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PHIRST Fusion

PHIRST Fusion is a team with many years of experience in working with local and national government, public health practitioners and communities to undertake research that can provide evidence needed to support the policies and programmes that will improve the health of our population and reduce health inequalities across our communities.

Members are based across Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Initially led by Professor Ashley Adamson (2020-25). PHIRST Fusion was recommissioned in 2025 for a further 5 years under the leadership of Professors Peter Craig and Peter van der Graaf.

PHIRST Fusion takes an evaluability assessment (EA) approach to co-producing an evaluation design that addresses the priorities of Local Authority stakeholders. The EA process comprises a series of workshops that are used to develop a ‘theory of change’, to identify relevant sources of routinely collected data, and to formulate and agree an evaluation plan.

PHIRST Fusion uses an embedded researcher model. This 'buys-out' time of a designated Local Government colleague working on the intervention that PHIRST has been contracted to evaluate for a defined period. Allowing them protected time within their current employment to dedicate to the evaluation. They assist the PHIRST team to navigate Local Government processes and are given the opportunity to work on all aspects of the research and develop their knowledge and skills.

Our non-academic collaborators include Directors of Public Health across the UK, Local Government Association, Public Health Scotland, Public Health England, COSLA (voice of Local Government in Scotland), NI Community Planning Forum and Public Health Research Network, community and public representatives.

Evaluations

1. Evaluating ‘No One Left Behind’ Fife – tackling employment issues in Scotland
2. Evaluating COVID-19 emergency travel schemes across South Gloucestershire Council
3. Healthy Weight Tayside, a whole systems approach to child healthy weight in Dundee City
4. Evaluation of the North Yorkshire Council Living Well Smokefree Service
5. An evaluation of Southwark Council’s summer 2022 Holiday Activities and Food programme
6. An evaluation of three West Midlands local authority COVID-19 Community Champions programmes delivered in support of the national vaccination effort
7. Evaluation of the Nottinghamshire Healthy Families Programme Parent/Infant relationship initiative
8. An Evaluation of the Social Navigator Project
9. An Evaluation of Cosy Homes in Lancashire (CHiL)
10. An evaluation of the City of London Bridge Watch suicide prevention initiative

Fusion members