Research

Dione Hills

Dione has been at the Institute since 1986.  Recently stepping down from her position as manager of the applied research and evaluation team, Dione continues her involvement in a number of evaluation and action research projects as principal researcher. Her commitment is to developing applied research and evaluation strategies that make a real contribution to  the organisations or policy areas in which they are undertaken, which often involves both ensuring that the research strategies adopted are realistic and 'fit for purpose', as well as incorporating consultancy skills in ensuring that all those involved in the activities researched (including funders, managers, staff and beneficiaries) are assisted in finding ways to use the results of the research effectively.

Dione’s background is in the field of health, welfare and community development. Coming to the Institute after several years as a researcher at the Department of Health, she contributed to the setting up within the Institute of a specialist unit - the Evaluation Review and Development Unit (EDRU) – to explore the development and application of innovative evaluation theory and methods. She has been involved in the evaluation of a number of major national and European programmes, recent examples of these being the programme wide evaluation of the Big Lottery Fund’s Healthy Living Centre programme, and the fundholding element of the then DfES’s ‘Parenting Fund’.

Running through much of Dione’s work has been the theme of interprofessional and inter-organisational partnerships, and the potential for alliances developing new approaches to entrenched problem areas. Another major theme has been that of service user involvement, a central theme in her work as scientific advisor to the Department of Health research initiative: 'Health in Partnership’.

Another recent interest has been the support of mutually beneficial dialogue between main stream services and voluntary, faith and community sectors, including activities whose role in the support of people with chronic and disabling health issues, such as complementary and alternative therapies and traditional healers, is often overlooked.

Recent publications include her contribution to the Work Foundation project looking at ways of measuring the public value of publicly funded programmes (read here), a contribution to the Open University course on perspectives on complementary and alternative medicine (read here), a chapter in a recent Department of Health funded overview of public health evidence for tackling health inequalities (read here), and a guide book on the evaluation of community based health interventions currently available on the NICE website.