Description ABOUT THE ROLE This sixteen month post will enable you to lead qualitative fieldwork exploring the implementation of a new approach to identifying and offering early help to young children who are likely to have difficulties with language and communication, as part of a larger multi-method study across England. We want to work with a great qualitative researcher, who has excellent practical, analytic and conceptual skills. You will be working as part of friendly and supportive multi-disciplinary team including academics and national project partners. You will be based in the Implementation and Innovation Research Group (IIR) at Northumbria University, working primarily with Sebastian Potthoff and Tim Rapley. Working as part of multi-disciplinary team, you will support the delivery of qualitative work on the NIHR PRP funded ESCALATER research project by undertaking research activity, writing up research work for publication and collaborating with project partners. The qualitative work will involve interviews, focus groups and observation with front line and managerial staff and parents, carers and children over multiple sites across England. Some of the fieldwork will be conducted in person, so at times there will be travel to different parts of England, some will also be conducted remotely. The ESCALATER study seeks to understand and explore how a new approach to identifying and offering early help to young children who are likely to have difficulties with language and communication – ELIM-I: Early Language Identification Measure and Intervention – has been implemented. We have now completed the mapping phase, which documented the diversity of ELIM-I implementation across England. This post will focus on the second phase of the study – a qualitative ‘deep dive’ – which will examine implementation processes over time, the experiences of health visitors, speech and language therapists, and parents, and the effects of ELIM-I on service delivery. The deep dive will involve focus groups and interviews with practitioners and parents, alongside observations of ELIM-I delivery, across six sites in England. For further detail see the job description. This role is fixed-term for 16 months, starting 1 August 2026 and running to 30 November 2027 in line with the project end date. There is potential for a short extension beyond this date, subject to funding. This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 therefore the successful candidate will be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service check. ABOUT THE TEAM The study is a collaboration between University partners – Oxford University, Newcastle University and Northumbria University - alongside a national project partner - Institute of Health Visiting. You will be will embedded in the Implementation and Innovation Research Group (IIR) - a small friendly cross departmental group between Healthcare and Nursing Sciences and Communities and Education at Northumbria University. IIRs work ranges from initiation, scoping and development of novel ideas for service, therapeutic and care innovations, to feasibility studies, pilot and full trials with embedded process evaluations, as well as the scaling up and scaling out of evidence-based interventions. IIR works with key health and social care stakeholders to develop innovative, individualised, community-based and organisational solutions to problems of implementation and knowledge mobilisation through applied research. Through high quality research, we develop theories, tools and methodologies, as well as interventions to support implementation and knowledge mobilisation in practice. You will be formally based in the School of Communities and Education within the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing at Northumbria University, Coach Lane campus, one of five schools within the Faculty. ABOUT YOU To be successful in the role you will have: Excellent practical, analytic and conceptual skills in multi-method qualitative research. Knowledge of contemporary debates in implementation in health and/or social care is essential, and knowledge of debates and challenges relating to speech, language and communication needs is desirable. Ability to travel for purpose of data collection to various locations in the UK is essential. You will hold a PhD, have submitted your PhD or be about to submit your PhD in the next two months, or have equivalent experience, in a health and/or social science related discipline. Further information is available in the person specification. If you would like an informal discussion about the role, please contact Dr Sebastian Potthoff - sebastian.potthoff@northumbria.ac.uk or Professor Tim Rapley - tim.rapley@northumbria.ac.uk To apply for this vacancy please click 'Apply Now'. Your application should include a covering letter and a CV. ABOUT US Join Northumbria University, a research-intensive institution unlocking potential and changing lives locally and globally. Named Times Higher Education's University of the Year in 2022 and Modern University of the Year in 2025, we rank top 25 in the UK for research power. Discover more about us. With over 37,000 students from more than 140 countries, we offer world-leading research, award-winning partnerships, and an outstanding student experience. We empower our exceptional staff, promoting a positive work-life balance and offering great benefits, including excellent pension schemes, flexible working, generous holiday entitlement and more. 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