pathway: Social Policy Alumni

My PhD will investigate the wellbeing of asylum seekers and refugees in the South West of England/Wales and, specifically, how taking part/reciprocity/volunteering in semi-formal and informal social protection interventions impacts their wellbeing positively and negatively. I also plan to investigate the politics and power structures associated with volunteering as an asylum seeker or refugee. My PhD will test a new research method in this field, using peer interviewers to collect data and the Qualitative Impact Protocol (QuIP) evaluation tool to organise and analyse the findings.

Research suggests that social policy is inadequate in regulating health and safety offences, as a large amount of harm bypasses the criminal justice system. I believe the largest gap in policy is how these offences are dealt with. My research uses interviews and focus groups to build a case for alternative punishments for health and safety offences. I aim to answer the following questions:

1) Are current sanctions effective for the control of safety crime?

2) Are community sentence orders or equity fines better suited to punish and deter corporate offenders?

To answer these questions I look at the regulation and punishment of health and safety nationally and internationally.

My research looks at End of Life Care (EOLC) for and with old adults living and dying in care homes. Given the ageing of populations and the epidemiological transition to non-communicable diseases, more and more people are expected to die in their late 80s when the incidence of dementia, chronic disabling illnesses and institutionalisation is higher. Hence, this PhD answers whether care homes provide – or have the potential to provide – a kind of EOLC that is attuned to the hallmarks of dying in the 21st century England, that is in late old age (80+), with severe disability, frailty, and dementia. It does so by applying a mixed methods design that integrates multivariate analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) with ethnographic observation and interviewing of staff in up to six care homes in the South West of England. This project thus addresses the lack of up-to-date evidence base to inform EOLC practice in institutional long-term care. Further, it investigates the potential and hurdles of EOLC provision in the care home sector.

My project is about how older/disabled people communicate with care professionals, in the context of how personalisation is delivered in long-term care. Using an innovative methodological approach, discourse analysis, which has been pioneered at the Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies, I aim to study the language used in interactions between professionals and clients. I am particularly interested in how the latter group express their needs and preferences regarding the way they are supported.

I hope the findings will both further academic understanding in this area of social science and have a positive impact on the lives of older/disabled people and their families through practical application in the care sector.

My research explores the everyday lives of young people with intellectual disabilities – and those close to them – in a north Indian city. It asks what is important or valued in young people’s lives, what helps them achieve this and what prevents them from doing so. The research context is one of India adopting disability legislation and policy in line with international agreements, while disabled people’s lived realities are poorly understood. The research is an ethnography, with participant observation the main method, and draws on a social relational model of disability as a theoretical starting point.