Introducing the proposed work programme for the second half of the Health and Social Care Workforce Policy Research Unit contract (2026-2028)

Posted on June 3, 2026 by Stephen Martineau

As we move into the second half of the Policy Research Unit (PRU) contract, Health and Social Care Workforce PRU Director Professor Annette Boaz sets out our new work programme.

This blog outlines the priorities we have developed and the core projects we propose to take forward. (1047 words)

Reflecting on the First Half of the Contract (2024-26)

The first half of the PRU contract has been both productive and wide‑ranging. We have:

Completed the seven core projects agreed with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Oversight Group
Delivered five responsive projects, addressing current and emerging policy needs
Concluded the final phase of work on the International Recruitment Fund for Social Care
Established a Workforce Panel, strengthening our engagement with people working across the health and social care sectors

Over the past six months, we have been consulting widely with stakeholders, including our Public Contributor Involvement and Engagement Advisory Group and the Workforce Panel, to identify priorities for the next phase. These discussions were shared with the Oversight Group in October 2025 and followed by meetings with DHSC policy and analytical teams. The final programme was agreed by the Oversight Group in February 2026.

A More Responsive Programme for 2026–2028

We anticipate an even greater emphasis on responsive research in Policy Research Units going forwards. To ensure we have the flexibility to meet this need, we are proposing a smaller set of four core projects.

These projects reflect:

Priorities identified by DHSC’s Research and Development Committee
Two of the three major shifts in the NHS Plan — moving care from hospital to community and shifting from treatment to prevention
Key issues raised by stakeholders across the sector

The proposed core programme includes:

Delegated healthcare activities in social care
Evaluation of the Social Work Bursary and Education Support Grant
Widening participation in the NHS
The impact of reforms to initial education and training standards for pharmacists

We will have scope to take one further core project related to the future NHS Workforce Plan, as well as additional responsive projects.

Spotlight on the Proposed Core Projects

Delegated Healthcare Activities in Social Care

Delegation, defined as the transfer of healthcare tasks from registered professionals to social care workers, is becoming increasingly central to community based care. It offers potential benefits for people using services, the workforce, and the wider system. However, there remain challenges with inconsistent current practice, and uneven and fragmented national and organisational governance.

This two‑year study (May 2026–May 2028) will explore:

The scale and nature of delegation
Governance, regulation, and training
Commissioning and funding barriers
Experiences of staff and other stakeholders

Using literature reviews, expert interviews, a national provider survey, and six case studies, the project will generate evidence to inform future policy, including regulatory frameworks, workforce development, and links to the future Fair Pay Agreement in social care.

Social Work Bursary and Education Support Grant Evaluation

Social workers are essential across adult social care, children’s services, and the NHS — yet enrolments in higher education are declining, suggesting the need for a stronger evidence base on whether, how and with what effect the bursary and grant are being used (and evidence on the impact of bursaries is limited).

This mixed‑methods evaluation (April 2026–April 2027) will examine:

How Social Work Bursaries and the Education Support Fund influence access to training
Student progression and workforce supply
Higher Education Institutions and employer capacity
Regional variation in implementation

The findings will support DHSC’s 2026 consultation and inform funding decisions for 2027/28 and the 2029 Spending Review.

Widening Participation in Health and Social Care

Widening participation in the NHS remains a major policy priority, from improving social mobility to supporting economically inactive and marginalised groups into work. It also aligns with the 10‑Year Health Plan’s ambition for the NHS to recruit from and reflect the communities it serves.

Building on our previous work in this area, this project will combine quantitative and qualitative methods to explore:

Access to medical careers and the impact of new medical schools
Apprentice based and other career pathways into and across medicine, nursing, and Allied Health Professions
Entry roles and progression
Opportunities to extend widening participation into social care

The project will also demonstrate the value of linked administrative datasets for future workforce planning.

The impact of reforms to the Initial Education and Training standards for Pharmacists in England: Evaluating the First Cohort Trained Under the New GPhC Education Standards

2021 reforms to pharmacist education and training in England included the introduction of a new curriculum and foundation training year to prepare pharmacists for expanded clinical roles, including independent prescribing. With the first cohort qualifying in 2026, the study will assess:

The readiness of newly qualified pharmacists to practise, including whether and how they use their prescribing skills
How the new role is experienced across community, general practice and hospital settings
Whether the reforms support wider NHS goals on prevention and community‑based care

Running from May 2026 to October 2027, the mixed‑methods study will generate evidence to inform future improvements in pharmacist training, workforce planning and patient care.

Looking Ahead

The second half of the PRU contract offers an exciting opportunity to deepen our evaluation of and contribution to workforce policy at a time of significant change in health and social care services. By focusing on a smaller set of core projects, we will retain capacity for responsive work. This will allow the Unit to provide timely, high‑quality evidence that supports both immediate policy needs, policy implementation and long‑term planning.

