NIHR LA SPARC – Which Local Authority Can I Go to?

Local Authorities

Bedford Borough Council 

Areas of Interest/Focus

Bedford Borough Council public health team is interested in improving its use of evidence, data and evaluation to inform its work on healthy weight work and sexual health.

We would be delighted to host an academic visitor who is interested in supporting us to achieve these aims, and who is seeking to gain a strong insight into the practical work of local government. The team has strong relationships across the wider council, with health and reducing health inequalities a core part of the council’s work.

We have dedicated teams working on:

• Sexual Health Services: commissioning of sexual health services, and working with system partners to improve early recognition and access to services (e.g. early diagnosis of HIV);
• Healthy Weight: working to improve understanding and action on the wider determinants (for example, active travel, food procurement policies, green and blue space) of healthy eating, physical activity and sleep, and the commissioning of Tier 2 preventive services;
• Health Protection: working with the UK Health Security Agency to prevent, prepare for and respond to disease outbreaks; ensure effective delivery of screening and immunisation programmes; address the health protection needs of under-represented and disproportionately affected groups, and
• Population Health Evidence & Intelligence: providing system-wide population health intelligence and insight products, including reports, visualisations and infographics; leading on the JSNA process; undertaking bespoke needs assessments and evidence reviews; providing Population Health Management analytics and supporting PHM skills development.

Bedford Borough has a shared public health team that works across three unitary authorities (Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes). Your work would be supported by Ian Brown (Chief Officer for Public Health) and/or Oliver Mytton (Public Health Consultant, Bedford Borough Council, and Honorary Consultant in Public Health, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London).

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities:

• If you're interested in sexual health, health protection, population health evidence and intelligence contact Ian Brown, Chief Officer for Public Health: ian.brown@bedford.gov.uk
• If you're interested in healthy weight, contact Oliver Mytton, Public Health Consultant: oliver.mytton@milton-keynes.gov.uk

Birmingham City Council 

Areas of Interest/Focus

Birmingham City Council Public Health Team is responsible for protecting and improving the health and wellbeing of around 1.2 million citizens in England’s second city. Our city is vibrant and diverse but faces significant challenges and inequalities.

Within Birmingham there is almost a decade gap in life expectancy at birth for men between those born in our poorest and richest wards. We have a shared ambition for a Bolder Healthier Birmingham through our Health and Wellbeing Board.

Areas of work that may be of interest for placements: 

• A diverse and inclusive city Birmingham is committed to exploring dimensions of socio-economic inequality at a deeper level. From the community profiles pulling together the evidence of inequality for specific communities of identity to our locality profiles and the deep co-production approaches of the Birmingham & Lewisham African and Caribbean Health Inequalities Review and the Birmingham Poverty Truth commission, we are exploring how to use evidence and knowledge to co-produce community owned solutions in Birmingham. 
• A healthier food city Our city has one of the most vibrant and diverse food systems in the UK and it is at the core of our tourism and hospitality sector, however it is also a system with entrenched inequalities that need to change. Birmingham launched the Global City Food Justice Pledge building on its membership of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact to call for more action on tackling food insecurity and is actively working on how to address this in practice locally. 
• A young diverse city working with Birmingham Forward Steps, Birmingham Children’s Trust and other education and community partners we are working to give children born and living in Birmingham a better start in life. We are exploring models of quality improvement and cultural safety in our work and how to achieve sustained improvement in infant mortality.
• A green and active city From the City of Nature framework that is focused on tackling environmental justice, to our Clean Air Strategy, the city is intentional in approaching environmental public health issues and doing this in collaboration with our citizens and our stakeholders.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities, please contact Thomas Harwood, Head of Public Health Office: Thomas.Harwood@birmingham.gov.uk

