Mission Statement
The Special Interest Research Group on Comparative Policy and Practice exists to further the planning, coordinating and conducting of activities relevant to all aspects of comparative policy and practice in the field of intellectual disabilities. Its mission is to
- Provide a focus for the worldwide exchange and dissemination of research comparing policy and practice in intellectual disability.
- Promote cross-national, multidisciplinary collaboration in comparative policy and practice, with the aim of improving the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, their families and carers, throughout the world.
- Serve as a medium for deliberation, exchange of ideas, knowledge, skills and experience and for compilation, publication and dissemination of information about comparative policy and practice in intellectual disability.
Bylaws
The bylaws of the Comparative Policy and Practice SIRG can be viewed at this link: Bylaws
Survey on the Impact of Covid 19 on Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Caregivers
The Comparative Policy and Practice SIRG led a team of 26 researchers to conduct an anonymous online survey on the impact of COVID19 on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers. The study protocol and study findings from 3,745 participants are openly published by the Health Research Board and can be accessed in full here https://hrbopenresearch.org/collections/coronavirus (type COVID-19 IDD into the search box on the right of the page). The curated dataset, data dictionary and other documentation are openly published on the Open Science Framework and can be accessed here https://osf.io/gk2vf/ Our group encourages others to access this dataset for secondary data analysis. Further detail on the collaborators and a collection of infographics on the findings can be found here https://www.ucd.ie/psychology/ucdcentrefordisabilitystudies/ourresearch/
Documents and Publications
Comparative Policy and Practice Research on Health Systems
The Comparative Policy and Practice Special Interest Research Group has collaborated with IASSIDD’s Health Issues Special Interest Research Group to produce a Special Edition of the Journal of Comparative Policy and Practice. This Special Edition provides a series of country profiles documenting how health systems across the globe provide, or not, for people with intellectual disabilities. The Special Edition concludes with a synthesis of these findings. The Special Edition is due January 2024. The journal website can be found here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17411130
Comparative Policy and Practice Research on COVID-19
Christine Linehan with members of the Special Interest Research Group on Comparative Policy and Practice received funding from the Irish Government to conduct research exploring family members’ and paid staff’s perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers.
The protocol for this research can be found on open access here https://hrbopenresearch.org/articles/3-39
The final paper describing the findings from this research can be found on open access here https://hrbopenresearch.org/articles/5-27
The anonymised dataset is available for download on the Open Science Framework here https://osf.io/gk2vf/
Deinstitutionalisation and community living
-Jim Mansell and Julie Beadle-Brown with members of the Special Interest Research Group on Comparative Policy and Practice
Membership
All members of the IASSIDD are eligible to join the CPP-SIRG. People interested in joining the SIRG are invited to contact Professor Christine Bigby at the address below.
Contact
Professor Christine Bigby
Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University, Australia
Email c.bigby@latrobe.edu.au
Events
The IASSIDD Comparative Policy and Practice SIRG is holding a series of webinars to explore the research on measuring, improving and regulating the quality of disability services. The series underpins a program of work on quality and regulation and is a precursor to an anticipated SIRG Roundtable to be held in conjunction with the IASSIDD 2026 European Conference in Munich. To facilitate participation of Australian, European and American colleagues we are holding each event twice. Sessions will also be recorded for later viewing.
Webinar Information
Webinar 1: How Do Service Providers Measure and Improve the Quality of the Services – Jan Siska and Julie Beadle-Brown
In this webinar, Jan Siska and Julie Beadle-Brown will briefly present a framework for conceptualizing and measuring the quality of services that had been developed through literature review, country template analysis and consultation with key stakeholders. They will then share the findings from a follow-up study which explored directly how service providers in different countries measured and improved quality, with a particular focus on how the methods and approaches they used mapped onto the previously developed framework. Implications and recommendations for how quality monitoring can be embedded into the day-to-day practice of organizations with a focus on the outcomes experienced by individual’s support.
Julie Beadle-Brown, PhD, is currently the PAVE Service Outcomes Project Manager with the California Community Living Network, Professor Emerita at the Tizard Centre University of Kent and Director of Beadle-Brown Consulting Ltd. For 30 years her research, consultancy and teaching has focused on supporting the development of high quality community-based person-centred services that provide the best possible quality of life outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Jan Siska, PhD, is a professor at Charles University, Faculty of Education, and Centre on Community Integration, University of Minnesota. His European and international research, consultancy and lecturing focus on policies and practice in community-based services, and transition for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Webinar 2: Improving Quality of Service Delivery – The Role of Regulation – Jan Siska, Julie Beadle-Brown and Alan Hough
The second webinar in the series will focus on the role of regulation in improving the quality of service delivery. Julie Beadle-Brown/Jan Siska will present 1) an overview of systems for quality regulation at country level in Europe and 2) how service providers in Europe monitor and improve the quality of their services with a particular focus on whether these approaches are mandated or regulated in any way.
