Collaboratory Researcher Profiles
Project Title: What barriers and facilitators shape the education and employment experiences of young carers aged 16-24 years in the East Midlands, and how do factors such as caring intensity, socio-economic circumstances and ethnicity influence these experiences?
What were you doing (e.g. type of work/study) before your PhD/Placement?
Prior to my placement, I had over 20 years of professional experience managing homelessness services, driven by a strong commitment to creating a more equitable society where homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring. Alongside this, I volunteer as a trustee for a local homelessness charity, which enables me to remain closely connected to the realities of frontline provision and governance in the sector. More recently, my work has been in public health, where I have led on areas including severe and multiple disadvantage, alcohol-related harm, and reducing inequalities for inclusion health populations. I am passionate about working towards a fairer society in which people’s health outcomes and life expectancy are not determined by where they are born, live, or grow up.
I have also managed sexual health services, including services for people living with HIV and clinical genetics, which strengthened my expertise in health protection and the leadership of large clinical services. In addition, I have led work on domestic abuse from a public health perspective. Alongside this professional background, I hold a Master’s in Public Health, which underpins my applied, systems-focused approach to research and practice.
What are you researching?
My research examines the education and employment experiences of young carers aged 16–24 years in the East Midlands. It explores the barriers and facilitators that shape their participation and progression in education, training, and work, with particular attention to how caring intensity, socio‑economic circumstances, and ethnicity influence these experiences. The study aims to understand how structural, social, and personal factors interact to support or constrain young carers’ opportunities, and to identify where systems such as education providers, employers, and support services may better respond to their needs.
What motivated you to apply for this specific Placement project?
I was drawn to this placement because of my long‑standing professional focus on inequality and my interest in how caring responsibilities shape life opportunities. My work and life experience has shown me that caring roles are often invisible within education and employment systems, despite their significant impact. This project allows me to connect applied experience with academic research, contributing evidence that reflects the realities of young carers’ lives while supporting more responsive and inclusive practice.
Why do you think this research is important?
This research is important because young carers are a largely hidden group whose education and employment opportunities are often shaped by caring responsibilities that remain poorly recognised within policy and practice. The transition from education into work between ages 16 and 24 is a critical period, and caring can create structural barriers that affect attainment, progression, and long‑term economic security. By generating evidence grounded in lived experience, this research will help identify where current education, employment, and support systems fall short and how they could respond more effectively. The findings have the potential to inform more equitable policy, improve targeted support, and reduce longer‑term inequalities affecting young carers’ health, wellbeing, and life chances.
What difference do you hope to make in Nottingham through this research?
Through this research, I hope to contribute to improved understanding and practice in Nottingham, Leicester, and Loughborough by identifying and sharing examples of what works well in supporting young carers within education and employment settings. By highlighting effective approaches the research can help showcase how relatively small, practical adjustments can make a significant difference to young carers’ experiences. Ultimately, the research aims to inform locally relevant improvements that are grounded in real experiences and can be adopted or adapted across the region.
What do you hope to be doing in five years’ time?(personally and/or professionally)
In five years’ time, I hope to be working in a role that brings together my personal values and professional experience in addressing inequality, safeguarding, and public health, where I can make a meaningful difference for some of our most marginalised populations. Having come into academia later in my career, I am driven by a strong curiosity about why people behave as they do, drawing on behavioural science, psychology, and learning from serious cases to improve systems and outcomes.
I would like to be undertaking and leading research that is grounded in real-world contexts, contributing evidence that informs practice, strengthens safeguarding, and supports more humane and effective responses for people facing disadvantage. Professionally, I see research as a way to deepen and extend the impact of the work I have already been committed to over many years.