Social Care
Helping people remain independent, retain their dignity and achieve a better quality of life
Social Care Research Capacity Building Priorities
NIHR ARC Northwest London, in collaboration with Brunel University, is leading a Social Care Research Capacity Building project. Over a two-year period, it aims to strengthen capacity-building initiatives in social care research.
Why is it important?
Social care research is a priority for the NIHR, reflecting the urgent issues about the availability, access and use of social care across the UK. The project is about closing the gaps between the research that is needed for enriching social care, the research that happens, and how research is used in practice.
What do we hope to achieve?
The overall aim is to enrich and strengthen the knowledge base for social care. Under the umbrella of social care is the care provided by individuals, carers and communities, the role played by local governments who have key public duties for social care, private care providers and the voluntary sector.
The project will work across the areas of adult social care, children’s social care, community-based and family care supports, covering all age groups across the life course.
Reflecting the characteristics of North West London, the project has a particular focus on working with diverse communities. The work we do will be informed by public participation and engagement.
How will it benefit people in Northwest London?
The project will work to increase how people engaged with social care can better use the findings from research, as well as support research developments that are relevant to the provision of social care.
Social Care Research Capacity Building Programme
Meet the Team
Professor Fiona Verity
Brunel University
Brunel University
Professor Fiona Verity
Fiona has a background in community development work in Australia in the 1980s. She worked in various community-based roles for 15 years, including community development roles in local government and the community health sector, and management roles in community health. She has an Bachelor of Social Administration and a PhD (Sociology). Her research and teaching have been in the subject areas of community development, social policy and social planning.
In 2000 she moved to work in the higher education sector and has worked at the University of South Australia and Flinders University (South Australia) and Swansea University (2016-2023). Before joining Brunel University in 2023, she was Professor, Swansea University and a former Director of the Wales School for Social Care Research (2016-2020).
Dr Rowan Myron
Rowan is the Education Lead in the Collaborative Learning and Capacity Building theme, working one day a week for NIHR ARC Northwest London and four days as Professor of Healthcare Improvement at the University of West London. She is a trained psychologist and completed her PhD in Child Development at Goldsmiths College, London.
Rowan developed and continues to teach on the MSc Improvement Science and Professional Doctorate in Health courses, using the ARC systematic approach. As the Education Lead, she directs the NIHR ARC Northwest London Improvement Leader Fellowship programme, building capacity in improvement science and supporting individuals to implement change in their workplace. She mentors nationally for the NIHR and regionally for the ARC NWL. She is also leading research exploring the impact of QI learning and teaching within the fellowship.
I am Director of the Self-Care Academic Research Unit (SCARU) at Imperial College London, Director & Trustee of the International Self-Care Foundation & Trustee of the Self-Care Forum. I am a fellow of WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education & Training, the primary care theme lead for NIHR Diagnostic Evidence Co-operative London & General Manager of the Directorate of Public Health at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. As of April 2024, I also assumed the role of Advanced Research Fellow in Social Care one day a week.
My principal aim is to help accelerate the widespread adoption & diffusion of evidence-based self-care & self-driven healthcare interventions to promote health & wellbeing.
I sit on various expert groups & panels, including the WHO Expert Review Group on Self-Care Interventions for Health & the Digital Health London Expert Panel on Evidence Generation for Digital Health Technologies. I am also Chair of the Research Trailblazers Group & the Research Pathfinders Group dedicated to spearheading research in NHS & non-NHS settings, including research on social care. I am Principal Investigator of various national studies on NIHR portfolio, including the Measuring Loneliness in the UK (INTERACT) study, which is the largest study in the world on loneliness.
Nick Hewlett
Nick's role with NIHR ARC Northwest London is to support the theme’s training and learning activities to help build capacity for health improvement and research, as well as actively contribute to research in the Collaborative Learning and Capacity Building Theme.
Ella Kennedy
Ella is a Project Officer who joined NIHR ARC NWL in July 2024, and spends half her week working with the Social Care Team. Her role within the Social Care Research Capacity Building Programme is to support the extension of infrastructure for social care research across the Northwest London area.
If you have any questions, please email nihr.arc@imperial.ac.uk
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Specialties - Social care (NIHR.ac.uk) Funding programmes - Research for social care (NIHR.ac.uk) School for Social Care Research (NIHR)
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