Purpose
As a Fellow in the Nuffield Trust, you will play a key role in our analysis and commentary on health and social care funding and finance, helping inform policy makers and the public about the impact of different policy decisions.
With a focus on health and social care funding and finance, you will be expected to work on a number of projects across different topic areas as needed, taking a lead on smaller projects or workstreams within larger projects. As you progress in the role, you will take on greater responsibility for the day-to-day leadership and delivery of projects, supporting and managing small teams and drawing in support and expertise as required.
You will bring your individual expertise to the role. A background in economics or financial analysis with a track record in applying that in quantitative analysis is essential. You’ll have a demonstrable interest in health and/or social care policy in the UK.
You may currently be working in a local or central government department, public body, regulator or research organisation, wanting to take your skills and insight to the next level to inform public debate about sometimes highly contentious areas of health and social care policy.
Main responsibilities
Reporting to the Senior Policy Analyst, and working closely with the wider Research & Policy Team, you will assume the following principal responsibilities:-
Leading and undertaking research - Take responsibility for small projects or parts of projects, including the research design, planning, development and delivery of research projects; working in collaboration with others within internal and external project teams.
- Be responsible for developing and maintaining key time series tracking NHS and social care finances and resource consumption. This will include responding to periodic changes in funding and financial structures and budgetary frameworks to ensure time series consistency, as well as being a core part of the Trust’s response to fiscal events.
- Use your economics background to develop policy-relevant research questions and propose appropriate research and analysis methods to explore these questions.
- Undertake high-quality, predominantly quantitative analyses using administrative and financial datasets, and appropriate statistical and econometric methods. Draw on and interpret other relevant evidence of all kinds to develop conclusions and recommendations.
Project and people management - Take responsibility for the development of small project proposals and funding bids, eventually designing manageable research projects.
- Ensure the effective management of projects, including undertaking the project manager role on some projects or elements of projects; setting, and meeting, goals and milestones. Be able to work at pace on short-term analyses and commentary, in addition to longer-term work.
- Supervise the analytical, research and data management work carried out by colleagues, setting clear objectives within projects and tasks and helping to develop their skills, coaching and supporting them where appropriate; undertaking quality assurance of outputs.
- Beyond project work, potentially have responsibility for supporting the day-to-day management, wellbeing and development of a colleague as a line manager.
- Actively contribute to a collaborative and supportive culture, ensuring all team members (inside and outside the Trust) can contribute, making efforts to share opportunities appropriately.
- Ensure that the Nuffield Trust’s research processes (e.g. research ethics, data governance, and writing conventions) are adhered to in all our work.
Securing impact - Write in a range of formats to disseminate the results of our research and analysis, being mindful of the target audience and the policy context. Examples include writing academic-style reports, concise parliamentary briefings, research reports and short blogs.
- Act as lead author for all or substantive parts of publications, offering support and feedback to other authors, and refining drafts to ensure they reflect the strength of evidence and draw out relevant policy implications.
- Make written and oral presentations to internal and external audiences (which could include via the media), and communicate complex findings in an accessible way, thinking creatively about how best to present data and key messages.
- Assist with, and in some cases lead, the planning, organisation and running of seminars and workshops held by the Trust and write reports of such events.
- Work with colleagues in the communications department throughout the life cycle of projects to identify potential impacts from your work and disseminate them effectively, exploring different outlets and outputs.
Building knowledge and working with stakeholders - Keep abreast of developments in health and social care funding and finance in the UK and relevant research on these and actively participate in meetings and discussions about policy relevant research, contributing that knowledge to outputs relevant to the work of the Trust beyond project publications.
- Build and manage working relationships with colleagues in the Trust to facilitate the smooth running of the organisation and to ensure the quality of our work.
- Proactively build new relevant networks with external stakeholders both to extend impact and influence and to ensure effective exchange of information about shared work and interests.
Contributing to the Trust’s values - Uphold the ethos of the Nuffield Trust, demonstrating a commitment to our principles of objectivity and equal opportunities.
- Undertake any other duties which may reasonably be required in furtherance of the objectives of the Trust.
- Understand and apply the principles of good research and information governance and abide by the Nuffield Trust research policies.
