This funding will support a two-year programme of work to encourage and support more research engagement with social care. This will build on our extensive work already being carried out in the region with various partners.
For more details of these projects, or ARC WM engagement with social care, please contact Professor Robin Miller, Social Care Theme Lead: r.s.miller@bham.ac.uk
Understanding the leadership model is social care is essential to designing, undertaking and implementing relevant research.
Patrick Hall works between the University of Birmingham and West Midlands ADASS (Association of Directors of Adult Social Care).
In this role, Patrick:
Engaging with under-served communities is essential to ensure research is relevant and can be implemented in practice.
Surrinder Bains is a community champion at Birmingham Voluntary Service Council (BVSC).
In this role, he is increasing the diversity and recruitment of under-served individuals and communities engaged in research. To do this, Surrinder is widening participatory research and bringing together active citizens to draw on their lived experiences and those of their communities. A key part of Surrinder’s role is to build trust with communities around research and to understand other barriers to engagement such as accessibility, language and mistrust.
Surrinder is working to mentor and support community researchers as they work on research projects such as worklessness, HIV, Hepatitis B & C and TB and Pakistani Headaches. He is also providing research training for community researchers using a range of approaches including creative methods and storytelling. The aim of this work with community researchers is to support them to develop their own research proposals and for them to present at the REND conference in 2025.
Occupational Therapists are one of the core professionals within social care but at present their opportunities to participate in or undertake their own research is limited, which results in lack of evidence of their effectiveness and contribution.
This project seeks to understand the many barriers to OTs engaging with research and how these could be overcome in practice through testing out innovative approaches to enhancing their capacity and skill, and developing relevant opportunities for OT based studies.
It will be led by two Strategic Improvement Coaches who are experienced OTs and strategic change agents and be delivered in partnership with the WM Regional Principal OTs’ network and the UK Centre for Improving Adult Care Together (IMPACT).
The project commences in March 2025 and will last for 12 months with learning then being shared regionally and nationally.