YORK RESEARCH JOURNEYS
Professor
Yvonne Birks
YORK RESEARCH JOURNEYS
Professor
Yvonne Birks
Although now a leading voice in social care research, Yvonne’s route into academia was not a conventional one. When she told her parents she was not going to university, but would train to be a nurse instead to have a ‘proper job’, they were disappointed. Both were from working-class backgrounds, but had worked hard to move into roles in education, her mother teaching pre-nursing courses and her father teaching agricultural engineering in developing countries. Despite their misgivings both parents supported Yvonne’s decision, with one caveat.
“My mother said to me: 'fine, train as a nurse, but you must go to a London teaching hospital.' So that’s what I did,” says Yvonne.
She qualified as a registered general nurse, quickly moved into children’s nursing and then children’s intensive care, working as a nurse for ten years. Her background in healthcare proved to be invaluable to the academic role she was later to move into, parts of which now include finding ways to explain the structures and conditions for those working in and using social care.
“As an ex-healthcare professional, the situation with social care is really shocking. We have a national health service, but no equivalent in social care. Instead, things are done in 153 different ways across 153 different local authorities. Health has both a long history of research and lots of funding opportunities, which simply isn’t the case for social care. But that is changing and changing really quickly. That makes social care a great place to be working at the moment.”
After several years in nursing Yvonne decided, much to her father’s delight, that she wanted to apply to university.
“My father wasn’t your standard academic,” Yvonne recalls. “He got a job in a university unit involved in overseas development work when it was very new, and travelled to over 100 countries in his career. He did pioneering ‘train the trainer’ courses to build local capacity and support safe practices in local farming communities. He never had a PhD, but eventually became a professor of which he was inordinately proud. He was a very practical person, with a lot of drive, and I think I’ve inherited both those qualities from him.”
The urge to become a transplant coordinator, something which she thought might require a degree, prompted Yvonne to do a degree in psychology with the aim to then go back into intensive care nursing.
In the end, it didn’t quite work out that way.
“I never thought of myself as particularly academic and so didn’t consider a career in academia, but I managed to recruit 300 student nurses for a project for my undergraduate degree, and my supervisor was really impressed. He invited me to apply for a PhD scholarship in psychology, and I was successful.”
Yvonne went on to do her doctoral studies at York. Her first job as a postdoc was in York’s Department of Health Sciences where she ran a trial on hip protector pants, garments worn to prevent hip fractures in the elderly. Who said research isn’t glamorous?
Yvonne Birks is Professor of Applied Social Care in the School for Business and Society. As the new national director for the NIHR School for Social Care Research (SSCR), she sits at the helm of a six-institution research collaboration driving social care research throughout England.
Although now a leading voice in social care research, Yvonne’s route into academia was not a conventional one. When she told her parents she was not going to university, but would train to be a nurse instead to have a ‘proper job’, they were disappointed. Both were from working-class backgrounds, but had worked hard to move into roles in education, her mother teaching pre-nursing courses and her father teaching agricultural engineering in developing countries. Despite their misgivings both parents supported Yvonne’s decision, with one caveat.
“My mother said to me, fine, train as a nurse, but you must go to a London teaching hospital. So that’s what I did,” says Yvonne.
She qualified as a registered general nurse, quickly moved into children’s nursing and then children’s intensive care, working as a nurse for ten years. Her background in healthcare proved to be invaluable to the academic role she was later to move into, parts of which now include finding ways to explain the structures and conditions for those working in and using social care.
“As an ex-healthcare professional, the situation with social care is really shocking. We have a national health service, but no equivalent in social care. Instead, things are done in 153 different ways across 153 different local authorities. Health has both a long history of research and lots of funding opportunities, which simply isn’t the case for social care. But that is changing and changing really quickly. That makes social care a great place to be working at the moment.”
After several years in nursing Yvonne decided, much to her father’s delight, that she wanted to apply to university.
“My father wasn’t your standard academic,” Yvonne recalls. “He got a job in a university unit involved in overseas development work when it was very new, and travelled to over 100 countries in his career. He did pioneering ‘train the trainer’ courses to build local capacity and support safe practices in local farming communities. He never had a PhD, but eventually became a professor of which he was inordinately proud. He was a very practical person, with a lot of drive, and I think I’ve inherited both those qualities from him.”
The urge to become a transplant coordinator, something which she thought might require a degree, prompted Yvonne to do a degree in psychology with the aim to then go back into intensive care nursing.
