Job Description

If you are a university graduate with research experience, and you understand the value of using public feedback to inform decisions about health and social care services, this is a great opportunity to gain experience before moving into your chosen career.

Graduate Researcher (Social Isolation)   

• 8-week project (start date and hrs to be agreed)
• Project value £5,000 (including expenses and project costs)
• Home working

Healthwatch Gloucestershire is the county’s independent health and social care champion. We exist to make sure that local health and social care services are shaped by the people who use them.

Social Isolation is a recognised priority issue for Gloucestershire. We want to investigate what social isolation means to people living in the county and to understand how services can develop and improve.  

We are looking for a graduate researcher to take on this eight-week deep dive project. You will:

• Differentiate between loneliness and social isolation
• Analyse existing data collected by Healthwatch Gloucestershire
• Review recent work on social isolation that feeds into the Gloucestershire Health and Wellbeing Board
• Identify examples of best practice nationally
• Identify existing services and activities locally that support tackling social isolation
• Create a focussed set of questions for the people of Gloucestershire, and gather and analyse data using a survey and interviews
• Produce case studies from the project
• Draft a report to summarise the project’s objectives and findings, and to make recommendations for strategies and best practice to tackle social isolation in  Gloucestershire.

We’re looking for someone with experience of producing research papers, gathering, analysing and reporting on data.  We need an enthusiastic people-person, with a can-do attitude, who will enjoy working independently.  

Closing date for applications: 3 February 2021, although we may close submissions early depending on the level of interest.

Date for interview: 10 February via Zoom