Blackpool Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

• Co-production in local authority decision making and research
• Knowledge mobilisation in a local authority setting
• Conception to age 2 (First 1001 days)
• Family Safeguarding
• Housing
• Mental health
• Education, Employment and Skills
• Cost of living crisis - Blackpool Council has a range of advice available through its campaign Blackpool Together
• Regeneration - learn more about creating a better Blackpool

Read more about the Blackpool Council Plan 2019-24.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

• We are delighted to be one of the first wave of NIHR funded Health Determinants Research Collaborations, with co-production at the heart of everything we do. Read more about Blackpool Researching Together.
• Active membership of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast
• An Evaluation of Cosy Homes in Lancashire (CHiL) - NIHR Public Health Interventions Research Studies Teams (PHIRST)' 
• Participating in NIHR Three Research School Mental Health Practice
• Evaluation of long-acting buprenorphine use in our drug treatment service.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities please contact Karen Gratrix (Research and Development Manager) NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration Blackpool, via e-mail: karen.gratrix@blackpool.gov.uk

City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

Bradford Council has an NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborative that is based within the Council and that will lead on supporting SPARC placements within the Local Authority. The HDRC has five workstreams within the council that could involve SPARCs:

• Evidence into practice
• Data science for decision making
• Training, capacity and culture
• Research management and governance (in local government)
• Coproduction

The council has wide ranging interests related to all council activity (public health, social care, environment, strategy, education etc). However, below are some that have been identified as key priorities:

• Place
• Regeneration
• Economic development
• Air quality
• Clean Air Zones
• Children and young people
• Families
• Mental health and wellbeing

However, should you have a research interest that is not listed then please reach out and we can connect you up with the appropriate teams.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

We work closely with the NIHR ARC (Yorkshire and the Humber) and with the 3 other HDRCs in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Contact for Further Information

Please contact the HDRC team at hdrc@bradford.gov.uk to discuss possibilities.

Brighton and Hove City Council

The council has four main priorities for those who live, work, study or just visit, that Brighton & Hove can be a:

• city to be proud of – we will champion a flourishing economy and a sustainable, safe and clean environment
• fair and inclusive city – with homes for all, we will work to reduce inequality, challenge discrimination, improve accessibility and keep people safe
• city where people can thrive – we will secure a better future for children and young people and enable people to live healthy and fulfilling lives
• city of responsive and well-run council services – we will put the needs of our residents, businesses and visitors at the heart of what we do and enable our hard-working staff to do their best.

Find out more about Brighton and Hove City Council priorities.

Areas of Interest/Focus

We are particularly interested in the following:

• Co-production approaches to:
• Research
• Designing services
• Service provision and improvement
• Engaging communities and ensuring that diverse residents’ views, experiences and needs are central to council decision making
• Multiple compound needs – people with two or more needs around:
  • Drugs and alcohol
  • Mental health
  • Homelessness
  • Domestic violence
  • Offending
• Inclusion health and equalities groups. People who are:
  • Migrant communities
  • Black and racially minoritised
  • LGBTQ+
  • Unpaid carers
  • Adults who have experienced the care system as a child/young person
  • Groups experiencing social and cultural exclusion
• Health in all policies/ public health approaches to:
  • Whole systems healthy weight
  • Healthy urban environments
  • Sustainability and access to nature
  • Gambling related harm
  • Public Health and wellbeing in schools
• Data science approaches to population health:
  • Understanding populations at risk
  • Modelling service need and demand
  • Use of linked data and building the skills across the local authority to use these large linked datasets
• Developing and strengthening our council approach to research, including:
  • Working together with residents and communities to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities
  • Supporting delivery of the council plan through evidence-based action
  • Strengthening collaborations with local anchor Higher Education Institutes, Community Voluntary Sector organisations, and other partners.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

Brighton & Hove City Council is a member organisation of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration KSS, NIHR Clinical Research Network Kent Surrey and Sussex (CRN KSS) embedded researcher funding 2023-24, NIHR Local Authority Research Practitioner Award (2024-2025). Brighton & Hove City Council – Adult Social Care currently have one doctoral local authority fellowship and two pre-doctoral local authority fellowships funded by NIHR.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities, please contact:

