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Catherine Shaw is Head of Research at HM Inspectorate of Prisons

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I didn’t have any overriding or fixed ambition as a child, though I did go through a phase of wanting to test products for Which? magazine, suggesting an early leaning towards research.  This then lay dormant for about 15 years.

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
Relatively late. I drifted from a social science degree into a series of jobs in education and training, finally having my ‘light-bulb’ moment when I was working as a teacher in a unit for teenagers at risk of exclusion from school. While the work was interesting, enjoyable and challenging on a personal level, I wasn’t finding it intellectually satisfying. Browsing through an Open University prospectus, I came upon the syllabus for an MSc in social research methods and realised that I had - finally! - found my vocation. Looking back, I now feel very fortunate in having being able to change career so easily and cheaply - the whole degree only cost me a few hundred pounds. Times have certainly changed.

What was your first professional job?  And first project there?
My first social research job was at the Policy Studies Institute where I was initially recruited to work on a longitudinal study of school leavers in inner-city areas. My teaching experience certainly proved useful when negotiating the various levels of gatekeepers involved in recruiting 34 schools to participate in the study and agree to mail out three waves of questionnaires on our behalf.

Where did your career go next?  What motivated that/those moves?
I then spent a couple of years at a small research organisation with a focus on children, young people and families where I worked on various evaluation studies. Several of these were in the youth justice field, including that of the first Secure Training Centre for 12-15 year olds at Medway.

My next move took me out of a purely research environment into the National Children’s Bureau, an organisation where researchers worked alongside policy and practice experts. This post provided a wide range of challenges and opportunities in addition to delivering more traditional funded research projects. Some of the highlights included leading a project which supported groups of practitioners to design and implement their own small-scale evaluations, and working with NCB’s young research advisors to plan and co-facilitate a conference on the participation of children in all aspects of research.

My current post at, HM Inspectorate of Prisons, is different again. I manage a team of 12 social researchers whose primary task is to conduct surveys of detainees, providing evidence to inform inspections. As inspectorate staff, we are privileged in having unfettered access to prisons and other places of detention, and in being able to publish without political interference. It is important to remind myself how unusual this is in the world of social research today. As are our 80% plus response rates!

What has been your best professional moment?
My most satisfying professional moments have not been related to specific publications, presentations or workplace promotions. Rather they have been more private triumphs, in particular when I’ve successfully communicated the benefits (or, indeed, limitations) of specific research methods to non-researchers. Beneath the social researcher façade, the educator still lurks within.

...and worst?
At the end of a 90 minute qualitative interview realising that the tape recorder had been set up incorrectly and I had no data at all. I spent the evening trying to reconstruct the interview from notes and memory before returning to the office to confess.

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
Probably Cathie Marsh who taught a statistics for social sciences course which formed part of my first degree. She was a passionate, enthusiastic and inspiring teacher; she died too young.

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
It’s a fantastic career for a curious person! In the early stages you will certainly meet some fascinating people and probably get to visit some interesting, if not always salubrious, places! You will definitely learn a lot about the world, and if all goes well, contribute to making it a better place. Who wouldn’t want all that?

Bruce Hayward is Head of Research at Kantar Public UK

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
At an early age, I harboured an ambition to be a professional cricketer. A bit later I was the singer in a school punk band and enjoyed brief dreams of rock stardom. Then, after the inevitable split due to musical differences, I flirted with the idea of writing existentialist novels but never actually put pen to paper.

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
I left university with a degree in modern languages and no idea what I wanted to do next.  Reading about market research in the careers office sparked my interest. While it’s not obvious from my choice of degree, I’ve always been fascinated by numbers and numerical patterns, which was the main attraction at the time.

What was your first professional job?  And first project there?
I joined BMRB as a graduate trainee in 1988, working in the ad hoc surveys division, which did everything from FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods ie household products) work to social policy research.

