Social care researchers appointed as NIHR SSCR Leadership Fellows

NIHR SSCR has funded five Leadership Fellows through our inaugural Development Research Leaders Award Scheme (DRLA).

The five personal award recipients join the School’s growing network of leading adult social care researchers in England.

The DRLA Scheme aims to fund and support individuals at a more advanced level in their research careers to further develop as leaders for adult social care research, as part of NIHR SSCR’s aim to improve the evidence base for adult social care practice in England. The Award Scheme is supported by the NIHR Academy and the Department of Health and Social Care.

Leadership Fellows

Appointed through open competition, the inaugural NIHR SSCR Leadership Fellows are:

Dr Paul Clarkson, Deputy Director, Social Care and Society, University of Manchester
Paul’s award focuses on the design and use of digital solutions in social care and their evaluation.

Dr Jose-Luis Fernandez, Director, Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science
Jose-Luis’ award focuses on the potential for use of local authority administrative records in social care evaluations.

Dr Kelly Hall, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Birmingham
Kelly’s award focuses on social enterprises and other service delivery models in social care and the use of participatory methods.

Dr Ann-Marie Towers, Reader in Social Care, Centre for Health Services Studies, University of Kent
Ann-Marie’s award focuses on measuring the outcomes of long-term care to support care providers to integrate a quality of life focus into routine care planning and delivery.

Ms Helen Weatherly, Reader, Centre for Health Economics, University of York
Helen’s award focuses on economic evaluation to inform adult social care decision making.

Social care leaders

NIHR SSCR has long championed increasing support for skills development and opportunities to lead or be involved in adult social care research. The DRLA Scheme was introduced as part of the NIHR’s and our commitment to building capacity for adult social care research. The Scheme provides personal awards to individuals with a strong commitment to adult social care research to further develop their careers as research leaders. Successful applicants are awarded up to £50,000 and benefit from leadership support from the School.

Professor Yvonne Birks, Deputy Director of NIHR SSCR and lead for Capacity-building, said:

“I am delighted to warmly welcome our first cohort of NIHR SSCR Leadership Fellows. These individuals play a vital role in improving adult social care practice and we look forward to working with them to support their activities and development.”

Professor Martin Knapp, Director of NIHR SSCR, said:

“Supporting the development of research leaders in adult social care is critical to developing internationally leading research which has the potential to improve adult social care practice. These Leadership Fellows are the first cohort of a network of leaders who will be working collaboratively with individuals who use social care services, carers, professionals and the adult social care sector to develop responses to current and future social care challenges”.

Find out more about our capacity-building programme at https://www.sscr.nihr.ac.uk/capacity/.