Kate Gilchrist (Head of Public Health Intelligence) kate.gilchrist@brighton-hove.gov.uk 

Louise Knight (Senior Public Health Intelligence Specialist) louise.knight@brighton-hove.gov.uk 

Tara Cahill (Public Health Research Officer) tara.cahill@brighton-hove.gov.uk 

Peterborough City Council  

Areas of Interest/Focus

Peterborough City Council are particularly interested in the following areas:

• Health of people with learning disabilities: particularly around physical activity, supporting mainstream health services to make reasonable adjustments and oral health;
• Health of older adults: particularly around physical activity, oral health and frailty;
• Supporting primary prevention in adult social care;
• Inter-professional learning between public health and adult social care workforces.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities please contact Emily Smith, Consultant in Public Health: Emily.Smith3@peterborough.gov.uk 

Central Bedfordshire Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

Central Bedfordshire Council public health team is interested in improving its use of evidence, data and evaluation to inform its tobacco control work and public health action on illicit drug and alcohol use. 

We would be delighted to host an academic visitor who is interested in supporting us to achieve these aims, and who is seeking to gain a strong insight into the practical work of local government. The team has strong relationships across the wider council and other system partners in these areas (e.g. local community mental health services, police).

We have dedicated teams working on:

• Tobacco control: delivering smoking cessation services (in-house) with a particular focus on hard to reach groups and responding to health inequalities; and broader tobacco control work with system partners.
• Drugs and Alcohol: commissioning of drugs and alcohol services, and working with system partners to improve early recognition and access to services

Central Bedfordshire has a shared public health team that works across three unitary authorities (Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes). Your work would be supported by Celia Shohet (Assistant Director of Public Health) and/or Oliver Mytton (Public Health Consultant, Central Bedfordshire, and Honorary Consultant in Public Health, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London).

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

NIHR Public Health Intervention Responsive Teams (PHIRST) evaluation of smoking cessation services and the change from face to face to remote delivery.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities please contact Celia Shohet, Assistant Director - Public Health: celia.shohet@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk

Coventry City Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

The Coventry Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC), hosted by Coventry City Council, aims to build sustainable research infrastructure. Our  collaboration includes Coventry University, University of Warwick, UCL Institute of Health Equity, University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, voluntary and social enterprise representatives, and Coventry residents.

The vision is to empower Coventry City Council to become more research-active and enable more evidence-based decision-making. This will impact the health inequalities that exist in our communities, which are created by the wider determinants of health. We’ve designed systems for research requests and explored several research opportunities with council teams. We want to continue this work and enhance the relationships between universities to support this. Embedding good public involvement is key to achieving this vision; ensuring their involvement helps the research to be relevant and impactful.

We warmly invite an academic visitor who shares our passion for this work and is eager to contribute to our vision.

Aligned with our One Coventry plan and Marmot Partnership, we are particularly interested but not limited to the following areas of research:

• Tackling the causes and consequences of climate change
• Employment and workforce upskilling.
• Economic development.
• Improving digital inclusion.
• Housing and homelessness
• Active travel and transport
• Embedding public involvement in wider determinants research.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

The Coventry Health Determinants Research Collaboration is funded by NIHR.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities, please contact John Wilcox, Head of the Coventry Health Determinants Research Collaboration: John.Wilcox@coventry.gov.uk

Doncaster Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

• New ways of working with the local food system
• Response to climate change/sustainability
• Data science
• Public Involvement and Community Engagement
• Born and Bred in Doncaster birth cohort
• Social care research
• Evidence for policy and practice

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

NIHR Health Services & Research Delivery (HS&DR) funded Curiosity Partnership to develop and evaluate a regional capacity building network: facilitating greater understanding, use and production of research in adult social care.

