Personal assistance for disabled people changing labour markets and social care reform

In 2022, the Scottish Parliament legislated for a major new National Care Service, to be launched in 2026. This collaborative PhD is designed to offer fresh conceptual and empirical insights to inform Scottish choices and academic debates about the future role for personal assistants (PA) in this new era of social care reform. PAs are support workers who can be employed individually by disabled people via direct payments as an alternative to using other services. Although personalisation has dominated social care reform over the past 20 years, very little is known about the insecure and multiply disadvantaged personal assistance workforce in Scotland. The research will examine the impact of PA roles in Scotland's changing social care system - both in relation to the needs of the PA workforce and the needs and preferences of disabled people as employers and service users. The PhD will be co-supervised by the PA Programme Board, which is an innovative cross-sector grouping of government, third sector and disabled people's organisations based in the Scottish Government. The Board has co-produced a work plan and identified the need for robust new data on the roles and experiences of PAs in Scotland as a priority for their work. The doctoral research will offer new academic knowledge and critical policy analysis of the reconfiguration of social care and the emergence of an increasingly diverse and disparate workforce. This proposal has been developed collaboratively with the PA Programme Board to directly address a core research gap and the candidate will work with the PA Programme Board to produce new empirical work and critical understandings.