In the end, it didn’t quite work out that way.
“I never thought of myself as particularly academic and so didn’t consider a career in academia, but I managed to recruit 300 student nurses for a project for my undergraduate degree, and my supervisor was really impressed. He invited me to apply for a PhD scholarship in psychology, and I was successful.”
Yvonne went on to do her doctoral studies at York. Her first job as a postdoc was in York’s Department of Health Sciences where she ran a trial on hip protector pants, garments worn to prevent hip fractures in the elderly. Who said research isn’t glamorous?
"For me, research has always been about doing something practical that can make a difference, the same reason I’d chosen nursing in the first place."
"For me, research has always been about doing something practical that can make a difference, the same reason I’d chosen nursing in the first place."
A lived experience
Despite many people having had some experience of and interaction with social care, few people talk about it which can make decisions about care feel daunting. Yvonne believes that a significant value of her research is highlighting not only the challenges faced by the sector, but the committed people delivering social care who she believes should be spoken about in a more positive way.
Away from her research role, Yvonne also has first-hand experience of social care herself.
“My father lived with advanced dementia in a care home and I support my mum, who is of course aging too. I’ve seen loads of friends go through this challenge of how people age well but also get the best support they can when they need it. It's one of the things I bring to my research.
“A lot of the people I work with directly have had very similar experiences either through their children, or their parents, or grandparents”. Yvonne continues, “Supporting my father was a long journey and funding was a source of stress for my mother in particular who really worried about meeting the costs of my father’s care”.
Personal experience allows Yvonne and her colleagues in the Older Adults’ Social Care Research (OSCaR) Group, based in the School for Business and Society, to understand the realities faced by people drawing on social care, and their families and friends who provide huge amounts of care. Although the emotional language associated with care might not have changed much, Yvonne also points out modern social care challenges that are still to be addressed.
“The dynamic of how people care for their families have changed as well. We're a little bit stuck in this 1950s model of care where we all live on the same street and women don’t work. I think we just have a much larger need, and we just haven’t really changed the way we deliver care or think about care in the context of a significantly bigger ageing population.”
After her post-doctoral studies, Yvonne won an NIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship and worked in patient safety, becoming Deputy Director of the University of York Clinical Trials Unit. She also carried out research with the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at York.
When an opening for a Chair in SPRU came up, she applied and was appointed to the role. Although academia wasn’t her first choice, Yvonne has, albeit via an unusual pathway, followed in her father’s footsteps.
“I’ve never had some kind of masterplan for my career,” she admits. “There have been a number of moments when my life could have gone in different directions, but overall, I’ve been lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Most of my choices have been based on doing what feels like the right thing and that’s usually doing what I enjoy, with people I like to work with. And I’ve been lucky to find that combination at the University of York and the wider community of social care research and health services research before that.”
When asked what has most helped her career, she’ll point to two factors: serendipity and luck. But modesty aside, her strength of character and passion for making a difference have in reality played the biggest role. Finding practical ways to improve people’s lives is what drives her.
Yvonne's background as a nurse, working as both a general nurse and in children's intensive care, has been invaluable to her role as a researcher.
Yvonne's background as a nurse, working as both a general nurse and in children's intensive care, has been invaluable to her role as a researcher.
A lived experience
Despite many people having had some experience of and interaction with social care, few people talk about it which can make decisions about care feel daunting. Yvonne believes that a significant value of her research is highlighting not only the challenges faced by the sector, but the committed people delivering social care who she believes should be spoken about in a more positive way.
Away from her research role, Yvonne also has first-hand experience of social care herself.
“My father lived with advanced dementia in a care home and I support my mum, who is of course aging too. I’ve seen loads of friends go through this challenge of how people age well but also get the best support they can when they need it. It's one of the things I bring to my research.
“A lot of the people I work with directly have had very similar experiences either through their children, or their parents, or grandparents”. Yvonne continues, “Supporting my father was a long journey and funding was a source of stress for my mother in particular who really worried about meeting the costs of my father’s care”.
Personal experience allows Yvonne and her colleagues in the Older Adults’ Social Care Research (OSCaR) Group, based in the School for Business and Society, to understand the realities faced by people drawing on social care, and their families and friends who provide huge amounts of care. Although the emotional language associated with care might not have changed much, Yvonne also points out modern social care challenges that are still to be addressed.