Alan Hough will present on choices in regulatory design identified in the general literature on regulation. These choices include about scope, rationale, rule-based or principle-based regulation, required or aspirational standards, external regulation or self-regulation, auditing and inspection mechanisms and compliance and enforcement mechanisms. Using a case study approach, Alan will briefly talk about strengths and weaknesses of Australia’s approach, which has arguably the most rigorous disability service regulation in the world.
Alan Hough, PhD, holds the honorary position of Adjunct Professor with the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include quality and safety in disability service delivery, and regulation.
Webinar 3: Rights Don’t Just Happen – Holding Systems of Care Accountable – Valerie Bradley
This webinar will highlight the importance of ensuring human rights such as those embodied in the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are realized in practice. A mere exhortation that rights of people with disabilities should be respected does not guarantee that rights will be protected. Countries need to create a quality monitoring infrastructure that oversees service providers and that elicits the experiences of people with disabilities and their families. The presentation will point to examples of monitoring schemes such as those laid out in the WHO Quality Rights Toolkit and the National Core Indicators. Further, the importance of involving people with disabilities and their families in all aspects of the process will be stressed. Results from National Core Indicators that speak directly to the CRPD and ADA rights will be highlighted. Finally, the presentation will include the ways in which quality monitoring systems can be translated in improvements in policy and practice.
Valerie Bradley is the President Emerita and one of the founders of the Human Services Research Institute. Ms. Bradley has directed numerous state and federal policy projects that have contributed to the expansion, enhancement and responsiveness of services and supports to people with disabilities and their families. She is a past President of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. She is an editor of books on quality assurance and improvement, individual supports, and de-institutionalization and has contributed chapters to other edited books. Ms. Bradley has written numerous peer reviewed articles over her career on issues including use of data for quality improvement, workforce, and self-direction. She is currently a senior advisor to National Core Indicators (a performance measurement system that includes data on the experiences of people receiving services and supports).
Webinar 4: Tools for Measuring Quality of Support for People with Intellectual Disabilities – Christine Bigby and Lincoln Humphreys
This webinar will present recently developed tools for measuring the quality of support and quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities who use services. The ‘Talking about Quality of Life Tool’ has two parts, the first part collects qualitative information about a person’s QoL through a guided conversation. The qualitative information collected is translated into quantitative scores for each domain and an overall score using a detailed scoring guide. The second part of the tool uses observation to collect quantitative data about the quality of the person’s support, which is a causal indicator of QoL, using the Observing Practice Quality (OPQ) tool. The OPQ is a recently developed and promising tool for measuring support quality in terms of ease of administration, scoring and rigour in its development. Using both parts of the tool will lead to a comprehensive snapshot of the person’s QoL and quality of support. The OPQ is available as an APP and can also be used as a stand-alone tool for observing and measuring quality of staff support.
Webinar Details
The series comprises four webinars. You can choose to attend one, two or up to four of the webinars when booking.
- Webinar 1 – How Do Service Providers Measure and Improve the Quality of the Services
Fri, Oct 3, 2025: 10:00am (Australian Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00); 5:00pm (Pacific Daylight Time, US)
Fri, Oct 24, 2025: 8:00am (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) ; Thu, Oct 23, 2025: 2:00pm (Pacific Daylight Time,US), 11:00pm (Central European Summer Time)
- Webinar 2- Improving Quality of Service Delivery – The Role of Regulation
Tue, Nov 4, 2025: 7:00am (Pacific Daylight Time, US); 4:00pm (Central European Time, Europe)
Thu, Nov 20, 2025: 12:00pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time); Wed, Nov 19, 2025: 5:00pm (Pacific Daylight Time,US)
- Webinar 3 – Rights Don’t Just Happen – Holding Systems of Care Accountable
Version for US and Australian audiences: Wed 11 Feb 5 pm. EST (New York) which is Thurs 12 Feb 9 am AEDT (Melbourne time)
Repeat version for US and European audiences: Wed 18th 10 am EST (New York) which is Wed 18th 3 pm GMT (London), Wed 18th 4 pm CET ( Prague)
- Webinar 4 – Tools for Measuring Quality of Support for People with Intellectual Disabilities
Version for US and European audiences: Wed 18 March 8 pm AEDT (Melbourne time) which is Wed 18 March 9 am GMT (London), Wed 18 March and 10 am CET (Prague)
Repeat version for Australian and US audiences: Thursday 26 March 8 am (AEDT) (Melbourne) which is
Wednesday 25 March 5 pm US (New York time)
You can book to attend one or more webinar.
