Postgraduate research students

Through qualitative interviewing and patchwork ethnography my research explores how personal assistance is experienced in Scotland. Personal assistance is a unique support model which, contrary to traditional forms of 'care', is led by the user, most commonly disabled people, who employ their own individual (or team of) personal assistant(s). The role of a personal assistant (PA) is to assist their employer to self-determine their life by helping them to live independently of parental and institutionalised care. The Social Work Scotland (Self-Directed Support) Act 2013 was designed to help more people access this type of support in Scotland. However, for a variety of reasons, there have been numerous barriers to progress towards this aim over the last decade. 

In reaction to policy failures across the Scottish social care sector, the Feeley Review, published in 2021, called for an improved understanding of PAs' role within the greater Scottish social care workforce. Due to the success of personal assistance relying on a strong PA-employer relationship, my research also endevours to understand the perspectives of direct PA employers and informal family carers- most commonly parents- who employ a PA on the behalf of their grown-up child who has a learning disability or autism. I hope that my research can contribute to a more thorough understanding of how personal assistance is practiced and the factors which are currently impeding its progress towards acheiving independent living and disability equality in Scotland. 

My research is co-supervised by academic experts in personalisation policy, welfare conditionality and research ethics and civil servants from the adult social care and workforce directorates from the Scottish Government. 

• Professor Charlotte Pearson
• Dr Jane Cullingworth
• Professor Sharon Wright

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) PhD Studentship (1+3) from Scottish Graduate School for Social Science. 

Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Inaugural Knowledge Exchange Event, 10th December 2024.

Panel: Where next for human rights in Scotland?

Paper: Searching for a Holistic Rights-Based Approach to Personal Assistance for people with learning disabilities and their support networks in Scotland. 

I tutor on the undergraduate course Social and Public Policy 2B: Policy, Politics and Power. 

I am an active member of the Scottish Government's Personal Assistant Programme Board, sitting on their Research and Data Working Group. I am also a member of the SDS National Collaboration. I am an active member of the Glasgow Centre for Disability Research and am also a member of the Centre for Public Policy's Early Career Network.

Outwith research on personal assistance and independent living I am interested in feminist disability studies, research ethics, healthcare accessibility and sibling/family relationships involving disability. Outside of work I enjoy baking, walking, socialising with friends and participating in olympic weightlifting.