“The dynamic of how people care for their families have changed as well. We're a little bit stuck in this 1950s model of care where we all live on the same street and women don’t work. I think we just have a much larger need, and we just haven’t really changed the way we deliver care or think about care in the context of a significantly bigger ageing population.”
After her post-doctoral studies, Yvonne won an NIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship and worked in patient safety, becoming Deputy Director of the University of York Clinical Trials Unit. She also carried out research with the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at York.
When an opening for a Chair in SPRU came up, she applied and was appointed to the role. Although academia wasn’t her first choice, Yvonne has, albeit via an unusual pathway, followed in her father’s footsteps.
“I’ve never had some kind of masterplan for my career,” she admits. “There have been a number of moments when my life could have gone in different directions, but overall, I’ve been lucky to be in the right place at the right time. Most of my choices have been based on doing what feels like the right thing and that’s usually doing what I enjoy, with people I like to work with. And I’ve been lucky to find that combination at the University of York and the wider community of social care research and health services research before that.”
When asked what has most helped her career, she’ll point to two factors: serendipity and luck. But modesty aside, her strength of character and passion for making a difference have in reality played the biggest role. Finding practical ways to improve people’s lives is what drives her.
Yvonne's background as a nurse, working as both a general nurse and in children's intensive care, has been invaluable to her role as a researcher.
Yvonne's background as a nurse, working as both a general nurse and in children's intensive care, has been invaluable to her role as a researcher.
A NATIONAL ROLE
In 2024, Yvonne was appointed Director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research, with funding of £31 million confirmed for the next five years. It marks the most significant single entity investment in social care research ever made by the NIHR.
“My first task in SPRU in 2010 was to ensure the University of York retained membership of the NIHR School for Social Care Research, which had just completed its first five years,” recalls Yvonne. “Each member university has to demonstrate they have the capacity and capability to carry out the level of research in social care required. York did retain its membership and the University, and myself, have been involved in the SSCR ever since.”
Most of Yvonne’s early research experience was in healthcare and the transition to social care research was a steep learning curve. “I’ve learned a lot through my colleagues across York but also from being part of the SSCR more widely,” says Yvonne.
The change in attitudes to social care and social care research opens up possibilities for the next five years of the SSCR, something that Yvonne is relishing.
“We no longer have to argue the value of social care research and that gives us the chance to really take the research forward,” she says. “The flip side is that expectations for what we deliver are much higher. NIHR expects us to demonstrate the impact of what we do. I’m all for that, as it’s always been the backbone of my own research.
I want research that makes a difference to the people that work in social care, and the people who use services or might need to use services. That’s what motivates me and the whole team at York.”
A NATIONAL ROLE
In 2024, Yvonne was appointed Director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research, with funding of £31m confirmed for the next five years. It marks the most significant single entity investment in social care research ever made by the NIHR.
“My first task in SPRU in 2010 was to ensure the University of York retained membership of the NIHR School for Social Care Research, which had just completed its first five years,” recalls Yvonne. “Each member university has to demonstrate they have the capacity and capability to carry out the level of research in social care required. York did retain its membership and the University, and myself, have been involved in the SSCR ever since.”
Most of Yvonne’s early research experience was in healthcare and the transition to social care research was a steep learning curve. “I’ve learned a lot through my colleagues across York but also from being part of the SSCR more widely,” says Yvonne.
The change in attitudes to social care and social care research opens up possibilities for the next five years of the SSCR, something that Yvonne is relishing.
“We no longer have to argue the value of social care research and that gives us the chance to really take the research forward,” she says. “The flip side is that expectations for what we deliver are much higher. NIHR expects us to demonstrate the impact of what we do. I’m all for that, as it’s always been the backbone of my own research.
I want research that makes a difference to the people that work in social care, and the people who use services or might need to use services. That’s what motivates me and the whole team at York.”
Creating partnerships for change
Before taking on the role of SSCR Director, Yvonne previously led the NIHR-funded Curiosity Partnership, which brings together regional universities and local authorities to enable better understanding, use and production of research in adult social care within Yorkshire and the Humber.
“A really close relationship with the sector, with local authorities and care providers, is really fundamental to the way I think about research,” she explains. “I'm not interested in giving them academic papers to read, I'm interested in saying, we've worked with you to create this tool, does it help? And if it doesn't help, why not? What can we do to make it better?”
Today, Yvonne and her team are in continuous talks with the Department of Health and Social Care, with representatives from the government department on their board. With the Casey Commission live, she feels the government is truly interested in what they do and that the SSCR’s research will be able to help in informing government decisions, while the government will in turn be able to help shape the research questions in order to address current and arising social care issues.
