Research

Abstract

The Research Unit was established in 1994, but its origins were over 10 years earlier when the BPA recruited staff to assist with the biennial workforce census and other surveys. By 1993 the need for research and information had grown to the extent that the President David Hull proposed the establishment of a dedicated Research Unit. Terms of reference for the new unit, which were approved in October 1994, set out the aims of initiating and facilitating new research, with a guiding principle that this should have a national perspective and that the unit should not compete with academic departments or be a financial drain on the college or its members. A grant of £60,000 from Nestle was secured to establish the unit, which lead to a heated debate within the BPA membership about the rights and wrongs of taking commercial sponsorship from baby milk manufacturers and resulted eventually in the formation of an Ethics Advisory Committee when the RCPCH was founded.