Registration for Non-member and Group Bookings – USD$20
Click here to register as a non-members or a group. The cost is $20 to attend all sessions with access to the recordings if you cannot attend in person.
Registration for IASSIDD Members
Individual members and center nominated members can log in and register for free by using this form. We will also send members a link to register in a separate email – please email the office if you need this resent.
2024
Comparative Policy and Practice representation at World Congress in Chicago 2024
The Comparative Policy and Practice SIRG has received a high number of abstracts for IASSIDD’s 17th World Congress which takes place in Chicago from 5th – 8th August. You can read more about this event, including registration, here https://iassidd2024.org/. The CPP SIRG will host its General Meeting at this congress. All IASSIDD members are very welcome to attend, whether or not you are a member of the CPP. We warmly welcome conference attendees who may wish to become actively involved in the CPP SIRG. Details of CPP presentations, roundtables and symposium will be released in due course when the programme is finalized and published to the above website. We look forward to seeing you all in Chicago!
2023
International perspectives on healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities
The CPP SIRG hosted this session in conjunction with IASSIDD’s Health Issues SIRG.
- 4th December 2023 21.00-22.00 UTC Coordinated Universal Time
- PDF: IASSIDD 2023 International Perspectives on Healthcare PDF
Monday 4th December, 21.00-22.00 UTC Coordinated Universal Time
The organization of healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities differs internationally with countries unilaterally developing unique and innovative practices to the delivery of healthcare to this population. Understanding how healthcare for people with intellectual disability is organized across countries allows for collaboration and knowledge exchange between healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers at an international level, facilitating the development of more inclusive healthcare systems worldwide. This webinar presented an overview of the organisation of healthcare in the United Kingdom and Zambia, along with findings from a synthesis of the organisation of healthcare in 13 international jurisdictions and concluded with a panel discussion. This webinar showcased some of the submissions to a Special Edition on this topic that was published in 2024 in the Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities.
Speakers included: Reece Adams (Monash Health, Australia); Esther Bakker (Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands); Genevieve Breau (University of Greenwich, UK); Marian Breuer (Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands); Christine Linehan (University College Dublin, Ireland); Helen Mwembeshi (Levy Mwanawasa Medical University, Lusaka, Zambia); Tim Pelle (Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands); Laurence Taggart (Ulster University, UK)
2022
2020-2021
COVID-19 IDD: A global survey exploring family members’ and paid staff’s perceptions of the impact of COVID-19 on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers.
During the COVID 19 pandemic, the Comparative Policy and Practice SIRG spearheaded an online international survey of caregivers of persons with intellectual disability to gather their experiences during this unprecedented emergency. A total of 18 jurisdictions and 26 researchers participated in this research. Findings from this study is openly published here https://hrbopenresearch.org/articles/5-27 and the anonymised dataset and allied metadata are available for secondary data analysis here https://osf.io/gk2vf/
2019
The CPP SIRG has received a high number of abstracts for IASSIDD’s 16th World Congress which takes place in Glasgow, Scotland from 6-9th August 2019. CPP will host its General Meeting during the Congress and welcomes all, whether or not you are CPP members. Details of CPP presentations, roundtables and symposium will be released in due course when the programme is finalized. We look forward to meeting you there.
2018
IASSIDD’s 5th European Congress was hosted in Athens, Greece from 17-20th July 2018. A total of 68 abstracts were approved in the CPP track which examined a wide range of issues including service systems, enhancing professional practice, adult life, family supports, ageing supports, skill developments, decision making, autism spectrum disorder, coercive methods, nursing practices and deinstitutionalisation. Roundtables were delivered on practice leadership, facilitating the development of community-based practices in Europe, and challenging in mapping the situation of people with ID in Europe.
Later in the year, a Discussions in Disability Seminar was hosted on ‘Assisted Decision Making’, in Dublin on 27 August 2018 in a collaboration between IASSIDD CPP and the UCD Centre for Disability Studies. This seminar explored developments in assisted decision making, advocacy for those with complex support needs and legislation on capacity, safeguarding and consent.
2017
CPP SIRG contributed to IASSIDD’s Health SIRG conference hosted in Belfast from 19-20 June 2017, entitled “Bridging the gap: from evidence to improved health for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities”. The CPP element addressed measures to improve access to health for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
2016
IASSIDD’s 15th World Congress was hosted in Melbourne, Australia from 15-19 August 2016. CPP abstracts reflected a global reach describing disability services from Azerbaijan, Australia, United States and New Zealand to name a few. Distinct symposia, taking an in-depth look at key issues in comparative policy and practice focused on people with ID with high support needs, collaborations between research and practice, quality of life outcomes, culture in group homes, personalization and decision making.