“All of the projects kind of come together to produce a sort of canon of evidence about how we might change the way we address social care in this country. I'd love for that to happen tomorrow, but I think that is probably going to take time.”
Personal experiences of social care work have allowed Yvonne and her colleagues to understand and relate to people who provide care to their families and friends.
Personal experiences of social care work have allowed Yvonne and her colleagues to understand and relate to people who provide care to their families and friends.
Personal experiences of social care work have allowed Yvonne and her colleagues to understand and relate to people who provide care to their families and friends.
Personal experiences of social care work have allowed Yvonne and her colleagues to understand and relate to people who provide care to their families and friends.
Creating partnerships for change
Before taking on the role of SSCR Director, Yvonne previously led the NIHR-funded Curiosity Partnership, which brings together regional universities and local authorities to enable better understanding, use and production of research in adult social care within Yorkshire and the Humber.
“A really close relationship with the sector, with local authorities and care providers, is really fundamental to the way I think about research,” she explains. “I'm not interested in giving them academic papers to read, I'm interested in saying, we've worked with you to create this tool, does it help? And if it doesn't help, why not? What can we do to make it better?”
Today, Yvonne and her team are in continuous talks with the Department of Health and Social Care, with representatives from the government department on their board. With the Casey Commission live, she feels the government is truly interested in what they do and that the SSCR’s research will be able to help in informing government decisions, while the government will in turn be able to help shape the research questions in order to address current and arising social care issues.
“All of the projects kind of come together to produce a sort of canon of evidence about how we might change the way we address social care in this country. I'd love for that to happen tomorrow, but I think that is probably going to take time.”
"I want research that makes a difference to the people that work in social care, and the people who use services or might need to use services. That’s what motivates me and the whole team at York."
"I want research that makes a difference to the people that work in social care."
Hopes for the future
As a researcher hoping to better the lives of those in social care, Yvonne has a long list of what she hopes her and her team’s research can contribute to.
“I'm hoping that the outcome will be that people have better services, that they feel better supported and I mean that across the board, whether they are younger people transitioning from children's services right through to end-of-life care.
“I hope that we can have a working environment for the people who work in those services that means they want to stay. I hope we can address the workforce crisis and that we can sort out the financial model that we have currently and make that more workable for our current population requirement. And that people feel more satisfied with the services that they have.”
When asked if she and the OSCaR team will actually be able to change anything, Yvonne confidently says:
“I think we will.”
With her research, Yvonne wants to make a difference to the people delivering social care, who she believes need to be listened to more to improve how care is given.
With her research, Yvonne wants to make a difference to the people delivering social care, who she believes need to be listened to more to improve how care is given.
With her research, Yvonne wants to make a difference to the people delivering social care, who she believes need to be listened to more in order to improve how care is given.
With her research, Yvonne wants to make a difference to the people delivering social care, who she believes need to be listened to more in order to improve how care is given.
Hopes for the future
As a researcher hoping to better the lives of those in social care, Yvonne has a long list of what she hopes her and her team’s research can contribute to.
“I'm hoping that the outcome will be that people have better services, that they feel better supported and I mean that across the board, whether they are younger people transitioning from children's services right through to end of life care.
“I hope that we can have a working environment for the people who work in those services that means they want to stay. I hope we can address the workforce crisis and that we can sort out the financial model that we have currently and make that more workable for our current population requirement. And that the people feel more satisfied with the services that they have.”
When asked if she and her team will actually be able to change anything, Yvonne breaks into a smile and says:
“I think we will.”
Hopes for the future
As a researcher hoping to better the lives of those in social care, Yvonne has a long list of what she hopes her and her team’s research can contribute to.
“I'm hoping that the outcome will be that people have better services, that they feel better supported and I mean that across the board, whether they are younger people transitioning from children's services right through to end-of-life care.
“I hope that we can have a working environment for the people who work in those services that means they want to stay. I hope we can address the workforce crisis and that we can sort out the financial model that we have currently and make that more workable for our current population requirement. And that people feel more satisfied with the services that they have.”
When asked if she and the OSCaR team will actually be able to change anything, Yvonne confidently says:
“I think we will.”
Yvonne Birks is the National Director for the NIHR School for Social Care Research.
Her work, and ours, is about using independent thinking and a collective spirit to tackle the biggest questions in social care.
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