We are delighted to announce that the new Director of the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit is Professor Annette Boaz. Annette, who will be Professor of Health and Social Care at King’s, takes up her role at the end of October 2023. The announcement comes following the news in August that the Unit, which is part of the Policy Institute at King’s, is to receive a further five years’ funding under the NIHR Policy Research Programme, starting in January 2024.

Annette is joining King’s from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she has been a Professor of Health and Social Care Policy in the Department of Health Services Research and Policy. She has more than 25 years of experience in supporting the use of evidence across a range of policy domains. She was part of one of the largest UK investments in the evidence use landscape, the ESRC Centre for Evidence Based Policy and Practice and a Founding Editor of the Journal Evidence & Policy. She has undertaken an international leadership role in promoting the use of evidence, recently publishing a new book on evidence use ‘What Works Now’ and co-leading Transforming Evidence with Kathryn Oliver.

Annette has a longstanding interest in supporting the use of research in the health and social care sectors and is currently leading an NIHR funded study setting up and evaluating innovative research practice partnerships between care homes and universities. She is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Higher Education Academy. She is a member of the WHO European Advisory Committee on Health Research and advises WHO on a number of international projects. She is a member of the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research Committee and Advanced Fellowship committee and UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships Peer Review College. She has recently completed an ESRC funded fellowship based in the Government Office for Science. Annette worked at King’s from 2004-2012 and has continued to work closely with colleagues at King’s through the South London NIHR Applied Research Collaboration.

About the Unit

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit is part of the Policy Institute within the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy at King’s College London. It exists to develop research knowledge in the health and social care workforce field and to disseminate findings to policymakers, service providers, employers, and patient, service user and carer groups.

Working in partnership with the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Unit is core funded by the NIHR’s Policy Research Programme as one of that programme's Policy Research Units. The Unit also receives grants following competitive tender from a variety of other funders. It is affiliated with the NIHR School for Social Care Research and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South London.

The Unit was led by Professor Jill Manthorpe CBE until spring 2023 when she became Professor Emerita of Social Work at King’s. It was established in January 2019, growing out of a Policy Research Unit which focused on the social care workforce (2002-2018). In August the NIHR announced further funding for the present Unit for the period 2024-2028.