I worked under Jenny Turtle, who led most of our public-sector work as well as a range of other work. We did a lot of work in the publishing sector and an early project I enjoyed was an annual industry survey of the UK’s book buying, borrowing and reading habits. Another highlight was a project for the Longman Group, part of a wider government-funded project to create a database of contemporary spoken and written British English, which I presented a paper on at the MRS Conference. Our role was to recruit a sample of adults to record all the conversations they had over a week on a Sony Walkman for subsequent transcription.

Where did your career go next?  What motivated that/those moves?
I was at BMRB for 12 years, specialising increasingly in social policy research (the company created a social research division in 1997). One of the big projects I ran during that latter period was a survey that tracked business readiness for the Year 2000 Millennium Bug problem (there are differing views on whether it was a real or imaginary problem).

I left BMRB in 2000 to head up the London team of System Three Social Research (previously Public Attitude Surveys), feeling that I needed a new challenge. It was certainly that, leading a small team competing with the big players in the market. It was a tough job, which I did for three years, but a great learning experience.

I then returned to BMRB in 2003, becoming Head of Quantitative Research in 2009 when BMRB Social Research merged with TNS Social, becoming TNS BMRB. Then in 2016, our parent company Kantar established Kantar Public, bringing its public policy research businesses around the world into a single specialist global business, with TNS BMRB becoming Kantar Public UK.

 What has been your best professional moment?
I would say leading our successful bid for the Understanding Society contract in 2013. It’s great to be involved in such a prestigious, important, ambitious and challenging project with the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at University of Essex and funded by the ESRC.

 ...and worst?
I think we’ve all had projects that ‘didn’t quite go to plan’.  Many years ago, I ran a large postal survey where just about everything that could go wrong did, and in a fairly catastrophic way. Certain colleagues who’ve been in the business for a while tell new graduates to “ask Bruce about the xxxxxxx survey”. I don’t rise to the bait, obviously.

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
Not really, but I think the real heroes and heroines of the social survey world are the interviewers who manage to persuade people to take part in our (usually over-long) surveys and who persevere in spite of regularly having doors shut in their faces or phones slammed down on them!

 Do you have a favourite quote?
One thing we’re doing in the business at the moment is working on improving people’s writing skills, so I’ll pick this piece of advice from Mark Twain: “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.”

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
If you think it’s for you, then give it a go because, if it doesn’t work out, you will benefit from developing a broad range of skills that will be valuable in other spheres. There are obviously various options in terms of where to pursue a social research career (university, research institute, government department, research agency, etc.), but a graduate position in a research agency will certainly provide a good grounding.

Naomi Day is an Independent Qualitative Social Researcher. Here she talks about her career to date spanning commercial and social research agencies and as an independent researcher.

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was growing up, I initially wanted to become a criminal solicitor. I spent two weeks on work experience with a solicitor’s firm which was a real eye opener about how the criminal justice system worked. I learnt quickly that I enjoyed the observation of the legal process more than the actual realities of the job. I also had an interest in art and design throughout school. In the end, social research was a good combination of analysis and creativity.

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
I studied Sociology at the University of Birmingham and loved learning about my lecturer’s empirical research in the field. I realised I had a passion for research after completing my dissertation on the experiences of Black African Caribbean students of secondary education.

What was your first professional job? And first project there?
In 2005 I joined NatCen as a research assistant. My first project was exploring young people’s experiences of alcohol and substance misuse services. This involved interviewing vulnerable young people and accessing support services as gatekeepers to recruiting participants. It was a fantastic introduction to qualitative research and in-depth interviewing in the professional world.

Where did your career go next? What motivated that/those moves?
My next move was to a media and brand insight agency (Sparkler) as I decided I wanted to explore the more commercial side of research. It was a great opportunity to use creative methodologies such as video and ethnographic approaches. I got to work for a range of clients, including the BBC, Disney, ITV and Sky. I then moved back into the world of social research at TNS BMRB as I quickly realised my interest was still in policy research. I worked mainly on central government evaluations and research, particularly in the fields of education, children and young people and welfare to work. I’ve more recently relocated back to Leeds and now work as an independent researcher working in collaboration with other researchers and research agencies or directly conducting research on my own for clients.

