Literature reviews

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the scale of patient waiting lists for cardiac surgery throughout NHS providers in Lancashire and the Midlands (and also nationally). To inform its programme of work relating to post-Covid recovery, we were commissioned to carry out a literature review of recent research focused on specific key areas. We designed and implemented a systematic search strategy based on Medline/Pubmed and Embase databases; undertook thematic analysis of 98 academic articles and produced a concise report summarising findings from the evidence base. 

We undertook an integrative literature review of approaches to climate change risk assessment specific to heritage assets. The purpose was to identify approaches to climate change risk assessment which would be suitable for Historic England to implement across its own assets and use as part of its climate change mitigation strategies. We designed and carried out a robust, systematic search conducted on open search engines, compiling a database of 500 academic articles. Source moderation through a thorough review of abstracts and an analysis framework were used to systematically assess the methodological robustness of the sources included in the final review. Our report is being used by Historic England to develop its own risk assessment methodology for heritage assets. 

With Cast Consultancy, we undertook a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) for the National Housing Federation (NHF), drawing upon existing secondary sources of evidence, academic papers, industry journals and published datasets from major Government departments and the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Our report provided valuable evidence around the likely impacts of long-term funding for affordable housing.