Lee-Ann is a registered social worker and has been lecturing at BU for over 25 years. She has extensive experience in establishing social care research pathways and exploring the varied methodologies within social care research. Her new role marks a milestone for the NIHR and she hopes to explore the wider health and social care picture and to build greater capacity for social care research across Wessex.
Lee-Ann is hopeful that moving further towards a more integrated approach to health and social care will help to transform social care research and practice across Wessex and beyond: “we’re all so aware that prevention is better than a cure, but this is where social care research needs to catch up and take the lead”.
“Child poverty, isolation, vulnerability, abuse, unemployment, restricted access to services and transport – all of these are creating a perfect storm for social care needs and our ability to respond to them. It’s so important that we are able to grow our research and our social care provision to prevent these issues from undermining wellbeing and creating future health care needs.”
You can read more about this, as well as the full interview with Professor Lee-Ann Fenge, Social Care Speciality Lead for NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Wessex at the following link: https://local.nihr.ac.uk/news/crn-wessex-appoints-first-regional-social-care-speciality-lead/26454