What has been your best professional moment?
Producing video story case studies of local organisations and projects that helped tackle the underlying causes of health inequalities. I got to spend time with inspiring participants who kindly allowed us to observe and film their experiences of how these projects had an impact on their lives.

...and worst?
It’s generally the transport and logistical problems involved in conducting fieldwork. I think the worst was travelling to Brighton for fieldwork when no one turned up to my interviews because it was one of the hottest days of the year. Sometimes the beach is more appealing!

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
I’ve worked with lots of accomplished researchers across my career and it would be difficult to single out a specific hero/heroine, but I think the work of Florence Nightingale as a pioneer in collecting data is very inspiring.

Do you have a favourite quote?
“Research is formalised curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” (Zora Neale Hurston)

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
It’s a fantastic and diverse career for anyone with an analytical mind who wants to understand the underlying factors shaping social relationships and issues.

Zoe Khor is a Principal in Research at the OPM group. In this interview, she describes her research journey through various projects on social issues aimed at achieving real world impacts.

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I had dreams of being an investigative journalist - speaking truth to power and giving a voice to unheard voices and stories (kind of what I do now!). Either that or a fashion designer.

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
It was a protracted, and completely unplanned journey. I first became interested in social research as an undergraduate at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) where I studied Social Anthropology and learned about the practice and politics of ethnographic fieldwork. After a stint working in Japan on the Japan Exchange and Teaching programme team teaching English language in a high school in north eastern Honshu, I returned to the UK and got a job in external affairs at the Institute for Public Policy Research. I quickly got a sense there that I really wanted to be working on the research and policy side of things. I really got the research bug when I was doing qualitative research as part of my masters (University of Oxford) and was speaking with migrants about their experiences of the naturalisation process and living in the UK more broadly.

What was your first professional job? And first project there?
My first research job was at the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford. I worked on a couple of projects including an EU Science and Society funded project which used research - stakeholder interviews and content analysis of science reporting across five EU member states – and stakeholder engagement to develop guidelines on science and health communication. The other was for a public relations company for a well-known tissue brand who wanted to understand public perceptions about men expressing their emotions (crying). What united these pretty disparate projects was the opportunity to start to learn how to do qualitative interviews and facilitate focus groups and how to develop a coding framework. I also got to see where the insights from research can go, and what they can influence, whether that be guidelines for journalists, or an advertising campaign.

Where did your career go next? What motivated that/those moves?
I wanted to move back to London and work in research focussed on social issues - giving people a voice about the policies and services that affect them. Opinion Leader Research were doing really interesting work using deliberative engagement methodologies which attracted me to apply. I learnt a lot while I was there, working on all manner of qual, quant and deliberative projects and travelling around the UK doing fieldwork.

During this time, at the back of my mind I still had an academic research puzzle which was niggling away - and which I took up again through a part-time PhD at Birkbeck College between 2009 and 2015. During that time, I worked with inspiring research, evaluation, policy and programme management colleagues at the Community Development Foundation, Shelter, BBC Media Action and OPM Group where I still work.

What has been your best professional moment?
The times that my project team and I have received positive feedback from clients, but more importantly for me, when we’ve heard from project participants, whether individuals or community groups to say that they’ve enjoyed taking part in the research, found it an empowering experience and / or been able to apply insights to make improvements.

Seeing the insights that projects have generated making a real difference is really a key motivation for me. A few years ago, I worked on a project which engaged women through a citizens’ jury methodology, about risk communication. The insights we generated helped to directly inform the leaflets which are sent out to women along with invitations to attend breast screening.

...and worst?

