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A cohort of four Policy Fellows were embedded within the RiR programme in 2023 to 2024
These fellows collaborated with policy bodies like the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and local authorities, gaining hands-on experience in policy development and public engagement.
Associate Professor in in Biological Anthropology, Department of Anthropology
Emily primarily works in Evolutionary Public Health, applying evolutionary theory to inform public health research. Her research programmes focus on cooperative childrearing and social support (such as parenting, grand-parenting, schooling, peer relationships, and social care provisions) and its implications for health, wellbeing and public health for children and families. She has research experience working in academia, charities and the public sector, as well as teaching research methods and human behavioural ecology at university. She is a mixed method researcher with specialism in complex data analysis - such as surveys, censuses and cohort studies.
Fellowship: Families and weight management
During the RiR, Emily led and delivered a mixed-method project to understand how parents/caregivers conceptualise child health, and what drives health-related behaviours among families in London. The support of OHID-London, local authorities and other key stakeholders really helped with recruitment, and she was able to interview a diverse range of families from various London boroughs. She presented the key findings at an OHID-London webinar, and made practical suggestions around how to frame children’s weight and support healthy living. She took an open science approach to the project (which is relatively rare in non-academic contexts), and all project materials are publicly available. Alongside this main project, she had the opportunity to present her own research on infant feeding – leading to a collaboration with Merton Council and Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust to co-produce a breastfeeding information leaflet for fathers and partners.
Outputs:
- Slide-deck of key findings for public health stakeholders
- Suggestions for the National Child Measurement Programme Letter for Parents and Caregivers
- Anonymised research data available online
- Printed Breastfeeding leaflet distributed in GP surgeries
- Co-authored paper ‘Parental beliefs and practices around child weight in London, England: insights from qualitative photo-elicitation interviews’, Journal of Public Health (2026)
- Key skills gained
- Data interpretation (qualitative & quantitative)
- Strategic thinking and systems-level understanding
- Research synthesis and evidence-based recommendations
- Writing policy briefs, memos, and reports
- Public speaking and presentations
- Translating complex ideas into clear, accessible language
- Engaging with stakeholders through written and verbal channels
- Facilitating consultations, roundtables, or workshops
- Managing policy initiatives or programs
- Leading or contributing to task forces or working groups
- Deep dive into a specific policy area (e.g., health, education, tech, climate)
- Familiarity with policymaking processes at local, national, or international levels
Valentina Amuso
Fellowship: Review and prioritisation of interventions to tackle climate impacts on health inequalities in London.
Rebecca Irons, Senior Research Fellow in Humanities and Social Science, Institute for Global Health
Rebecca is a medical anthropologist and Wellcome Trust senior research fellow at the Institute for Global Heath who works on sexual and reproductive health, and climate change and health.
She has spent the last ten years conducting ethnographic research with marginalised communities in Latin America, including working with Indigenous Quechua women on family planning in Peru, and Venezuelan migrants living with HIV in Colombia. In the UK, Rebecca has researched with senior decision makers including NHS non-clinical managers and policymakers. She has a keen interest in policy engagement and was previously a UCL Public Engagement and Impact Fellow, and was twice seconded by the Wellcome Trust to policy partners Nuffield Trust and UNFPA.
Fellowship: Prevention of bacterial STIs in London
Working alongside mentor Professor Kevin Fenton, this fellowship project investigated the rise of bacterial STIs in London in recent years.
Bacterial STIs are increasingly a serious concern in London, as the region with “the highest rate of new STIs in England” (UKHSA, 2024); a number that has been steadily increasing over recent years for genital warts, genital herpes, syphilis, and gonorrhoea. The UKHSA note that a third of all new bacterial STIs in the UK are diagnosed in London residents. This has promoted public health experts to warn of a ‘London STI crisis’ (Keane and Phillips, 2024). For example, in 2023, it was reported that cases of syphilis were at their highest level in 75 years, with a report putting the number of new syphilis cases at 8,700 in 2022, “the highest since 1948” (Butler et al. 2023:1). This is not necessarily a symptom of the stress that COVID-19 put on the UK health services, however, for syphilis rates have been steadily increasing since 2010, where a 163% increase was found over a five-year period (Doyle, 2016). An increase in syphilis numbers is closely followed by gonorrhoea cases, with a 50% rise in diagnoses to “82,592 – the highest figure since records began in 1918” (Goodier and Aguilar García, 2023:1). In 2022, a new case of antibiotic-resistant super gonorrhoea – the Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain- was found in London (UKHSA, 2022). Like syphilis, super gonorrhoea cases have been reported since 2014, when 5 London cases were diagnosed (Press Association, 2016).
To explore this concern, interviews were conducted with senior decision makers and discussed at length with members of OHID and wider networks in London’s sexual health landscape. Rebecca and Professor Fenton co-wrote the article ‘Sex and the Syphilitic City: A Qualitative study addressing the rise and prevention of bacterial STIs amongst GBMSM and Black Caribbean people in post-pandemic London’ which is currently under review.
Outputs:
Article: Irons, R. & Fenton, K. ‘Sex and the Syphilitic City: A Qualitative study addressing the rise and prevention of bacterial STIs amongst GBMSM and Black Caribbean people in post-pandemic London’ (under review)
Aradhna Kaushal is a lecturer in public health at UCL. In 2024, she completed a six-month secondment as a Researcher in Residence with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in London. The project focused on public health approaches to addressing ethnic health inequalities, with a particular focus on interventions which adopt an anti-racist approach. The fellowship aimed to synthesise existing initiatives across the UK, assess their impact, and identify barriers to progress.
Fellowship: Tackling Ethnic health inequalities through anti-racism approach: Lessons learnt and review of approaches in the UK
During this placement, Aradhna led in-depth interviews with 17 public health professionals from local authorities and government bodies engaged in addressing ethnic inequalities and anti-racism from across the UK. These interviews explored challenges, facilitators, and lessons learned. She supplemented the interviews with a review of strategic policy documents. By extracting and thematically analysing this material alongside the interviews, Aradhna was able to triangulate findings across different evidence sources and develop a comprehensive understanding of the policy landscape.
The project culminated in an impactful national roundtable in September 2024 including 24 representatives from Scotland, Wales, and several cities and regions in England. An anticipated outcome from this work will be the establishment of a national network for resource sharing, collaborative projects, and development of novel evaluation techniques. This work has allowed Aradhna to gain a greater understanding of public health practice, and to develop her professional networks and skills. She remains connected and engaged to colleagues in OHID with a view to develop future research collaborations.
Outputs:
- A report of findings, published soon.
- Key skills gained
- Data interpretation (qualitative & quantitative)
- Research synthesis and evidence-based recommendations
- Writing policy briefs, memos, and reports
- Public speaking and presentations
- Translating complex ideas into clear, accessible language
- Engaging with stakeholders through written and verbal channels
- Cross-sector collaboration (government, NGOs, private sector)
- Building relationships with policymakers, advocates, and academics
- Facilitating consultations, roundtables, or workshops
- Understanding political and institutional dynamics
- Deep dive into a specific policy area (e.g., health, education, tech, climate)
- Use of policy tools (e.g., impact assessments, logic models)
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