Doncaster Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) is funded by NIHR.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities, please contact Dr Susan Hampshaw, Director, HDRC Doncaster susan.hampshaw@doncaster.gov.uk

East Sussex County Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

We have a unique and geographically diverse county. However, this diversity presents us with challenges in addressing health inequalities. Pockets of affluence mask the deprivation experienced by rural and coastal communities. The council has four main priorities:

1. Driving Sustainable Economic Growth
2. Keeping Vulnerable People Safe
3. Helping People Help Themselves
4. Making best use of resources now and in the future

Find out more about East Sussex County Council's key priorities. 

We are particularly interested in the following areas:

• Creative Health: mobilising creative health assets to improve health and wellbeing and tackle inequalities;
• Health inequalities: understanding how best to take local action to address health inequalities;
• Inclusion Health: how to reach and engage communities, and which interventions are most suitable, accessible, and effective;
• Healthy Ageing: how best to support our ageing population to live healthier lives for longer, and
• Dying Well & Bereavement: Understanding the opportunities, benefits, and barriers to delivering the best possible death and bereavement support through use of the Bereavement Experience measure and training on death across statutory and VCSE services.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

NIHR PHIRST Award (2022) to evaluate the employment of 'Spatial Planning for Health, Healthy Places' officers to create health-promoting environments in Southampton and East Sussex.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities, please contact:

Teresa Salami-Oru, Consultant in Public Health on teresa.salami-oru@eastsussex.gov.uk

Rosie Crichton, Senior Public Health Researcher on rosie.crichton@eastsussex.gov.uk 

Kent County Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

Kent County Council (KCC) Public Health team is committed to improving the health of 1.6 million residents of Kent, the largest county population in England. The Director of Public Health is supported by a team of consultants and specialists and working in close partnership with adult social care and other council directorates, newly formed Kent & Medway Integrated Care Board, 12 district councils and local NHS Trusts, to collectively improve population health and care.

We are already a well-established training location, hosting a wide range of education, training and researcher placements which are well embedded in the commissioning and delivery of programmes and activities. We are part of a number of research networks including the Kent Surrey Sussex Applied Research Consortium and heavily research active, collaborating on a number of studies with local universities including Kent and Medway Medical School, University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University, University of Greenwich and University of Sussex.

We are a national exemplar in the use of integrated data sets for applied population health analytics including the use of systems thinking tools and techniques for public health practice. 

Key research areas:

• Mental Health including Mental Wellbeing
• Alcohol and Substance misuse
• Gambling and other addiction
• Domestic abuse
• Adverse Childhood Experiences
• Children and adult safeguarding
• Children in Care
• Children’s educational settings including learning disabilities
• Children and adult safeguarding
• Dental public health
• Sexual health
• Maternity and child health
• Healthy Living Centres
• NHS Health Checks
• Obesity including Adult and Child Weight Management services
• Stop Smoking Services
• Primary Care including social prescribing
• Long term conditions (including CVD, Diabetes, Respiratory diseases etc)
• Falls prevention and frailty
• Cancer (including early diagnosis)
• Health protection and wider determinants such as health protection, planning and licencing, environmental, leisure and culture
• Pandemic Outbreak Consequence Management including surveillance, monitoring
• Vaccination research including impact of COVID vaccination on pandemic onset, spread and containment

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

We are part of a number of research networks including the Kent Surrey Sussex Applied Research Collaboration and heavily research active, collaborating on a number of studies with local universities including University of Kent, Canterbury Christchurch University, Greenwich University and University of Sussex.

We are a national exemplar in the use of integrated datasets for applied population health analytics including the use of systems thinking tools and techniques for public health practice.

Contact for Further Information

Edyta McCallum - edyta.mccallum@kent.gov.uk - Research Innovation and Improvement Senior Programme Lead

Cassidy Rowden - cassidy.rowden@kent.gov.uk - Research Training Programme Lead

Lambeth Council

Lambeth is a diverse, mobile, densely populated borough in South East London where 70% of the population live in the 40% most deprived areas in England.

