Social Care Research Lead

We are seeking a Social Care Research Lead to take on a new and exciting role to develop a children’s and adults’ social care research programme.

About us

Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) plays a key role in what makes us healthy in Oxfordshire. Through its commitments on tackling climate change, shaping the environment to encourage active lives and improve air quality, promoting inclusive economic growth, providing services to people in Oxfordshire, closing the health gap between different communities, and building staff capacity, the council can make transformative changes to the wellbeing of local residents and communities.

Working with partners, including district councils, communities, health and care organisations, local businesses and world-leading universities, OCC wants to lead the development of a place-based approach to research excellence. Through high-quality systematic research, OCC and its partners can better understand why different approaches to improving residents’ health and wellbeing work for different populations and in different settings, and how complex policy systems and environments impact health.

About the role

You will play a research leadership role across Children’s and Adults’ social care in Oxfordshire. You will work closely with academics at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, acting as a knowledge broker to help develop a children’s and adults’ social care research programme to better understand how to support people and families in Oxfordshire and best meet local care and support needs.

You will work closely with council staff, the wider care sector and local communities to identify local research opportunities, build research capacity in adults’ and children’s social care and embed research evidence into everyday practice. There will be significant scope to be involved in exciting new research projects and contribute to a drive towards more evidence-based practice within social care.

You will be a key part of supporting the council in growing its research capability, including the development of a cross-council research strategy, working between directorates and with external stakeholders to help the council maximise its skills and resources to understand the needs of local communities and how to tackle them.

The role is funded by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Oxford and Thames Valley (NIHR ARC-OxTV), and you will work in partnership both with colleagues at the NIHR ARC-OxTV and with academics working within social care research locally and nationally to support the development and delivery of relevant research projects and programmes.

About you

To be successful in the role, you will have:

• the ability to influence, persuade and make change, including communicating complex information to a range of audiences
• the ability to lead a programme of work, in partnership with residents, communities, and external organisations
• experience of undertaking social care research projects, working with or in higher institutions and with academics, including knowledge of funding applications, ethics processes and research governance
• a sound understanding of Local Government, the NHS and partnership working

Closing date: Friday 5 July 2024.

Interview date: week commencing Monday 15 July 2024.

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