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Katherine Runswick-Cole, University of Sheffield
Katherine is Deputy Director of the School for Social Care Research (SSCR) with responsibility for Public Involvement and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Katherine is also Professor of Education in The School of Education at the University of Sheffield.
Katherine works closely with people with learning disabilities and with family carers. Her research is shaped by her own experience as a family carer of a son labelled as having a learning disability.
In her spare time, Katherine loves spending time with family and walking in the Peak District.
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Martina Smith, University of Sheffield
Martina is a research associate with the School of Social Care Research (SSCR). Martina works together with the national public involvement group to support and develop public involvement across the SSCR institutions. Martina has a particular interest in inclusive co-production research and has most recently worked on an NIHR funded project exploring the mental health of family carers of adults with learning disabilities (NIHR135080: Tired of Spinning Plates).
Martina is also a family carer for her eldest son who has learning disabilities and drug resistant epilepsy.
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Kate Gridley, University of York
Kate is a social care researcher at the University of York specialising in dementia support. She works with people with dementia and their families, as well as professionals and other academics, to learn about people’s experiences of using services and ways to make things better. She also works on projects to help people who are looking for social care to navigate the complex system of private, voluntary sector and state support.
Kate is currently undertaking a PhD looking at the experiences of research assistants and people with dementia taking part in large quantitative dementia studies.
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Kelly Hall, University of Birmingham
Kelly’s research focuses on adult social care. She has a particular interest in researching the role of voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations in the social care sector, as well as international retirement migration and care.
She draws on participatory approaches in her research and co-leads the Research Better Together project that is designed to build stronger research connections between social care researchers and VCSEs.
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Reena Devi, University of Leeds
Reena is an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds and a Scientific Linking Pin researcher in the Nurturing Innovation in Care Home Excellence in Leeds (NICHE-Leeds) partnership, a partnership between care organisations and University of Leeds (with Leeds Beckett University).
The NICHE-Leeds partnership aims to enhance quality of life, care, and work for those living and working in care homes. As a Scientific Linking Pin, Reena works closely with care homes, working on developing evidence-based solutions to questions raised by care home staff, residents, and relatives. Her research interests are around 1) sustaining the social care workforce and 2) methods used to improve quality in long term care.
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David Abbott, University of Bristol
David researches with different groups of disabled people about topics like social care, sexuality, housing and personalisation.
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Nicola Brimblecombe is Assistant Professorial Research Fellow in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
She is an experienced mixed-methods social care research whose research mainly focuses on unpaid care, housing and care, and unmet need and inequalities in care. She is currently leading studies on young carers and whole family approaches; integrated support for unpaid carers; and housing, neighbourhood and care. All her projects have a focus on implementation of findings into practice and on involvement of carers, disabled and older people, and practitioners.