Lambeth also has one of the highest proportions of LGBTQ+ residents of any Local Authority in the United Kingdom.

Areas of Interest/Focus

Lambeth Council is interested in the following areas, linked to our Health and WellBeing Strategy:

• Health inequalities and the wider determinants of health
• Co-production and community engagement
• Tackling poverty
• Housing
• Serious violence, including violence affecting young people and violence against women and girls
• Ensuring the best start in life/early years

Read Lambeth's Health and Wellbeing strategy. 

Our Future Our Lambeth strategy page (.PDF) provides some further context about Lambeth and our priority areas.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

Lambeth Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) is funded by NIHR ; supporting the council to conduct high-quality research to tackle inequalities, working in partnership with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and local communities.

Contact for Further Information

If any of these are of interest to you or you have other ideas, we would love to hear from you. To explore potential placement opportunities please contact Emily Aidoo, Head of Service: eaidoo@lambeth.gov.uk. 

London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Areas of Interest/Focus

The Tower Hamlets Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) hosted by London Borough of Tower Hamlets, aims to build sustainable research capacity and infrastructure across the collaboration with University of East London, London Metropolitan University, Queen Mary University of London and the voluntary sector. The vision of the Tower Hamlets HDRC is to help the London Borough of Tower Hamlets do and use research about health determinants and inequalities.

We are particularly interested in research on:

• housing and tackling the impacts of unhealthy housing
• linking datasets within the Local Authority and with external datasets

We are open to exploring other areas of interest.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

The Tower Hamlets Health Determinants Research Collaboration is funded by NIHR.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities, please contact HDRC@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Lincolnshire County Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

Lincolnshire County Council is interested in developing research collaborations across a wide range of areas. Key areas of focus include:

• Mental Health and Well being, with a particular focus on public health priorities around suicide prevention and whole systems approaches to improving mental well being;
• Understanding gambling-related harms (to the individual, affected others, communities, etc.) and evidence-based approaches to preventing or reducing harms;
• Drugs and alcohol prevention and treatment (including illegal drugs, prescription drugs and misuse of over the counter medication);
• Health and well being in school-aged children including (but not limited to) primary and secondary prevention for areas including sexual health, smoking and vaping, drugs and alcohol, gambling and gaming, and online behaviours, and
• Tackling rural and coastal health inequalities across a wide range of health and well being outcomes.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities, please contact Dr Lucy Gavens, Consultant in Public Health:lucy.gavens@lincolnshire.gov.uk

Medway Council

Medway Council is committed to addressing a range of public health issues, striving to reduce health inequalities and improve overall well-being for its residents through initiatives aligned with the council’s strategic priorities. 

Medway’s Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC), led by Medway Council in collaboration with the University of Kent, the voluntary sector, and the people of Medway, aims to build a collaborative research system that provides strong leadership, builds capacity, showcases the value of health research, and embeds research as a routine function in local government for strategic and operational decision-making to benefit local communities’ health and well-being.

Areas of Interest/Focus

Medway Council is interested in developing research collaborations across a wide range of areas aligned with our Medway Council’s Plan. Key areas of focus include:

• Education and Employment: Ensuring all children and young people access high-quality, inclusive education, and supporting skills development to enable successful lives and secure employment opportunities, particularly for the unemployed and vulnerable groups.
• Economic Growth: Developing a robust mixed economy that supports career development, encourages high-value businesses, and expands high-quality employment, while enhancing Medway's reputation in creative, cultural, and green industries.
• Community Wellbeing: Promoting clean, green, safe, and connected communities, emphasising the importance of public open spaces, sustainable travel systems, and community-driven climate change initiatives.
• Health and Inequality: Improving health outcomes by addressing health inequalities, reducing poverty, and ensuring access to comprehensive health services that support emotional well-being and social connections.
• Sustainable Development: Focusing on the causes and consequences of climate change, fostering economic development, and increasing the economic prosperity of Medway through sustainable practices.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