Prof Annette Boaz, Director, Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, June 2026

Acknowledgment and disclaimer

This research unit is core funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme (NIHR206121 – NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce). The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

How the Health T Level can help the NHS and social care address their workforce crisis and support inclusive growth

Posted on May 27, 2026 by Stephen Martineau

Professor Richard Griffin, MBE is Visiting Professor of Healthcare Management at King’s Business School. Today sees the publication of his report for The Gatsby Charitable Foundation: Inspiring the next generation: T-levels and health and social care workforce planning and progression (PDF). (640 words)

Both the NHS and social care face severe and enduring shortages of staff. Fit for the Future: The NHS 10 Year Plan for England published last year, highlighted the need for the NHS to build local, sustainable workforce pipelines and to recruit more people from the communities the NHS serves.

Recent research by King’s College London, funded by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation, suggests that T Levels – technical qualifications largely delivered by Further Education colleges – offer a route to support both objectives, alongside delivering wider benefits.

First introduced in 2020, T Levels are two-year technical qualifications for 16–19-year-olds, equivalent to three A Levels and including an industry placement. The T Level in Health launched in 2021 and is now the second most popular route, with almost 4,000 students in 2025. Continue reading →

A focus on dementia: ongoing research at the Unit

Posted on May 19, 2026 by Stephen Martineau

As part of Dementia Action Week, Unit researchers Olivia Luijnenburg, Fauzia Knight and Kritika Samsi highlight some of our ongoing work in dementia care research in different settings and topic areas: homecare, care homes, support for carers, community work, reducing inequalities in dementia care and methodological work. (775 words)

Homecare

Our homecare work has led to some novel online guides and resources. Colleagues have produced visual and academic outputs on what the role of Dementia Champions in the homecare sector entails. We have also helped to develop dedicated websites for people living with dementia and those who support them: Forward with dementia is an online guide for people living with dementia and carers to support them after a dementia diagnosis; DemCon 2 (currently under evaluation by homecare workers) is a web-based toilet-use and continence care intervention for homecare workers supporting people living at home with dementia. This project builds on two previous studies to co-design guidance for family carers and health professionals in this context. DemCon 2 will also develop further practical guidance about continence care for use by people living with dementia themselves.

We are also part of the Alzheimer’s Society funded GRACE (Goal diRected, Accessible, & Evidence-based Care for Families affected by dementia), which is a new way to support family carers and people living with dementia, through a manualised intervention using goal setting. We are also contributing to PALLDEM-Homecare, Continue reading →

ARC South London, Knowledge Exchange Event 2026: Doing inclusive applied health and care research in turbulent times

Posted on January 20, 2026 by Stephen Martineau

Emily Porro is an 15 January 2026. (1,003 words)

On 15 January, ARC South London held their Knowledge Exchange event at King’s College London, with the focus on doing inclusive applied health and care research in turbulent times. I attended the event as an awardee on ARC South London’s SHARE Research Capacity Building Programme, supporting practitioners to build capacity for research in their workplaces. As an outreach Navigator in St Mungo’s, working with people rough sleeping in South London, I feel strongly about ensuring service users with high support needs and facing deep social exclusion are meaningfully included in research, in order to share their depth of knowledge and opinion. I was therefore particularly excited about the theme of this event, and the presentations certainly stood out for embedding excluded groups within every stage of their work, from the researchers themselves to the methods they used. Continue reading →

Building research capacity in social care research to improve care for older people in care homes

Posted on January 8, 2026 by Stephen Martineau

The NIHR-funded SHARE programme aims to build social practitioners’ skills and knowledge, to use research to inform and improve services in the workplace. The SHARE programme is a collaboration between Kingston University and King’s College London working closely with NIHR ARC South London and the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce. Filipa Maia, one of the people who have been awarded funding to take part in the programme, writes here about her experience of the SHARE programme and how her research could improve care for older people in care homes. Filipa is an education, research and engagement officer at Nightingale Hammerson, a care home provider. (1,249 words)

Please tell us a bit about your background and why you applied for the funding?

I moved to London in July 2021, shortly after completing a Master’s degree in Sociology at Nova University of Lisbon. I majored in English and Spanish studies, before my Master’s in Women’s Studies. By mixing my passions for literature and theatre, I wrote my thesis, “Women’s views of their own bodies: a study on representations of the female body in feminist theatre.” During that process, I discovered how much I like writing about people, their stories, their work and their motivations. Sociology felt like a good choice, a way to understand people more deeply in society and create space for their experiences to be explored and shared.

