PhD Studentship: Social Care, Social Work, Social Policy: ESRC Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences (WGSSS) Social Care, Social Work and Social Policy

Social Policy sits within the School of Social Sciences, and the Department of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy. The Department is also home to the Centre for Social Change, which hosts regular seminars by both Swansea academics, collaborators and other academics across the globe. Swansea University hosts the ESRC Administrative Data Research Centre (Wales), which facilitates access to linked, de-identified administrative data in a secure environment. 

Social Care and Social Work sits within the School of Health and Social Care, and is home to the award-winning DEEP initiative, devoted to devising new forms of participatory evidence-gathering, in ways suited to informing policy.   

The Social Policy and Social Work teams are interested in supervising PhD work across the domains of the subjects. Particular areas of research expertise include: 

• Inequalities and social justice
• Poverty
• The politics of social welfare
• Relations between the state and civil society
• Advocacy
• Ageing
• Disability studies
• Devolution
• Ethical issues in social policy
• Children and children’s right
• The family
• Communities and social care
• The social policy roles of the third sector
• Co-production
• Service outcomes for children, young people and families
• The rights of excluded groups (e.g. asylum seekers, Romanai and Traveller families)
• Inclusive practices in social care research
• Experiences of the care system
• Experiences of care-leavers
• Sexuality and social care
• Safeguarding and child protection
• Older people 

Funding Details

The studentship funded by the ESRC covers tuition fees and an annual tax-free living stipend in line with UKRI minimum rates (currently £21,805 for 2026/27).

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