There are a few of these too, mostly involving handling / mis-handling really vocal participants at large scale public engagement events!

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
My academic research hero and an amazing social researcher and anthropologist is Professor Roger Goodman. He really helped me understand the power of a good research question, and taught me to interrogate the assumptions that people carry around which shape their worldview.

A lot of people and organisations’ work is inspiring. Without wanting to jump on a bandwagon I think a lot of developments using design thinking, with its focus on solutions - is a helpful way for social researchers to start to rethink and restructure the ways in which we go about designing our research so that it is focussed on social impact.

Do you have a favourite quote?
It’s not a quote as such but “read the bloody question” was always my Dad’s exam advice. It’s been a helpful work place mantra as well in terms of taking a breath before diving in with a lot of assumptions.

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
Go for it. It’s a varied and challenging career which can really help to make a positive difference in the world.

Michelle Monkman is a Senior Social Researcher at the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
As a youngster I think I wanted to be a hairdresser. In my early teens I remember doing a careers questionnaire at school which identified social worker, probation officer and researcher as roles which would suit me. I didn’t consciously follow the path to being a researcher but here I am today!

What was your first professional job? And first project there?
After completing my Masters in Social Psychology at the University of Surrey I gained a research post there. I worked on a project exploring public attitudes towards the governance of biomedical research, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust. As part of a team I was involved in designing the research, developing short films and documents to be used as stimulus materials, recruiting participants, undertaking focus groups, analysing the data and writing up findings. I learned a lot about the whole research process as a result. I also learned about biomedical research governance procedures to boot!

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
I joined the Office for National Statistics in 2006. My first post was as a survey methodologist, designing the 2011 Census questionnaire for England and Wales. I spent a lot of time cognitively testing the questionnaire with members of the public, reviewing findings, developing the questions and re-testing, so they were easy to understand and complete, whilst ensuring the information collected met user needs. It’s a great privilege to work on the census, knowing that the data informs policy decisions and the allocation of billions of pounds of public money to provide services like education, transport and health.

Where did your career go next? What motivated that/those moves?
I’m lucky that at ONS researchers get the opportunity to move around the organisation. I’ve held 8 posts so far! The work has been varied and has included questionnaire design, moderating focus groups, data visualisation (developing and delivering a training course and producing interactive graphics), design and harmonisation of the 2011 Census outputs, exploring and analysing population data, writing statistical bulletins, designing research projects and evaluation research on response rates to a social survey. I have been able to utilise both quantitative and qualitative skills and knowledge. Being able to rotate keeps the work fresh and exciting, offering new challenges and development opportunities. I’ve been able to build knowledge and expertise in different topics and experience the different stages of the survey process.

What has been your best professional moment?
That’s a hard question, as I’ve enjoyed all my research posts. I’m currently leading work in response to the request for ONS to collect gender identity information. Various work, research and testing will inform whether and how ONS could collect this data. I’m really enjoying the work, which feels like it’s at the forefront of current changes in society, as we move away from binary definition of sex/gender (male, female) to wider conceptualisations. Without any official statistics currently available I can see how the collection of such information would be beneficial in informing service provision, health and discrimination inequalities for those with trans and non-binary identities. However there are lots of challenges to collecting this information which we need to take into account.

...and worst?
As a career young researcher having to deliver a presentation on a piece of qualitative research to an audience of mainly statisticians!

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
Go for it! Social research posts within government offer a wide variety of work across many different topics. It can be very rewarding to know that the research and statistics you helped produce inform the public about social and economic matters and provide a firm evidence base for decision-making both inside and outside of government. You may even find the research or statistics you work on being mentioned in the media!

Dr Dawn Watkins is Associate Professor in the University of Leicester Law School

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
From a young age I had a strong love of the countryside; so wanted to be a farmer for a while. I had quite an idealised view of what that would entail. Apart from that I envisaged being a writer or an artist.

