Our Vacancies
The importance of social care professionals engaging in research is well established through its potential to generate new insights for practice and create new opportunities for professional development. This includes Occupational Therapists, who make a vital contribution to empowering people to manage their health and wellbeing and making personalised care a reality within the social care system. There are though numerous challenges which make it difficult to participate in, contribute to, or lead research, including workforce capacity, skills development, and insufficient career pathways. To understand how we can address these barriers, the West Midlands Applied Research Collaboration is working with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services Principal Occupational Therapists Network to undertake a 12 month change project to facilitate engagement in research by occupational therapists.
This Strategic Improvement Coach role will lead the project and be based within the IMPACT (Improving Adult Care Together) centre. This is the UK centre for implementing evidence which draws on knowledge from different types of research, the lived experience of people who draw on care and support and carers, and the practice knowledge of social care staff to improve practice and policy. IMPACT Demonstrators focus on large, strategic issues in a local system, using change management, organisational development and leadership skills to bring about evidence-informed change, in partnership with people who draw on care and support, families, social care practitioners, and policy makers.
For more information or to apply, please follow this link:
Strategic Improvement Coach at University of Birmingham
- Full time starting salary is normally in the range £46,485 to £55,295 with potential progression once in post to £62,098
- Grade: 8
- Part Time (18.75 working hours per week)
- Fixed Term contract up to February 2026
- Closing date: 25th November 2024
For an informal discussion on the role, please contact:
Professor Robin Miller, IMPACT Demonstrator Lead: [email protected]
We are looking for key actors in adult social care, including funders/decision-makers, service providers, people who receive care and support, carers and front-line staff to join us as Local Network Coordinators. There will be Local Networks in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England, all focused on the same issue, with the ultimate aim to produce an action plan to take change forward, drawing on learning from other parts of the UK.
Each Local Network will get together four times over a period of six months to discuss a particular issue using materials provided in advance, with members sharing experiences and suggesting practical ideas for positive change. The notes from these meetings will be fed back to the UK Networks’ Lead (Kate Hamblin) and Networks Manager (Amber Cagney), who will then produce a summary of key points raised from the Networks across the UK for discussion at the next meeting. We hope this iterative process of discussion and shared learning will result in action plans which will facilitate change.
We would like Local Network Coordinators to:
- attend a training and planning meeting with other Local Network Coordinators
- work with IMPACT to recruit members 8-10 people including people who receive care and support, carers, front-line staff, funders/decision-makers and relevant service providers to their local Network.
- run four Network meetings, roughly six weeks apart, with financial resources available to support this (including room hire and refreshments)
- lead the discussion at the Network meetings, guided by the materials supplied by IMPACT
- summarise the points raised in each meeting and send a note of this to IMPACT’s Networks Manager
- meet three times with the other Local Network Coordinators from across the UK with the UK Network Lead (Kate Hamblin) to plan and debrief after each Network meeting
- work with their Local Network to create an action plan for practical change.
- provide feedback six and 12 months after the Network ends.
There are resources available to support the IMPACT Networks and your involvement as a Local Network Coordinator, including:
- A Local Network Coordinator fee (£5,000).
- Additional resources to support participation costs (up to £2,450, including support for people who are unsalaried [£75 per person per meeting], replacement care/PA support for Network members, travel expenses)
- The support of the Networks Lead (Kate Hamblin) and Networks Manager (Amber Cagney)
Networks focus on specific topics and we have vacancies in the following areas:
Carers, transitions and co-production (from October 2024 – April 2025): Transitions, including service transitions (such as from hospital; from children’s to adults’ services and into a residential care setting) can be experienced as ‘shocks’ or as stressful both for the person experiencing them and those who care for them. This Network will focus on carers (unpaid or ‘informal’ as opposed to care workers) and how they can be better involved during periods of transition. Sometimes carers are ‘forgotten’ or ‘taken for granted’ in the processes and decision-making, and the aim of this Network is to explore how they can be more involved in ways that align with the values of ‘co-production’. We are looking for coordinators in Scotland.
Please contact Amber Cagney ([email protected]) if you have any queries or would like to talk about being a Local Network Coordinator.