The National Institute for Health and Care Research provides funded opportunities for social care practitioners to develop research. Lee-Ann Fenge, Professor of Social Care and the Wessex Clinical Research (CRN) lead for social care, recently made a short video about social care research as part of the annual NIHR Your Path in Research campaign. This aims to encourage UK health and care professionals to play an active role in delivering research as part of their careers.

Lee-Ann reflects on her own career as a researcher, the variety of projects she has been involved with, and the importance of using participatory research co-produced with practitioners and those with lived experience. The aim of the NIHR campaign is to encourage social care organisations and professionals to play an active role in research as a path to delivering better services to the public. NIHR’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/FVgx9r_sdpw

An example of the opportunities provided by the NIHR include the NIHR Local Authority Academic Fellowship Programme and Associated Opportunities. This programme of fellowship schemes and short placement awards supports individuals based within local authority settings to develop as social care researchers whilst retaining their existing employment and salary.

The training opportunities include three schemes:

• LAAF Programme Pre-Doctoral Local Authority Fellowship (PLAF) Scheme
• LAAF Programme Doctoral Local Authority Fellowship (DLAF) Scheme
• Local Authority Short Placement Award for Research Collaboration (LA SPARC) Scheme

Please visit the NIHR website for more details: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/explore-nihr/funding-programmes/nihr-local-authority-academic-fellowship-programme-and-associated-opportunities.htm

• Professor Lee-Ann Fenge Director of the Centre of Seldom Heard Voices, Marginalisation and Societal Integration / NCPQSWPP