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
I have developed this area of my work quite recently; since 2011. Before this my work was more text-focussed.

What was your first professional job? And first project there?
My first professional job was as a Solicitor; although I didn’t do it for very long. I qualified in 1996. One of my favourite parts of the job was attending court, where it is fascinating to watch the multiple ways in which various people navigate the legal system.

Where did your career go next? What motivated that/those moves?
In 1997 I secured a University Scholarship to pursue a PhD in Law. The project was based in the field of Law and Literature and it involved a consideration of the notion of ‘high art’ and whether works that are categorised as high art should be afforded greater legal protection than other more prosaic works. This was quite a drastic step away from legal practice, but it gave me an opportunity to spend lots of time reading and writing and to switch my career from legal practice to legal research and teaching. I took up my first full-time lectureship post in 2005.

What has been your best professional moment?
My most recent research (2014 onwards) has involved the creation of a digital game Adventures with Lex to use as a research tool with children; to assess their understanding of law in their everyday lives (the Law in Children’s Lives project - see www.le.ac.uk/licl). I worked with Dr Effie Law from the Department of Informatics in putting a bid together to the ESRC and finding out that the project had been awarded funding was a brilliant moment.

However, watching a classroom full of children play the game for the first time was even better. At the start of the game we gave children the opportunity to get used to using the microphone; so we asked here two questions entirely unrelated to the project; ‘what is your favourite kind of pet’ and ‘why do you say that’? When we handed out the tablets to the children, there was a lot of chatter and excitement, but as they started playing the game, a hush fell across the room - followed a few seconds later by ‘cat’.. ‘dog’… ‘fish’. That was cool.

...and worst?

In the pilot stages of the Law in Children’s Lives project, we discovered a ‘glitch’ in the game; which meant that potentially the entire project might not work. Happily, the glitch was fixed by the gaming company and I was thankful that the glitch had been discovered at this early stage. Certainly it highlighted for me the importance of building pilot studies into the research design.

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
We employed two research assistants on the Law in Children’s Lives project; Dr Jo Barwick and Dr Elee Kirk. They both made significant contributions to the project and demonstrated for me the considerable advantages of taking an interdisciplinary approach. Elee emphasised the need to pursue a participatory approach from the very start of the project; and in her championing of children’s voices on this project and in her other work, she stands out as a hero to me. Sadly, Elee passed away in 2016 but in the relatively short time that I knew her, she significantly impacted my thinking and my approach to conducting research with children and young people.

Do you have a favourite quote?
I don’t have a single favourite but I have quite a store of little sayings that I say to myself quite often. My favourite at the moment is from Maya Angelou ‘If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.’

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
Focus on the things that you are passionate about, but obtain training in as broad a range of methods as possible (even the ones that you don’t like as much as the others). Seek out opportunities to work on interdisciplinary projects; and commit yourself to carrying out work of the highest possible standards, regardless of the context.

Angus Tindle is a Director at IFF Research. Within a varied role, he works with benefit claimants to understand the impact of welfare and employment policies and pilots; and regularly leads on studies to understand the customer experience of using public services, from making a complaint via the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, to using the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Emergency Travel Document service to deal with being stranded in Brazil without a passport! Legal and financial services are other areas of interest.

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
I think my first serious career inclination was to be an architect or - linked to this - a set designer for the theatre. I was fascinated by the illusion of reality created by a few stage-flats.

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
In 1997, after a degree in English Language and Literature and after eventually deciding not to pursue an MA in Museum Studies (another interest was being a curator!) I revisited my university careers service and spent a couple of days researching potential careers. This was the outcome.

What was your first professional job?  And first project there?
It was market research - a placement at a chemicals company that involved using a combination of analysis of sales data, desk research and short depth interviews to create a vivid picture of the state of play in the animal feeds and oils markets. It was a useful lesson in having to be tenacious in the face of incomplete data and uncooperative respondents; and to think creatively to build up a picture from disparate sources.