Medway Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) is funded by NIHR, demonstrating a solid partnership aimed at improving health and well-being through research and evidence-based practices.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities at Medway Council, please contact:

• David Whiting, Acting Director of Public Health: david.whiting@medway.gov.uk
• Logan Manikam, NIHR Senior Clinical & Practitioner Research Fellow: logan.manikam@medway.gov.uk
• Emma Hendricks, Senior Research Manager for Medway's HDRC: emma.hendricks@medway.gov.uk

Middlesbrough Council/Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

We are particularly interested in the wider determinants of health, so would welcome conversations with colleagues interested in areas such as:

• Regeneration
• Transport
• Employment

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

The South Tees Health Determinants Research Collaboration (between Middlesbrough Council, Redcar and Cleveland Council) is funded by NIHR.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities please contact Scott Lloyd, Advanced Public Health Practitioner: scott_lloyd@middlesbrough.gov.uk

Milton Keynes City Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

Milton Keynes City Council public health team is interested in improving its use of evidence, data and evaluation to inform action on the wider determinants of public health.

We would be delighted to host an academic visitor who is interested in supporting us to achieve these aims, and who is seeking to gain a strong insight into the practical work of local government. The team has strong relationships across the wider council, with health and reducing health inequalities a core part of the council’s work. 

We have dedicated teams working on:

• Housing and Health: developing relationships with social and council housing teams to directly work with their tenants; renewal estates are a particular area of focus for the council;
• Workplace and Health: leading the development and implementation of healthy workplace standards locally. The standards aim to enable businesses to support and promote the health and well being of their workforce, with a focus on small and medium sized businesses;
• Built Environment and Health: working with colleagues in planning to embed health into the planning process, for example through the use of Health Impact Assessment and making a health a core theme in the Local Plan, and
• Public Mental Health: working to improve understanding and action on the wider determinants of all-age public mental health across the public and voluntary sector. This includes the commissioning of some preventative services.

Milton Keynes has a shared public health team that works across three unitary authorities (Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes). Your work would be supported by Marimba Carr (Deputy Director of Public Health) and/or Oliver Mytton (Public Health Consultant, Milton Keynes Council, and Honorary Consultant in Public Health, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London).<

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities:

• If you're interested in workplace and mental health, contact Marimba Carr, Deputy Director of Public Health: marimba.carr@milton-keynes.gov.uk
• If you're interested in housing and health or the built environment and health, contact Oliver Mytton, Public Health Consultant: oliver.mytton@milton-keynes.gov.uk

Newcastle City Council

Areas of Interest/Focus:

Within the public health team, Newcastle City Council’s areas of research interest include:

• sexual health services
• housing and health
• universal free school meals
• rapid evaluation methods
• measuring the impact of our Health in All Policies approach

For a conversation about placement opportunities in any of these areas please contact Louise Brennan, Public Health Consultant (louise.brennan@newcastle.gov.uk)

Across Newcastle City Council, Newcastle’s Health Determinants Research Collaboration aims to reduce health inequalities and improve outcomes by developing a research active culture to influence policies and services related to the wider determinants of health.

We are particularly interested in areas of research that support our priorities:

• Creating an inclusive economy that works for all
• Climate change and net zero
• Reducing poverty

More specifically, within our Children and Families directorate, we are interested in the following research areas:

• Improving outcomes children and young people who have been in care.
• School exclusion
• Evaluation of youth justice interventions
• Evaluating the impact of adult education

Newcastle City Council is currently establishing research priorities across our service areas. The list above is not exhaustive, and we expect it will be updated within the LA SPARC application window.

For a discussion about placement opportunities please contact Liz Castle, HDRC Service Manager: Elizabeth.castle@newcastle.gov.uk.

Links/ Collaborations with the NIHR

Read more about Newcastle City Council's NIHR-funded Health Determinants Research Collaboration.

