About
Ed Stubbs is a Research Fellow in the Care Policy & Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
His research interests centre on social care, particularly the availability, coverage and use of social care data; the measurement of people’s needs, experiences and use of support; unpaid carers; and the organisation of care in rural and coastal communities. He is also interested in how robotics, digital technologies and social media could support people who draw on care, unpaid carers and care professionals, including in geographically isolated communities.
Ed uses qualitative and mixed methods, including interviews, focus groups, thematic analysis, survey development, evidence reviews and economic costing. Much of his work aims to make fragmented evidence more accessible and useful to researchers, policymakers, practitioners and organisations working to improve social care.
He is Principal Investigator of the NIHR School for Social Care Research-funded Catalogue of Social Care Individualised Data (CASCID), which brings together thousands of social care measures from UK datasets. He is also part of research teams examining combinations of support for unpaid carers and adult social care in rural and coastal communities.
Ed’s previous research has examined long COVID data systems, disease registries, care-home visiting restrictions, palliative care, autism, migration and maternal mental health. His work spans social care, health services research, medical informatics, gerontology and public health. He is particularly interested in research that informs policy and practice and has worked with NHS England, charities, government organisations and social care stakeholders.
Before returning to research, Ed spent five years teaching science, including as deputy head of a science department. He developed climate education initiatives and worked with the Vaccine Confidence Project and Stephen Hawking Foundation to produce COVID-19 vaccine resources for schools. Earlier, he researched health-system financing and organisation at the Civitas think tank.
Expertise
Adult social care, social care data, qualitative and mixed methods
Research
Ed Stubbs’s research focuses on adult social care, with particular interests in the availability, coverage and use of social care data; the measurement of people’s needs, experiences and use of support; unpaid carers; and the organisation of care in rural and coastal communities. He is interested in how gaps in existing data affect understanding of social care and how data can be made more accessible and useful to researchers, policymakers, practitioners and organisations working in the sector.
A related area of interest is the role of robotics, digital technologies and social media in social care. This includes how online platforms and technology-based approaches might help people who draw on care, unpaid carers and care professionals to find information, build networks and access support, particularly in rural or geographically isolated communities.
Ed uses qualitative and mixed methods, including interviews, focus groups, thematic analysis, survey development, evidence reviews and economic costing. He is Principal Investigator of the Catalogue of Social Care Individualised Data project, which brings together social care measures from major UK datasets. He also works on research examining combinations of support for unpaid carers and the delivery of adult social care in rural and coastal communities.
His wider research has included work on health and care data systems, disease registries, long COVID, care-home visiting, palliative care, autism, migration and maternal mental health. Across these areas, he is particularly interested in research that connects evidence with policy and practice.