is attached to these minutes. It was agreed that Committee members would consider this revised version and send their comments to Angela McCullagh via e-mail by December. Action: All.

6E-mail Bulletin

Committee members discussed the final draft version of the e-mail bulletin. It was agreed that the bulletin looked very good overall but that some minor changes needed to be made, as set out below:

-Project titles in the contents list should convey what the project is actually about, as some of them have titles which are not readily understood by those not involved. Action: All

-The heading of ‘future work planned’ should be changed to read ‘work in progress or planned’ as some of the projects under this heading had been underway for some time. Current projects could then be included in this heading. Action: MB

-It was agreed that Femi Nzegwu would send some wording on the completed project on audio on buses to Mike Brace. Action: FN.

It was agreed that once these changes had been made, the bulletin would be ready for distribution, and that this would be done by Thursday 10 November. Action: MB

Members were requested by Mike Brace to send in future contributions in plain text, with no bullets, so that formatting of the full document was simplified. Action: All.

The front page would include organisation names and website addresses. Logos would be included as the bulletin was sent to users via hyperlink, which meant that they did not take up large amounts of space in e-mail in-boxes. Action: All.

After discussion, it was decided that in future the bulletins would be compiled and distributed six monthly, in Spring (April) and Autumn (October/November).

7Research Management

Angela McCullagh volunteered to circulate a paper on full economic costing to those present, a copy of which is attached to these minutes. Action: AM

8Priorities for 2006/07 – initial ideas

The following subjects were agreed as priorities for discussion:

-Knowledge management

-Autumn workshop – to be held in October/November 2006. It was agreed that members should come up with ideas for workshop themes and possible invitees and circulate them to SRG members by 2 December. Committee members would also sound out their organisations regarding contributions towards the funding of the workshop. Action: All. Mike Brace undertook to do some preliminary investigation on possible London venues, basing this on the presumption that approximately 50 people would be invited at a budget of £3-4k. Action: MB

9General Update

Deferred to next meeting.

10AOB

The next meeting of the SRG was to be on 9 February 2006, starting at 10.30 am in Room 3.020 at RNIB offices, Judd Street.

/DB

9.11.05