King's College London

The Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King’s held a team strategy Away Day on 11 November 2025 in Farringdon, London.

2025 has been a busy year for HSCWRU with an office move to Melbourne House and the launch of several high-profile policy research projects, including an NIHR workforce partnership (Care Work), and an HSDR-funded study examining the delegated health care activities in homecare (ProHealth). Our team has expanded accordingly and this year we’ve welcomed a fantastic group of researchers and professional services staff to the Unit, including: Wenjing Zhang, Abigail Burgess, AJ Allard-Dunbar, Britt Regal, Naomi Friel and Krystal Rose. Also joining us this year – Liz Such and Anna Numa Hopkins: they are supporting knowledge mobilisation in the Applied Research Collaboration in South London.

The Unit’s commitment to education has been shown by its growing community of PhD students, and staff continue to make a well-received teaching contribution to the Health and Social Care Policy MSc programme within the Policy Institute at King’s. We presently host five ongoing events series, which are free and open to all, supporting continuing knowledge exchange with public, practitioners and policymakers as well as other researchers.

Together, we’ve produced 15 reports, contributed to select committees, policy briefs, and the DHSC 10 Year Workforce Plan consultation; and we have published over 26 papers in peer reviewed journals. We have also celebrated the success of individuals and teams. 2025 has seen both the Unit Director and Deputy Director recognised for leadership within the sector. Prof Annette Boaz was appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator in March, and Prof Ann-Marie Towers was recognised as an Advance HE Senior Fellow in November. The Homelessness team have been nominated for a King’s Engaged Research Prize, recognising their innovative, participatory research on homelessness and multiple exclusion.

With so much activity and change, the Unit Away Day was a chance to get to know new colleagues, reflect on challenges and opportunities, and refresh our priorities for the next three years.