Remembering NIHR SSCR Senior Fellow: Dr Martin Stevens

We are deeply saddened that Dr Martin Stevens passed away on Monday 21 March.

Martin has been a member of the NIHR School for Social Care Research family for many years, and since 2019 was an NIHR SSCR Senior Fellow through his role at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce (HSCWRU) within King’s College London (KCL).

He led research funded by NIHR SSCR on risk and personal budgets and models of safeguarding, and was part of the research team working on a study on hoarding and self-neglect.

NIHR SSCR colleagues have known Martin for over 25 years, from when he was working in local authority (LA) social care, with his energy and enthusiasm to develop links between LA and university-based researchers, and then following his move to KCL. Martin chaired the UK Social Services Research Group and led on social care for the Local Area Research and Intelligence Association. He had been advising researchers at the NIHR Research Design Service since 2019.

Martin’s frontline experience was a key strength in his research and he was clearly very dedicated to social care research as a means to improve individual lives.

Martin excelled in his role as chair of the Social Care Research Ethics Committee, and many a researcher has spoken highly of his guidance and support throughout the years. He was instrumental in its development and did so much generally to develop ethics and research governance thinking and processes in social care.

Martin’s contributions to social care research and capacity have been innumerable.

Martin was a key friend to NIHR SSCR. He was an amazing colleague and friend who will always be remembered and missed.

Our condolences are with his family, his HSCWRU and SCREC families and with all of his colleagues and friends.

Martin Stevens, 18 April 1964 – 21 March 2022

Read more about Martin on the HSCWRU blog