Postdoctoral Researcher (Nuffield Foundation project)

About the Blavatnik School of Government

Our vision is of a world better led, a world better served and a world better governed. We are a global school committed to improving the quality of government and public policymaking worldwide, through three routes: teaching current and future leaders; generating research with impact; and engaging with governments and practitioners.

What we offer

The School is a collaborative, friendly, and dynamic department based in an award-winning building in Oxford. We host regular events and talks with well-known guest speakers – all of which are open to staff. On the social side, we have regular coffee/cake mornings for staff, a family-friendly Halloween event, and Christmas and summer parties.

As an employer, we genuinely care about our employees’ wellbeing and this is reflected in the range of benefits that we offer including:

• An excellent contributory pension scheme
• 38 days’ annual leave
• Family leave schemes and a comprehensive range of childcare services
• Cycle loan scheme and discounted bus travel and Season Ticket travel loans
• Membership to a variety of social and sports clubs
• Opportunities for remote working.

About the role

The Blavatnik School of Government is seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Researcher to support a Nuffield Foundation funded project on the outsourcing of adult and children’s social care in England – evaluating the impact of marketisation, for-profit provision, and privatisation of social care services, producing research on what it means for service users’ outcomes, quality of care, and accessibility of care.

The role involves analysing a novel data resource of harmonised publicly available data on local authorities and adult and children’s social care providers in England.

You will conduct and contribute to quality research on the outsourcing of adult and children’s social care. You will clean, analyse and visualise data, interpret results, and identify and merge relevant datasets in order to develop new computational methodologies and processes. You will also represent the research group and present papers at external meetings/seminars, lead and contribute to the writing and formatting of research projects and deliverables, and contribute to wider project planning.

This is role is fixed-term until 31 January 2027.

About you

You will hold, or be close to completing, a relevant PhD/Dphil, together with relevant experience. You will have experience working with quantitative data management, analysis and visualisation, as well as the ability to manage your own research and administrative activities. Excellent communication skills are also essential.

Application process

You will be required to upload your CV, a supporting statement and the details of two referees as part of your online application.

The closing date for applications is 12:00 noon on Friday 4 October 2024.

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