The guiding principle which has underpinned the planning and delivery of services and supports to people with disabilities over the past 10 years in particular, is that people with disabilities be given the opportunity to live as full a life as possible. People are being supported to live with their families for as long as possible and to be included as individuals, with a contribution to make, in the life of their own communities.

In more recent years, the publication of our Government’s National Disability Strategy and the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities has engendered much hope and expectation in people with disabilities, their families and friends and the organisations who support them. Of course, these expectations also create challenges for service providers. As a National Federation of Voluntary Bodies we acknowledge that to be truly person centred in our approach we need to recognise the imperative for us to transform the way we operate and develop more innovative and creative responses. Accordingly, we are in the process of developing a new strategic direction with the central objective of ensuring that we are fit for purpose, that what we provide is relevant and responsive to the needs of every individual we support.

Key to the achievement of this objective is an assurance that what we do is evidence based. In this regard, we recognise that appropriate high quality research is a necessary pre-requisite to ensuring best practice in service development and delivery, and in policy formulation. We have therefore developed a supporting research strategy which has been developed through extensive consultation with our member organisations and people who use our services, and which is outlined in the pages which follow.

In conclusion, I would like on behalf of the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies to convey my sincere gratitude to our excellent Research Sub-Committee, who have developed this strategy under the leadership of Dr. Brian McClean and supported by our Director of Research & Policy Development, Edel Tierney. I am confident that its contents will play a key role in ensuring that our overall objective of providing services and supports, which accord with or exceed best international practice, will be achieved.

Brian O’Donnell, 
Chief Executive

Our Research Strategy 2008-2013 can be downloaded here.