Research
My research focuses on the impact of policies that aim to reduce child poverty on child and maternal mental health and health inequalities. This involves using national longitudinal data sources to evaluating the health impact of national policy changes. I am currently exploring the impact of universal credit and its mental health impact on various groups of people likely to be effected by the introduction of the policy (e.g. out of work, single parents, people living with a disability, children). I am also keen to investigate other aspects of welfare changes for example the introduction of the two-child limit and how this has impacted women's choices. I am also exploring how cuts to legal advice service provision alongside welfare changes have effected health and health inequalities
I have discussed some of this work, examples of which can be accessed via the links below:
Oral evidence to the House of Commons Works and Pensions Select Committee on Universal Credit and the wait for first payment:
https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/5d5e46b8-c323-4a64-8bca-53e2ed17cb4f
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/528/default/
Podcast: Episode 8 of Our Sick Society: Social class, poverty, and young people's mental health: https://soundcloud.com/oursicksociety/social-class-and-young-people
Conference: The International BNA Festival of Neruscience: The psychological impact of poverty: http://www.educationalneuroscience.org.uk/2021/08/23/symposium-on-the-psychological-impact-of-poverty-2/
Liverpool Responds: Health inequalities (discussing the health inequalities before COVID-19): https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/coronavirus/events/liverpool-responds-health-inequalities/
Current research interests
Public mental health
Social adversities in mental health
Psychosis: paranoia and hallucinations
Health inequalities
Social determinants of health/mental health
Recession/austerity and health/mental health
Poverty and deprivation
Research to inform policy
Cohort and longitudinal data analysis
Quantitative methods
Applied statistics
Research groups
Research grants
Have the two-child limit to welfare policy and cuts to contraceptive services in Britain impacted abortion rates and household poverty?
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
August 2023 - July 2025
Children Growing up in Liverpool (C-GULL)
WELLCOME TRUST (UK)
October 2020 - December 2029
Evaluation of the Health Impacts of Universal Credit: a mixed methods study
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE (UK)
May 2021 - August 2025
The impact of policies that aim to reduce child poverty on child and maternal mental health.
WELLCOME TRUST (UK)
April 2016 - June 2024
From Policy to Inequality: Assessing the effects of policy interventions on inequalities in child health using natural experiments.
WELLCOME TRUST (UK)
May 2015 - April 2016
Research collaborations
Dr Peter Craig
Evaluation of the Health Impacts of Universal Credit: a mixed methods study
University of Glasgow
PI on NIHR (Evaluation of the Health Impacts of Universal Credit: a mixed methods study) grant
Dr Jennifer Sigafoos
Access to Justice
Co-I on Access to Justice project
Dr James Organ
Access to Justice
PI on Access to Justice project
Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead
Wellcome Trust fellowship
Wellcome Trust mentor
Dr Ben Barr
Wellcome Trust fellowship
Wellcome Trust mentor
Professor David Taylor-Robinson
Wellcome Trust fellowship
Wellcome Trust mentor