Research topic: 

Trade union organising in England adult social care since the 2022 cost of living crisis

I am a doctoral student based in the Department of Social Policy, and a part-time Research Assistant in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre.

Before starting the MPhil/PhD programme, I worked as a Research Assistant in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at LSE. I worked on multiple projects, mainly focusing on understanding interventions and policy measures implemented in long-term care in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, both in the UK and internationally. Another major focus was on the direct and indirect impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on unpaid carers, and interventions implemented to mitigate these impacts. I also briefly worked in the Department of Methodology, undertaking a peer-led research project (funded through LSE Change Makers) to understand the work and life experiences of early career researchers at LSE, with a specific focus on the impact of casualisation.

I graduated from KCL with an MSc in Climate Change: Environment, Science and Policy in 2020, and from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Natural Sciences in 2018.

My research plans to focus on why there has been an increase in industrial action in England adult social care since the 2022 cost of living crisis, when historically there has been very little formal strike action. I intend to apply the research to specific case studies where there has been strike action, and specific groups that are organising workers outside of traditional trade union structures.

I have been awarded an ESRC DTP Studentship, and was awarded an NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Career Development Award to develop the PhD proposal.

Supervisors: Professor Timo Fleckenstein, Dr Isabel Shutes