Where did your career go next?  What motivated that/those moves?
That helped get me a job at a research agency called Swift Research - motivated by their offer of the (then) novelty of a salary. They straddled both social research and its commercial counterpart, and so I was simultaneously introduced to how to structure a questionnaire to establish taste preferences between Chinese sauces, and qualitative research into perceptions of the Police.

What has been your best professional moment?
That’s a bit dramatic - I’m not sure life really consists of such great peaks and troughs - though there are enough lower-key successes! Recently I really enjoyed presenting a piece on employer attitudes to apprenticeships to a conference hosted by the Skills Funding Agency, the National Apprenticeship Service, BEIS and so on. It was one of those projects where you had to use a wide range of techniques and data sources, and practically reinvent the project on a weekly basis in response to the emerging findings. We distilled all this down to half a dozen slides painting a picture of who these groups of employers were and what might persuade them to take on more apprentices. Afterwards quite a few people came up and said that it was (a) genuinely useful and (b) that our employer ‘types’ rang true.

...and worst?
Anything involving qualitative research where the journey goes disastrously wrong is pretty mortifying: being stuck on a motorway in Lancashire knowing there was a classroom of schoolkids waiting to talk to me; or being stuck on a broken-down train on the way to run a workshop. I now try to leave extremely early as you never know what’s going to happen.

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
More a qualitative research hero, actually. I have found Roy Langmaid (of the Langmaid Practice; he co-authored ‘Qualitative Market Research: A Practitioner's and Buyer's Guide’ with qual guru Wendy Gordon) very inspiring in his quest to challenge what we take qualitative research to be – in essence, we ask too many questions, allow too little time and need to get more adventurous. It’s a useful corrective to the widespread tendency to treat the focus group as a sort of 90-minute open-ended questionnaire.

Do you have a favourite quote?
No. Matthew Taylor of the RSA was in mind as he did a brilliant presentation at the latest event in IFF’s Evidence Matters events series this year covering the role of evidence in a time of uncertainty. Amongst a fascinating torrent of ideas delivered at breakneck speed he discussed the 4 perspectives on evidence; Fatalism, Hierarchy, Individualism & Solidarity.

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
It is intellectually stimulating; you have some fascinating topics thrown your way and you have the privilege of going out and dipping into other people’s lives. You need to be able to write well; think hard (and be prepared to keep thinking, beyond the easier answers), and continually solve problems. And whatever your political leanings, you should also probably read The Economist as an example of great accessible writing on the sorts of topics that social research engages with.

Rebecca Harpley is Senior Research Officer at the London Borough of Newham

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
At various points I wanted to be a hairdresser, a fashion designer and a property developer.

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
I studied Human Geography at the University of Hull and really got into research from my second year when I took the chance to undertake a research project for Beverley Guildhall Museum on the future of their volunteer programme. After graduating I worked for a year and then went to the University of Sheffield to do a Research Methods Masters.

What was your first professional job? And first project there?
A paid internship at the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), now the Learning and Work Institute where I worked with a really experienced team on a range of different projects around adult literacy and mental health.

Where did your career go next? What motivated that/those moves?
Next I worked for the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University on the Straight Talking project about social networks and researchers’ careers. This project gave me a good insight into university research, which is always useful now when I work with academic partners.

My next move was to Action for Children, a national service delivery charity, to work in the market research team. The highlight of this job for me was working closely with the public policy function and marketing colleagues on Action for Children’s response to the personalisation of services for disabled children. I made my next move, to the London Borough of Newham, to work full time in social policy research.

What has been your best professional moment?
Getting my first job in the Policy and Research Team at LB Newham just before the 2012 Olympics. Newham is really innovative in its approach to public policy and invests in research as part of policy development and evaluation. This makes it a great place to work as a researcher. Over the last few years the Council has also developed a data warehouse to integrate data from across the council, which has provided us with a lot of opportunities for data analysis as well as informing our approach to primary research.

