Research Assistant - Mental Health Research

Job description
NHS England/Improvement has commissioned a service improvement project to reduce restrictive practices on wards for children and young people with mental health, learning disabilities and/or autism. Safewards is a model that explains patient conflict behaviours and staff containment behaviours and a set of 10 interventions, when tested in a cluster randomised control trial, significantly reduced conflict and containment. Safewards was developed and tested by a team of mental health nurse researchers at King’s College London.  
 
While initially designed for younger adult acute wards, Safewards has been adapted for a range of other services, including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Since its first dissemination in 2014, Safewards has been recognised as an effective strategy for staff to change the culture in which they work to one that is less restrictive. Safewards is now being implemented in a range of mental healthcare and other settings across the world. 
 
The CAMHS Safewards Project will support up to 20 inpatient children and young people (CYP) wards to introduce Safewards over an 18-month programme. The first 12-months will involve an intensive implementation programme led by a Clinical Supervisor, followed by a six-month package of support to embed practice and culture change. The process, experiences and outcomes of implementation will be evaluated and reported. 
 
A research assistant (RA) will be appointed to undertake the process evaluation of the project, under the supervision of Professor Simpson. They will collate, input, check, clean, and analyse data from the participating sites and staff, and will draft progress and final reports, presentations, and paper(s) for publication. The RA will also provide some administrative support for the project. There may also be opportunities for further development opportunities on other research projects.
 
This post will be offered on an a fixed-term contract for 18/months. 
This is a part-time post - 50% full time equivalent .

Key responsibilities

• Regularly communicate and liaise with the Professor, Clinical Supervisor and members of the project team   
• Establish and maintain relationships with staff in participating organisations 
• Obtain research ethics and governance approvals as required and maintain ethical standards throughout the project 
• Work with the Professor, Clinical Supervisor, and service managers to identify suitable service data for inclusion in the evaluation 
• Develop and pilot interview schedules 
• Develop a plan of work and timeline for obtaining evaluation data across up to 20 CYP wards 
• Undertake remote and/or in person research interviews 
• Collate, input, check, clean, and analyse quantitative and qualitative data in line with agreed plan
• Create presentations for meetings with funders, partner organisations, and advisory groups as required
• Draft progress and final reports, papers for peer-reviewed journal publication, and lay summaries for wider audiences
• Help arrange and coordinate project meetings as required
• Contribute to other projects as required

 
The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  
 
Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria 
 
1.       First degree in relevant discipline i.e. nursing, psychology or social science  
2.       Knowledge and understanding of Safewards 
3.       Ability to develop and maintain good working relationships with a range of people 
4.       Good communication skills both oral and written 
5.       Attention to detail 
6.       Proficiency in IT (Word, Excel, database use) 
7.       Ability to prioritise workload 
8.       Experience of conducting qualitative data analysis 
9.       Experience of conducting quantitative data analysis 
10.   Experience of writing for academic and practitioner audiences 
 
Desirable criteria 
 
1.       MSc in health-related subject 
2.       Experienced in using QSR NVivo software 
3.       Previous academic publication(s) 
 
Further information
Selection will be against the criteria outlined above through application form and online interview.  
Interview date: Second week of May – date to be confirmed. 
This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service clearance.