PhD Studentship - Using Technology to Support Strategic Workforce Planning in Social Care

Project Supervisors: Dr Muhammad Faisal, Dr Natasha Alvarado, Professor Rebecca Randell

Project Description:

In this project, you will work with Bradford Children & Families Trust, developing a dashboard to support understanding of likely future population needs to inform strategic workforce planning. Strategic workforce planning is a process of predicting the future demand for care and the staff required to deliver it (Sutton et al., 2023). Consequently, strategic workforce planning is essential for the sustainability of health and social care systems. However, there is a need to move from a demand-based approach to a needs-based approach, which uses population needs as the basis for workforce planning rather than the levels of service utilisation, service targets, or simple population ratios. Existing research in workforce planning has focused on healthcare, with less attention to social care.

This project will likely involve interviewing key stakeholders within Bradford Children & Families Trust to understand what they want from such a dashboard and to elicit their ideas concerning how such a dashboard will support decision making in the Trust. Combining these ideas with evidence from the literature about what does and does not work, you will work with Trust staff to co-design and evaluate a prototype dashboard. It is expected that the project will generate learning that will be useful for other health and care organisations. At the beginning of the PhD, you will agree the details of the project in collaboration with key stakeholders within the Trust.

Based within the Centre for Digital Innovations in Health & Social Care, you will join an active research centre.  You will be benefit from full access to the researcher development sessions organised by the Centre, including writing retreats, away days, training, and associated events. You will also spend time at the Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research, a collaboration between the Universities of Bradford and Leeds and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where you will get to network with researchers from the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration and the NIHR Yorkshire & Humber Applied Research Collaboration. You will also have access to researcher development sessions organised by the University and the White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP). 

The studentship is for up to 4 years; at the beginning of the PhD, you will spend time as a ‘researcher in residence’ within Bradford Children & Families Trust, returning at the end of the PhD to support the Trust in translating your research into practice.

Eligibility:

You should hold a first degree equivalent to at least a UK upper second class honours degree, or suitable postgraduate degree in computer science, human factors, psychology, social science or a health or social care related subject. Experience of software development and/or data visualisation are desirable but not essential.

Funding notes:

This PhD scholarship is available for home students only. The scholarship will attract an annual tax-free stipend of £19,237, and will cover the tuition fees.

Funding for:

UK Students

Enquiries email name and address:  

For informal enquiries, please contact research@bradford.ac.uk

How to apply:

Potential candidates should apply directly online through the online application portal.

Advert information