...and worst?
Probably a couple of instances of trying to use administrative data for evaluations before we had an integrated system in Newham. Asking busy frontline staff to collect additional data and wading through paper records can be challenging. On the plus side I learnt a lot from these projects.

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
Peter Jackson’s work on social and cultural geographies was one of the key reasons I wanted to do my Masters at Sheffield.

Do you have a favourite quote?
We currently have Justin Bieber quotes up in our office. I will spare you from those.

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
If you’re interested in seeing the impact of your research first hand, come and work in local government.

Valerie Dunn is a co-founder of the Creative Research Collective (www.creativeresearchcollective.co.uk) and Visiting Research Fellow, University of Cambridge, Dept. of Psychiatry/National Institute for Health Research Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) East of England*

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was about 12, the careers person at my ‘rough school’ (my mother’s words) asked everyone what they wanted to be. I said I wanted to go to university. I had no idea what I wanted to study, but I was quite clever and, secretly, liked learning - this wasn’t something you admitted to. Everyone, including the teacher, laughed. I didn’t embark on a degree at until I was 24, at Bulmershe College, which was later subsumed, I think, by Reading University’s Faculty of Education.

What was your first professional job? And first project there?
Before research, I worked in children’s residential care, trained as a teacher and worked in the charity sector. My first research post was at the University of Oxford, Dept of Psychiatry. I was a research assistant on a large epidemiological study of eating disorders which involved interviewing women in their homes. I loved it.

Where did your career go next? What motivated that/those moves?
Moves were usually imposed as studies were completed, funds ran out or I moved house. From Oxford I moved to Cambridge, to Developmental Psychiatry, as a research assistant on a large study of risk factors for mental health disorders in adolescents. I led on the longitudinal arm which followed up young adults an average of 10 years after their adolescent depression. I then project managed another community study of mental health in 14 - 17 year olds. I co-designed an interview with parents to record family-focused adverse experiences in their children’s lives.

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
I’ve always been most interested in the social side of mental health research. In 2008 the University became a partner in the NIHR CLAHRC* collaboration which involved a shift to more collaborative working with NHS and social care partners. I began working in a more participative, creative way with young people which feels like my natural home. Last year I co-founded the Creative Research Collective with artists, film-makers and group work practitioners (see the photo - I’m second from the left, with (L-R) Tom Mellor, Lizzy Hobbs and Andy Dunn) to develop the more participatory, creative approaches we started within the CLAHRC. So far, we’ve produced short films and a programme to prepare young people to leave child and adolescent mental health services.

What has been your best professional moment?
I have two:
Seeing my first paper in print was thrilling. I had learned a complex form of analysis which felt like a huge achievement. Professor Ian Goodyer was very supportive, giving me the opportunity to take on more responsibility, despite not having a PhD. I gained a lot of confidence.

Secondly, with young people in care, we made a trilogy of short animated films about life in the care system. The second film - Finding My Way - won the young people a British Film Institute (BFI) documentary award. A group of us attended an event at the BFI Southbank. The shortlisted films were shown and critiqued by the judging panel. When the winner was announced, there were gasps of absolute disbelief and delight from our young people. They were presented with one of those enormous cheques and did a radio interview. A truly memorable day.

...and worst?
No major disasters but interviews with a few very unwell young people stay with me.

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
Not really, but I worked with Nick Midgley and his team (UCL/Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families) a couple of years ago and was so impressed with the way he and his team related to and respected the young people we worked with. They were warm, open, caring, insightful and focused on enabling and empowering the young people. He’s been helpful since and I appreciate his wisdom and experience in qualitative research.

Do you have a favourite quote?
In a classroom discussion an enthusiastic 10-year old was bursting to speak, waving, gasping and only just managing to stay seated. When his moment finally came, he leapt out of his chair with ‘Well, I’ve got two and a half ideas about that!’.