Newcastle City Council is one of 30 NIHR funded Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs) across the UK. HDRCs aim to build research capacity, culture, and capability in local government to develop how evidence is used to make decisions, in the context of health and health inequalities.

Contact for Further Information

Louise.brennan@newcastle.gov.uk; Elizabeth.Castle.newcastle.gov.uk 

Oxfordshire County Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

Oxfordshire County Council has nine strategic priorities including improving health and well being, tackling inequalities and addressing the climate emergency. 

Oxfordshire has a diverse population living in both urban and rural settings and including some of the most deprived wards in the country alongside some of the most affluent. We are developing our approach to research at OCC to better understand how the breadth of council activities impacts health and inequalities for residents.

• Healthy place shaping
• Air quality and health
• Community wealth building
• Community research
• Taking a whole systems approach to healthy weight
• Climate and health
• Public health programmes including drugs and alcohol, domestic abuse, 0-19s services, tobacco control, and sexual health.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

Adam Briggs, the deputy director for public health is a member of the NIHR Public Health Research Programme Prioritisation Committee and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Oxford and Thames Valley Strategy Board. He is also Deputy Director of the NIHR Research Support Service Specialist Centre for Public Health, University of Southampton and Partners

Bethan McDonald, Consultant in Public Health, is the Public Health and Social Care lead for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Oxford and Thames Valley.

We have had several projects supported by NIHR Public Health Intervention Responsive Teams (PHIRST) funding.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities please contact Foyeke Tolani, Head of Research: Foyeke.tolani@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Portsmouth City Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

Portsmouth City Council is interested in the following areas, linked to our city's Health and Well Being Strategy: 

These strategic priorities are:

• Tackling poverty
• Housing
• Air quality and active travel
• Positive relationships in safer communities
• Educational attainment

Read more about Portsmouth City Council's health and wellbeing strategy 2022-2030 (.PDF).

We are also interested in research that addresses:

• Community and person-centred working, co-production, co-creation in research
• Practical application of evaluation methodology that takes account of complexity
• Work that applies/translates theory into practice
• Research that establishes partnerships across organisational boundaries

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities please contact Gail Mann, Research Development Lead: gail.mann@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead

Areas of Interest/Focus

Our Local Authority Public Health team is interested in the following areas:

• Healthy behaviours: how best to support residents to stay healthy (move more, quit smoking, drink less and healthy diet) and the role of digital as part of this support;
• Ensuring every child is ready to start school: working across a range of stakeholders to understand differences in school readiness across the borough and what more we can do to support families, and 
• Social isolation: understanding who is affected by social isolation and what we can do to prevent it.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

A member of the local authority has held internships with the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration around the application of digital health in increasing uptake of healthy behaviours.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities please contact Anna Richards, Head of Public Health on anna.richards@rbwm.gov.uk

Somerset Council 

Areas of Interest/Focus

• Behaviour change and health psychology applied in local authority settings
• Cardiovascular disease prevention, particularly addressing hypertension, high LDL, high fasting plasma glucose.
• Primary prevention and health promotion particularly addressing high body mass index, tobacco control and alcohol use.
• Suicide/self-harm
• Delivering public health services in rural areas and coastal deprivation

We would be open to discuss opportunities for those working from home the majority of the time and or living beyond a frequent Somerset commute area.

We are a friendly and flexible team and are also open to discussing ideas in other areas of public health not on our list, particularly those where Somerset performs poorly. Access Somerset Council's JSNA and other data on Somerset and Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (healthysomerset.co.uk)

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities, please contact Dr Orla Dunn, Public Health Consultant: orla.dunn@somerset.gov.uk

South Tyneside Council 

Areas of Interest/Focus

We are interested in research and evaluation which supports the successful delivery of our Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Specifically, in the following themes:

• Best Start for Life
• Financial security/inclusive economies/cost of living crisis (including understanding and addressing digital exclusion)
• Mental wellbeing and social connectivity
• Living and ageing well
• Safe and healthy environments (including improving home environments, reducing anti-social behaviour, improving the public realms in the time of austerity)
• Fair delivery of services (tackling intervention-generated inequalities)
• Innovation and effective methods on public involvement and community engagement.

