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NIHR Policy Research Unit: Health and Social Care Workforce

Policy Research Unit studies

This page presents ongoing and completed Policy Research Unit studies, in addition to our rapid evidence reviews – all conducted under the NIHR Policy Research Programme. Read more about the Policy Research Programme and the Unit's role.

The Leavers Study

The Leavers Study

Understanding why people stop working in adult social care and social work

The Visa Study

The Visa Study

Impact of the Health and Care Worker visa on the adult social care workforce. Part 1 of 3.

 

 

Rapid evidence reviews on workforce topics

About the NIHR Policy Research Programme and the Unit's role

The NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce is core funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme (PRP) and this page presents our contribution under the programme since we started in 2019. The PRP commissions research across the full policy remit of the Department of Health and Social Care (England).

The Director of the Unit is Professor Annette Boaz. Under the current NIHR PRP award for the Unit (2024-28), Prof Boaz leads researchers from King's, together with collaborators from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (Elaine Kelly with Isabel Stockton, Max Warner and Ben Zaranko), the University of Salford (Michelle Cornes), and the London School of Economics (Bo Hu). See also the Unit's Senior Management Team.

One-page outlines of our current programme of work in this award are available here (2024-2026) and here (2026-2028).

We are one of 20 NIHR Policy Research Units (PRUs) operating under the PRP. As such, we provide both a long-term resource for policy research (our core workforce research studies at the Unit) and a rapid-response service to provide evidence for emerging policy needs (typically through our rapid evidence reviews on workforce topics). We also offer advice to policy makers and analysts on the evidence base and options for policy development.

Social care research from across the PRUs

The NIHR Policy Research Unit in Adult Social Care (ASCRU) has hosted a series of webinars (2020- ) to highlight research relevant to social care taking place within the NIHR’s Policy Research Units.This has included some of the Unit's work.

Search the PRUs

Dr Ruth Wong from the PRU in Economic Evaluation of Health and Care Interventions (EEPRU) has developed a PRU Programmable Custom Search Engine Tool which allows users to search across PRU websites to identify which PRUs have undertaken or are undertaking research in a particular area, to help identify opportunities for cross-working and collaboration and also to identify researchers across PRU websites. 

Follow the PRUs

We have created a list comprising all the Policy Research Unit X accounts (that we know of).

 

About us

About us

Informing policy debates on the health and social care workforce.

Unit people

People

Unit staff – their research interests, current projects, and publications.