When I arrived in London, I stepped into the world of care by chance and found an entirely new way to connect with people. My first role was as a therapy assistant at Nightingale Hammerson, where I spent hours alongside residents and observed healthcare professionals of all kinds (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, healthcare assistants, registered nurses) all working with one shared goal of giving residents the best possible quality of life. Continue reading →

A new plan for homelessness

Posted on December 17, 2025 by Stephen Martineau

Carolin Hess, PhD student at the Unit, responds to the publication of the National Plan to End Homelessness. (530 words)

The Cross-Government Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy was published on 11 December – pledging to improve the experience of people experiencing homelessness services. The Strategy is ambitious, placing new legal duties on public services to address homelessness collaboratively and setting out immediate and longer-term actions to address rough sleeping and (long-term) homelessness. Recognising domestic violence and abuse (DVA) as a major driver of homelessness, the strategy commits to reducing the number of people made homeless as a result of DVA.

As my own work focuses on gender-specific and intersectional barriers for women with multiple disadvantage, I particularly welcome its commitment to gendered and intersectional support for people experiencing homelessness, acknowledging some of the barriers faced by women and other groups who face discrimination or find services failing to meet their needs. Continue reading →

An MCA roundtable

Posted on December 2, 2025 by Stephen Martineau

Stephen Martineau reports from a gathering held at Melbourne House, King’s College London on 26 September 2025. (1884 words)

Introduction

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 and homelessness study is an ongoing examination of the mental capacity assessment of people in England who are homeless and who have experienced other forms of disadvantage. The research team have conducted a national practitioner survey (674 responses) and interviews with experts (n=13). The core of the study has involved interviews in three local authority sites with people with lived experience (n=32) and with practitioners (n=46). Together with expert collaborators, we are developing practice guidance. The project ends in March 2026.

Mid-way through the analysis of the site interviews we invited a group of experts in the field of mental capacity, homelessness – or both – to discuss some of the emerging findings. In particular, we asked this roundtable to think about the ‘diagnostic’ or ‘impairment’ part of the definition of incapacity in section 2(1) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). We met to do this at Melbourne House, King’s College London on 26 September 2025.

We are hugely grateful to those people who came along for this half-day event. In addition to thinking about the place of substance use, executive dysfunction and trauma in these assessments, participants also considered when MCA assessments may be misused, or where the Act may be the inappropriate ‘prism’ through which to decide practice approaches. The purpose in this blog post is to summarise the observations that were made during the roundtable – hopefully not, in the act of synthesis, doing damage to the particular points being expressed. It is worth stressing that the following is not a ‘consensus statement’ and, although we list the participants at the end of the post, we all contributed on the understanding that none of the views recorded in any subsequent publication, including this one, would be attributed to any individual who took part. Continue reading →

New research shows how better pay and training could rescue social care in England

Posted on November 15, 2025 by Stephen Martineau

Republished from the LSE Business Review Blog (12 October 2025).

Low pay, job insecurity and post-Brexit recruitment challenges are plaguing the adult social care sector in England. With rising demand and chronic underfunding, work conditions are only getting worse. Andreas Georgiadis and Andreas Kornelakis suggest ways to improve the situation, including better pay and training.

Adult social care suffers from a long-standing “workforce crisis” in England. Recent reports from industry bodies highlight the challenges to the sector’s workers and their ability to offer high quality care. Staff in social and health care are overworked, exhausted and stressed, sometimes to the point of becoming ill, leading to absenteeism or quitting altogether.

Increased workloads and time pressures arise partly due to increased demand for services by a rapidly ageing population. At the same time, over half of adult care providers said they faced challenges recruiting new staff; 31 per cent struggled to retain employees. Difficulties in recruitment and retention intensified after Brexit, as the sector relied heavily on migrant workers.

It is widely known that adult care is one of the lowest paying jobs in the UK. Forty-three per cent of all adult social care workers in England are paid below the real living wage. It will continue to be challenging for care providers to retain pay differentials between those on the wage floor and those with more experience and qualifications. But pay levels are not the only challenge for care workers, as they also face problems of job insecurity and unpaid overtime.

For example, most of those who do home visits are not compensated for the time they spend travelling to homes, which can make up to a fifth of their working day. The use of contingent contracts in social care may deliver some cost savings for providers, but has the drawbacks of job insecurity for workers, and concerns about service quality. Continue reading →

The important role of homecare workers in dementia palliative care and interventions to support them

Posted on September 26, 2025 by Stephen Martineau

Fatima Mujtabah, right, recently graduated from King’s College London in Adult Nursing. (797 words)

Dementia Palliative Care and Homecare Workers

Dementia is a term used to describe a range of conditions affecting the brain that get worse over time. With no cure, dementia is a life-limiting condition, but few people recognise this. As such, the care needs of people affected by dementia are not always met. It is reported that around 90,000 of people diagnosed with dementia require formal social care and about 2/3 of this population live and die at home. This highlights the importance of homecare in the provision of high-quality palliative and end of life care. Yet, current research shows that people with dementia who live at home are more likely to receive poorer quality end-of-life care compared to those in formal care settings such as care homes. Homecare workers have a central role in allowing people to die within their own homes. Continue reading →

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