The CHESS Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial - Qualitative Research Fellow

3 Apr 2024
Job Information

Organisation/Company

NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY

Research Field

Sociology
Ethics in health sciences

Researcher Profile

First Stage Researcher (R1)

Country

United Kingdom

Application Deadline

26 Apr 2024 - 00:00 (UTC)

Type of Contract

Other

Job Status

Full-time

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?

Not funded by an EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

Offer Description

ABOUT THE ROLE

This three year post will enable you to explore the (social) organisation of self-care for children with neurodisability, understand the (taken for granted) organisation of a large cluster randomized controlled trial, as well as help develop more inclusive recruitment and retention processes and procedures.

We want to work with a great qualitative researcher, who has excellent practical, analytic and conceptual skills. You will be working as part of a lovely, friendly and supportive multi-disciplinary trial team.  You will be based in the Implementation and Innovation Research Group (IIR) at Northumbria University, working primarily with Tim Rapley.

Working as part of multi-disciplinary team, you will support the delivery of qualitative work on the NIHR HTA funded CHESS research project by undertaking research activity, writing up research work for publication and collaborating with project partners. The ethnographic qualitative work will involve interviews, focus groups, workshops, and observation with clinical, managerial and research staff and parents, carers and children over multiple sites across the UK. Some of the fieldwork will be conducted in person, so at times there will be travel to different parts of the UK, some will also be conducted remotely. 

The CHESS study is a clinical trial which seeks to assess how parents and professionals can support young children with neurodisabilities to develop independence in everyday self-care tasks. This is a multi-site randomised controlled trial which will include 40 NHS organisations and will involve 960 children and their families.  The outcome evaluation will focus on assessing the effects of the self-care intervention on the child’s self-care independence, self-care involvement in child-caregiver interactions, child-health related quality of life mental health, and caregiver health and care-related quality of life. There will also be an economic evaluation to establish the cost-effectiveness of the work and a qualitative process evaluation.  Initially, the qualitative process evaluation will support the development of recruitment and trial processes, with a particular focus on supporting inclusion and diversity.  During the internal pilot phase, we will also seek to develop solutions for any emerging problems. Later in the process, we will seek to identify and develop optimal implementation strategies for embedding and normalising the self-care intervention beyond the end of the study.

This role is fixed-term for 36 months.

Further information is available in the job description .

This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 therefore the successful candidate will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The trial is led from Newcastle University with Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust as the lead NHS organisation for the trial. Other partners include the University of Aberdeen – the Clinical Trials Unit for the trial; Bangor University and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine supporting the health economics; alongside people from Northumbria University and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, and the Peninsula Childhood Disability Research Unit at University of Exeter.

You will be will embedded in the Implementation and Innovation Research Group (IIR) - a small friendly cross departmental group between Nursing, Midwifery and Health and Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing at Northumbria University. IIRs work ranges from initiation, scoping and development of novel ideas for service, therapeutic and care innovations, to feasibility studies, pilot and full trials with embedded process evaluations, as well as the scaling up and scaling out of evidence-based interventions. IIR works with key health and social care stakeholders to develop innovative, individualised, community-based and organisational solutions to problems of implementation and knowledge mobilisation through applied research. Through high quality research, we develop theories, tools and methodologies as well as interventions to support implementation and knowledge mobilisation in practice.

You will be formally based in the Department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Northumbria University, Coach Lane campus, one of five departments within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.

ABOUT YOU

To be successful in the role you will have: 

Excellent practical, analytic and conceptual skills in ethnographic qualitative research.

Knowledge of contemporary debates in clinical trials is desirable, as is knowledge of debates and challenges relating to neurodisability. 

Ability to travel for purpose of data collection to various locations in the UK is essential.  

You will hold a PhD, have submitted your PhD or be about to submit your PhD in the next three months, or have equivalent experience, in a health and/or social science related discipline.  

Further information is available in the person specification.

If you would like an informal discussion about the role, please contact Professor Tim Rapley - [email protected]

To apply for this vacancy please click 'Apply Now'.  Your application should include a covering letter and a CV.

We welcome applications from the UK and across the world. Visit our web pages for details about Relocation Assistance .

ABOUT US

At Northumbria, we embrace tomorrow. We pursue new thinking, forge new partnerships, create, and exchange new knowledge, and find new solutions. Our inspirational academics, partners and students work together to tackle tomorrow’s challenges head on. We are ready for the future whatever it may hold.

Awarded the title of University of the Year  in the 2022 Times Higher Education Awards, Northumbria University is a research-intensive modern university with a global reputation for academic excellence.

Northumbria recorded the biggest rise of any UK university for research power in the Research Excellence Framework for the second time in 2021 and is now ranked top 25 for this measure.

One of the largest universities in the UK with over 37,000 students from 137 countries, filled with world-leading research, award-winning partnerships, and students at the heart of an outstanding experience, Northumbria is a new kind of excellent university. Discover more about us .

Northumbria University is a great place to work.  We empower our exceptional people to achieve shared ambitions and promote a positive work life balance.  We offer a wide range of benefits including excellent pension schemes, flexible working, a generous holiday entitlement, continued commitment to your learning and development and more . 

Our Northumbria Values are guiding principles that define who we are, what we do and what is important to us. Our Values are: Academic Excellence; Innovation; Inclusivity; Collaboration; and Ambition.

Our Behaviours describe how we do things and how we work together at Northumbria, reflecting our culture and our decision-making. Our Behaviours are: We listen and learn, we support one another to success, we respect everyone and their contributions, we trust in ourselves and each other and we are bold.

Our Behaviours were co-created by colleagues from a range of roles across the University, who worked collaboratively to consider what it feels like to work for Northumbria, and where we need to continue to transform together to achieve what’s important to us.

Please visit Our Values and Behaviours  page to find out more.

We are an on-campus organisation where colleagues work regular patterns of hours and on campus, with some flexibility on the timing of their hours and the location of their work in discussion with their manager. Our campus locations include City Campus Newcastle and Coach Lane Campus Newcastle.

Northumbria University is committed to creating an inclusive culture where we take pride in, and value, the diversity of our staff.  We encourage and welcome applications from all members of the community. The University holds a bronze Athena Swan award in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality, we are a Disability Confident Leader, a member of the Race Equality Charter and are participating in the Stonewall Diversity Champion Programme.

The University has implemented a range of flexible working arrangements, and we are happy to explore candidate requirements as part of the recruitment process.

We are committed to keeping your data safe so it's important for you to know how we use any personal data you give us. For more detailed information, access our Privacy Policy .

Requirements
Additional Information
Work Location(s)

Number of offers available

1

Company/Institute

NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY

Country

United Kingdom

City

Newcastle Upon Tyne

Geofield

Where to apply

Website

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/listing/368465/the-chess-cluster-r…

Contact

City

Newcastle Upon Tyne

STATUS: EXPIRED