John joined King's in December 2015, retired in December 2021 and is now a Visiting Senior Research Fellow.

Prior to working in a university, he worked for many years as a social care researcher in local government, moving first to Coventry University in 2009.

John’s research interests include the application of assistive technology and telecare to support the independence and well-being of older people and people with dementia, personalisation and personal budgets in social care, and social care Personal Assistants. While at Coventry University John led a major project on personalisation and older people (funded by NIHR School for Social Care Research) and was part of a research team investigating risk and personalisation. Since moving to King's he has led studies focusing on local authority telecare use for older people, also funded by NIHR SSCR – the UTOPIA project – two DHSC funded studies of Personal Assistants. Until December 2021, he also led an NIHR funded study of hoarding and self-neglect among older people. John was also a co-investigator in a randomised controlled trial of technology and its use by people with dementia, the ATTILA trial, and is currently a co-investigator in a study led by the University of Hertfordshire to encourage greater use of research evidence in social work practice settings.

He is a member of the British Society of Gerontology. At the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce at King's he acts as liaison between Unit researchers and the Workforce Panel.

John Woolham: ORCID iD | Research Profile at King's