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
I’m finding my way myself so don’t feel able to offer much advice. But I think perhaps participatory, creative approaches aren’t taken seriously by some academics and their institutions. So, I would suggest the young person thinks carefully about the way they wish to work and the sort of career they want. I would also recommend a grounding in, and understanding of, quantitative methods and a PhD would come in handy too.

*National Institute for Health Research Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (NIHR CLAHRC) bring together local providers of NHS services and NHS commissioners, universities, other relevant local organisations and the relevant Academic Health Science Network in England. CLAHRCs conduct applied health research across the NHS and translate research findings into improved outcomes for patients.

Isabella Pereira is a Research Director in Ipsos MORI’s Qualitative Social Research Unit.  She is also a new trustee of the SRA.

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?  I am pretty sure that I wanted to be in Bananarama (n.b. original line-up, ideally being Siobhan). But later on I was keen to do something wordy - journalism or law. Hedging my bets, I did an English degree.

When did you first turn towards a social research career? I worked in book publishing after university, where I discovered contemporary non-fiction.  My team worked on Polly Toynbee’s Hard Work, in which the author goes ‘undercover’ doing a number of low-paid jobs and gives an account of the challenges of getting by.  From there I started reading more on social issues and decided to change track and apply for a postgrad in Social Policy. Things went from there.

What was your first professional job? And first project there? I was hired as a researcher in Ipsos MORI’s fast and furious Social Research Institute in 2008. My first study was an online qual piece about innovation in government:  we spoke to teachers, social workers, nurses and the police using online bulletin boards, which was very effective. Nearly a decade on there still isn’t enough online qualitative research in government studies; it would be great to change that.

Where did your career go next?  What motivated that/those moves?  I spent several years learning the core skills, largely working for HMRC, for whom we pluckily tried to understand customer experiences of tax credits overpayments.  This was an exhausting but very useful apprenticeship.

One important milestone was joining the SRA Events Group in 2011, during a long period of cuts to social research funding and staffing.  As well as being good fun, it meant I could keep learning and developing at a time when there were very few other opportunities around.  I also met many of the industry’s great and good, which remains a very useful professional resource.

Another key event was helping found Ipsos MORI’s Qualitative Social Research Unit in 2013.  This was motivated by a desire to drive innovation, quality and consistency in Ipsos MORI’s qualitative research - our team of just six people provides qual methods support to the whole Public Affairs division, working across hugely diverse policy areas and methods.  The move also cemented some great working relationships: everyone in the team is both very good at what they do and exceptionally generous; I learn from them constantly.

What has been your best professional moment?  We did some unforgettable longitudinal depth interviews with lone parents for the DfE/ HMRC Childcare Affordability Pilots in 2009.  The participants were incredibly brave, tough women taking on very daunting challenges in their lives – and the (equally determined) researchers had to battle snowdrifts and icy concrete estates to get the interviews done.  It felt like a triumph when the work was completed.

More recently, our mixed methods work with Shelter developing the Living Home Standard has been a real point of pride - the study made the Ten O’Clock News, which was a real relief in terms of finally being able to explain to people what I actually do.

...and worst?  Oh, I’m not one for war stories.

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?  Howard Becker’s oeuvre is a must-read for all qual researchers. “Howie” is unfailingly original and accessible – for example Telling About Society reframes genres such as drama, the novel and photojournalism as forms of research enquiry.  He’s also very frank and unsparing about what it takes to do research well.

Do you have a favourite quote?  I can’t say I do, so I looked some up. This one made me laugh: “There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.” Indira Gandhi

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?  I think if they asked me the question they probably wouldn’t need much encouragement!  Many young people are completely unaware of research as a career option - but the industry is crying out for different perspectives.  So the people I’d encourage most heartily would probably instead ask “what is social research” - and we should do more to help answer that question.