Later in the year, CPP hosted a joint roundtable with IASSIDD’s QOL SIRG in Zagreb, Croatia from October 20-21, 2016. This roundtable included presentations on Disability Issues in the Community, Support for People with Disabilities, Family Quality of Life and Measurement Issues in Quality of Life. Linked with an IASSIDD Academy event on Inclusive Education and Quality of Life across the lifespan, the roundtable aimed to examine issues of policy and practice impacting on individuals’ quality of life. This roundtable had a particular focus on the movement of services from congregated to community living.
2014
IASSIDD’s 4th European Congress, Pathways to Inclusion, was hosted in Vienna, Austria from 14th – 17th July 2014. The Comparative Policy and Practice SIRG was well represented with 111 abstracts accepted in the Living in the Community track. Symposia were presented on a range of topics including citizenship, technology, supporting families, support needs, quality of life, self-advocacy, community living, social inclusion. Roundtables were hosted on the role of ideology in service developments and on efforts to enhance social inclusion in the neighbourhood.
2013
Developing community based support for people with intellectual disability: Working in partnership to achieve change
This conference will be organised jointly by the IASSIDD Special Interest Research Group on Comparative Policy and Practice and Charles University Prague as part of the QUALI-TYDES Czech Research Foundation project (No. P407/11).
Conference support and organisation by IASSID and SPMP
- Date: Friday 15th November 2013 (Please note change of date from the original announcement due to venue restrictions)
- Venue: Hotel Olsanka, Prague, Czech Republic
SIRG Roundtable Saturday 16th November 2013: The Prague conference will be followed by a Comparative Policy and Practice Special Interest Research group roundtable on Saturday 16th November 09 30 til 1400. The primary purpose of this meeting will be to discuss the content of the papers for the Special Issue on Policies for a Good Life in the Community and to discuss future activities of the SIRG. A brief general meeting will also be held. Further infromation on the programme will be made available here soon.
2012
At the IASSIDD World Congress in Halifax, we had a joint discussion with members of the Quality of Life and Ageing SIRGs. This discussion focused on draft papers prepared and circulated prior to the event by Ivan Brown, Chris Bigby, David Felce and Julie Beadle-Brown and related to the Policies for a good Life in the Community programme of work that had initially been agreed in Rome and then advance at a symposium discussion held in Iceland at the NNDR Conference. The papers focused on:
- Rekindling the ideological drive
- Establishing the evidence base for models of community based provision
- Mapping the situation for people with Intellectual Disabilities: building on the DECLOC report,
- Unraveling the cost effectiveness discourse
Prior to the event, SIRG members helped to complete templates for their countries about the situation of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Attendance at the discussion was good and the discussion was very fruitful and will be used to revise the papers with the aim of compiling a special issue for a journal.
Executive
Chair
Professor Christine Bigby
Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University, Australia
Email c.bigby@latrobe.edu.au
Secretary/Treasurer
Valerie Bradley
Human Services Research Institute
United States
vbradley@hsri.org
Past-Chair
Michael Brown
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queens University Belfast
United Kingdom
m.j.brown@qub.ac.uk
Membership
Professor Christine Bigby
Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University, Australia
Email c.bigby@latrobe.edu.au | http://latrobe.edu.au/cbigby
Social Media
Jan Šiška
Faculty of Education, Charles University
Czech Republic
jan.siska@pedf.cuni.cz
Šárka Káňová
Faculty of Education, University of West Bohemia
Czech Republic
kanova@kpg.zcu.cz
Website
Jan Šiška
Faculty of Education, Charles University
Czech Republic
jan.siska@pedf.cuni.cz
JPPID Associate Editor
Chris Bigby
School of Allied Health, La Trobe University
Australia
C.Bigby@latrobe.edu.au
Ordinary members
Geraldine Boland
UCD Centre for Disability Studies, University College Dublin
Dublin
geraldine.boland@ucdconnect.ie
Femmianne Bredewold
Institute for Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Humanistic Studies
The Netherlands
F.Bredewold@UvH.nl
Masauso Chirwa
Department of Social Work and Sociology, University of Zambia
Zambia
chirwamas@yahoo.com
Sudesh Mukhopadhyay
Former Chairperson Rehabilitation Council of India & Head, Dept of Inclusive Education, NUEPA( now NIEPA, Deemed to be University, New Delhi)
New Dehli
drsudesh.mukhopadhyay@gmail.com
Mary-Ann O’Donovan
Inclusion Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities School of Education, The University of Dublin Trinity College
Dublin
ODONOVM3@tcd.ie
Flavia Santos
UCD Centre for Disability Studies, University College Dublin
Dublin
flavia.santos@ucd.ie
Jan Tossebro
Department of Social Work, Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences
Norway
jan.tossebro@ntnu.no