About us

Dr Kerry Allen is an Associate Professor at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham. With a disciplinary background in medical sociology, she is interested in applied research that improves health and care services, especially for people with complex needs or long term conditions. 

Her core research areas are: 

• How people experience long-term conditions, ...

Emily Burn is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Care, an ESRC Research Centre addressing pressures and inequities in how people experience social care. Currently, she is working on a study exploring the conceptualisation of social care as an ecosystem. Prior to this role, Emily was part of a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded project at the University of Birmingham exploring ...

Harriet Clarke has teaching and research commitments to disability and social policy, and supervises doctoral research within the department. Harriet is also Head of Education for the School of Social Policy, responsible for the development and implementation of education strategy with oversight of the School’s teaching programmes. She is a member of the School Senior Management Team, ...

Dr Sarah-Jane Fenton is a Lecturer in Mental Health Policy based in the Health Services Management Centre and the Institute for Mental Health (IMH).

The Health Services Management Centre (HSMC) at the University of Birmingham is one of the UK's foremost centres for research, evaluation, teaching and professional development for health and social care organisations. The Institute for Mental ...

Jon is the Director of IMPACT, the UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care.  IMPACT has received £15m from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Health Foundation, and works across the four nations of the UK to get evidence of what works used in practice to make a difference to front-line services and to people’s lives.

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Kelly is a Reader in Social Policy based in the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology. She is the Director of Global Engagement for the School of Social Policy. 

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Becky is a Research Fellow in the Health Economics Unit at the Institute of Applied Health Research. She is currently working on the NIHR School for Social Care Research funded project “When the money runs out?” with Dr Phil Kinghorn and Dr Denise Tanner, investigating what happens in cases of capital depletion for people living in care homes.

Philip is a Senior Lecturer in the Health Economics Unit. His research interests relate to the measurement and valuation of outcomes in economic evaluation.  In particular, Philip is interested in the inclusion of broader outcomes within economic evaluations of health and social care interventions and the use of the capability approach within health economics.

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Catherine is the Director of Education for the College of Social Sciences and a Professor of Public Management and Leadership in the Institute of Local Government Studies.   She has a background as a policy maker and practitioner in public service and as such as a particular research interest in developing research which can deliver change within the public sector.  Her ...

Professor Robin Miller is an applied academic with an international reputation in relation to integration, leadership and implementation within health and social care. He has been P-I/Co-I to over £14 million of research grants over the past decade and has published over fifty peer-reviewed articles and books.

Robin is the Joint Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Integrated ...

Catherine Needham is Professor of Public Policy and Public Management. She is based at the Health Services Management Centre, developing research around social care and new approaches to public service workforce development.

Catherine’s areas of special interest include:

• Personalisation and coproduction within public services
• Social care reform
• Workforce change in public services
• Inte ...

Louise is an Associate Professor in Social Policy and Director of the Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM). Her research interests focus on older people and personal finance (and personal finance-related issues), including financial security, financial advice, and the regulation of consumer financial services.

Louise’s research is strongly empirical, but against a ...

Jason is an Associate Professor in Social Work, and Director of PGR for the School of Social Policy. His teaching and research examine gender and sexuality, leadership in social work, and children and families social work. He is co-chair of the UK regional network for International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR) and previously chair of  Sexuality in Social Work ...

Denise Tanner is Associate Professor (Social Work). She teaches on BA and MA Social Work courses.  Her areas of teaching and research interest include adult social work/social care policy and practice; social work with older people; social work skills; social perspectives of mental distress; and service user involvement in education and research.

Obert Tawodzera is a research fellow in the Department of Social Work and Social Care, where he is working as the project officer for IMPACT (Improving adult Care Together) which aims to increase the use of high-quality research evidence to improve and support innovation within the adult social care.

He completed his PhD which focused on how Zimbabwean migrant care workers in the UK ...

Jerry is currently leading national research for the Department of Health Policy Research Programme to explore how Local Authorities (and their partners) are responding to the challenge, embedded in the Care Act, to build capacity so as to ‘prevent, reduce or delay’ the need for social care services. He is also co-investigator in the ODESSI trial led by Prof Stephen Pilling at ...

Dr Maxine Watkins is a qualitative researcher who joined CHASM in July 2021. She is currently working with the Centre for Care on a project that explores the decisions that family (unpaid) carers make in relation to caring responsibilities and employment, to understand the short and longer term impacts on their financial wellbeing.

Dr Shazia Zafar is a scientist in applied health research and social science who conducts research using quantitative and qualitative methods. 

She is currently exploring the impact which results from care home closure. As little evidence currently exists on the impact of care home closure, the results will provide key lessons to local governments nationally.

Her projects are both UK based ...