Personal Statement
I am a Tenure Track Research Fellow in public mental health at the Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems within the Institute of Population Health. I lead a research group - Welfare and Social Policy Evaluation Research (W-SPER) within the Health Inequalities Policy Research (HIP-R) theme in the Institute. We bring together diverse researchers from diverse disciplines to generate robust evidence-based insights that can directly inform welfare and social policy. We are a supportive and collaborative group that are united by our passion to support a health and equity promoting social security system for all.

I am also the Institutes Fellowship co-lead. In this capacity I, alongside my co-lead, support and champion the research of our colleagues and encourage the development of fellowship applications within the Institute. We foster an environment where prospective fellows can thrive through mentorship, access to resources and identify opportunities for development to ensure each applicant feels supportive whether its identifying the right fellowship, offering support with reviewer feedback through to preparation for interview (email: iph.fellowships@liverpool.ac.uk).

I lead and co-lead several grants (see Research section) and teach across the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB), the Masters of Public Health (MPH) and the Doctor of Clinical Psychology (DClin), and supervise candidates studying for their Doctor of Philosophy (PhDs) (see Teaching section).

I am developing a network alongside colleagues dedicated to collecting and sharing evidence of the health effects of the welfare system called Well-fair. The website will launch January 2026.

I am also working towards developing training to support colleagues and students develop digital stories to share their research and impact journeys.

Research Overview
I am co-leading several grants and leading several work packages that explore the health and mental health impact of changes to the welfare system. My research on the mental health impact of Universal Credit and wider changes during austerity have contributed to editorials, evidence reports and submissions to select committees. I have also given written and oral evidence to the DWP Select Committee on Universal Credit based on my research evidence exploring its mental health impact), as well as attending and contributing to various All Party Parliamentary Group meetings on Universal Credit and levelling up. Previously my work exploring poverty and child health outcomes contributed to the body of evidence that resulted in the retention of income-based measurement of child poverty nationally which fed into an impactful REF case study.

These contributed to recommendations to government, and have since been cited in national and international reports (e.g.https://www.srpoverty.org/2024/10/01/the-burnout-economy-poverty-and-mental-health/). Moreover, I have worked to translate and discuss my research with a broader audience, creating an animation and contributing to a podcast where I was interviewed by a group of young people (https://soundcloud.com/oursicksociety/social-class -and-young-people) which we are working on including on the University Web Profile.

Alongside colleagues in Law and Social Justice I have engaged in Participatory Action Research that resulted in the development of the Liverpool Access to Advice Network with the target of improving capacity and access to free legal advice for people in Liverpool. We were awarded the 1st Annual Impact Prize for doing so at the Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference.

Knowledge exchange and co-production are integral to my research practices. Integrating the voices of all interested, invested or impacted voices is a fundamental part of both my research and teaching to ensure research can be practically and usefully applied in the world. As a result the grants I have developed and been involved in all included rich knowledge engage and co-production methodologies.

I have discussed some of this work, examples of which can be accessed via the links below:

Oral evidence to the House of Commons Works and Pensions Select Committee on Universal Credit and the wait for first payment:
https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/5d5e46b8-c323-4a64-8bca-53e2ed17cb4f
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/528/default/

Podcast: Episode 8 of Our Sick Society: Social class, poverty, and young people's mental health: https://soundcloud.com/oursicksociety/social-class-and-young-people

Conference: The International BNA Festival of Neruscience: The psychological impact of poverty: http://www.educationalneuroscience.org.uk/2021/08/23/symposium-on-the-psychological-impact-of-poverty-2/

Liverpool Responds: Health inequalities (discussing the health inequalities before COVID-19): https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/coronavirus/events/liverpool-responds-health-inequalities/