Author: Monique Cleary
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I’m Monique Cleary, a first-year PhD student in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Southampton. My research looks at innovation within the foot health workforce, making sure training and opportunities stretch across all areas of healthcare in England. This work is so important because we have an ageing population, and helping people stay on their feet means helping them stay mobile and independent. At the same time, this workforce that supports foot health is also ageing, as around half of podiatrists are due to retire within the next 10 years, yet fewer and fewer students are joining the profession each year across England.
The importance and urgency of the research means there is a responsibility to ensure implementation and impact. It was with this in mind that I sought a placement at NHS England to develop my understanding of policy in practice. It is essential that my research produces evidence and recommendations which can be implemented by the NHS and other identified stakeholders.
I approached members of staff at NHSE within my professional network and was able to find a placement with the Workforce, Training and Education team who were happy to have me. Logistically it was complex, with a 5-year-old on school holidays, but not impossible, and the team at NHSE were flexible as I only had to work in the Canary Wharf office once a week over the five-week placement. Public Policy Southampton enabled the placement by paying for the 286-mile round trip in the car and other transport costs in London.
The placement has been extremely beneficial for knowledge gathering, networking and understanding how a system like NHSE functions. The learnings here will influence not only the outputs but the dissemination of what I produce from my PhD research. It has also helped to clarify the types of roles and positions I see myself in after the PhD is complete.
The placement taught me that stakeholders are vital, I learnt so much from both internal and external leads in the field. I also created communication documents, made and edited promotional videos to socialise. Last, but not least, story-telling, because everyone that I spoke to needed a reason to open up and share their knowledge with me, and I in turn was trusted to use their stories and information gathered to make the best possible outputs.
Although my placement has come to an end, my time at NHSE has not. I continue to share evidence and resources I created while on my placement, ensuring that the work I created is filtered as wide reaching as the NHSE network will allow. There are also plans for my work to be a part of next year’s professional bodies annual conference, where the work I have undertaken can be shared with evidence and applied numbers behind them.