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A major objective of health policy in the UK is to provide practitioners with a stronger evidence base for their work. Kate Philip, a health promotion co-ordinator for Grampian Health Board, Aberdeen, addressed this objective through a User Fellowship linked to the phase 2 project on children's
lifestyles and health variations.

The overall aim of her fellowship was to develop practical methods for disseminating research on children's perspectives on health inequalities to practitioner audiences in Scotland - and thus to enhance the evidence-base of their work. The Fellowship acted as a bridge between the research team and user groups, particularly those in public health/health promotion, but also in community education, social services, education and child health.

Methods and activities included:

• the development of an extensive database of national and local contacts, to support effective dissemination. A practitioner database of 200 contacts was constructed from official sources and professional networks; 'cascading' increased the database by 50%, to 300.
• the production of two project newsletters, and their distribution to a range of policy makers and practitioners across Scotland. Interviews and group discussions, together with newsletter feedback, helped to identify and refine dissemination methods and to inform the second newsletter.
• the publication of short articles on the study in a wide range of in-house journals, briefings, newsletters and magazines (including Report, Newsletter of the UK Public Health Association; CHEX, Newsletter of the Scottish Community Health Exchange; Research Matters, the newsletter of the Chief Scientist Office; Research and Intelligence Newsletter for Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA); Children in Scotland Newsletter, GOSSIP, newsletter of the Social Inclusion Partnerships). Oral and poster presentations also took place at conferences, seminars and networking meetings (e.g. 2001 BSA Medical Sociology Group, 2001 U.K Public Health Forum)
• two participatory seminars on the research process and findings were organised collaboratively with other agencies. The first, in Inverness, principally involved practitioners whilst the second, in Glasgow, targeted key decision makers and managers within partnerships, voluntary organisations, health services and local authorities across Scotland.