We are interested in the effective implementation of evidence informed interventions as well as supporting the evaluation of innovative policies and practice. We have a broad range of work ongoing and are open to discussions. As a relatively small local authority, a placement in South Tyneside would mean that you would be close to decision making within local government, as well as good working relationships with the NHS and other place-based partners. 

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

• Tom Hall, Director of Public Health and Deputy Director (Practice) for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) NENC Health Inequalities and Marginalised Communities Theme
• Anna Christie, Public Health Knowledge and Intelligence Lead at South Tyneside Council and member of the team at the NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities please contact;

• Anna Christie: anna.christie@southtyneside.gov.uk
• Meg Logan: meg.logan@southtyneside.gov.uk
• Tom Hall: tom.hall@southtyneside.gov.uk

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Areas of interest/focus

• Asset-based community development and-co production
• Interventions to tackle obesity/overweight
• Vaccine inequalities/hesitancy, behaviour change interventions
• Substance misuse, tobacco control and stop smoking service development
• Working with people with multiple disadvantage
• Alcohol and licensing
• Drug related death prevention
• Health care public health including CVD, diabetes and cancer prevention

We welcome discussions to explore work on other health and wellbeing initiatives.

Links/Collaborations with the NIHR

NIHR funding for a research project working in collaboration with Teesside University to evaluate a multiple complex needs peer advocacy project.

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities please contact Rachel.McKnight@stockton.gov.uk

Sidney Wong, Public Health Consultant Sidney.Wong@stockton.gov.uk   

Surrey County Council

Areas of Interest/Focus

• Migrant health
• Understanding uptake of vaccination
• Health and transport/streets/built environment
• Suicide prevention in young people
• Children’s public health
• Applied Behavioural and Social Science
• Community Resilience Building
• HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis access and health inequalities
• Long acting reversible contraception availability and equity of access
• Reducing unintended teenage conceptions using technology and current information sources
• Defining components of a sustainable food system to reduce environmental impacts and promote healthy eating

Contact for Further Information

To explore potential placement opportunities, please contact Negin Sarafraz-Shekary, Public Health Principal: sarafrazshekary.negin@surreycc.gov.uk

Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs)

Read more about the NIHR's Health Determinants Research Collaborations

NIHR Academy members may also wish to undertake a placement with a local authority that hosts a new Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC). HDRCs are designed to boost Local Authorities’ capacity and capability to conduct high-quality research to tackle inequalities, working in partnership with a Higher Education Institution (HEI). HDRCs bring organisations together to enable and support research to happen within the council, embedding a culture of evidence-based decision making.

As of October 2023, the NIHR has awarded 24 local authorities with HDRC status and 6 with development funding*:

1. Aberdeen HDRC
2. Blackpool HDRC
3. Bradford HDRC
4. Cornwall HDRC
5. Coventry HDRC
6. Cumberland HDRC
7. Doncaster HDRC
8. Ealing HDRC
9. Greater Essex HDRC
10. Gateshead HDRC
11. Glasgow HDRC*
12. Islington HDRC
13. Lambeth HDRC
14. Leicestershire HDRC*
15. Liverpool HDRC
16. Manchester HDRC*
17. Medway HDRC
18. Newcastle HDRC
19. North Yorkshire HDRC
20. Plymouth HDRC
21. Portsmouth HDRC*
22. Rhondda Cynon Taf HDRC
23. Sandwell HDRC
24. Somerset HDRC
25. Southampton HDRC
26. South Tees HDRC
27. Surrey HDRC*
28. Torfaen HDRC*
29. Tower Hamlets HDRC
30. Wakefield HDRC

Placements would be ‘hosted’ by a single local authority as part of a HDRC.