Travelling to Learn: My Churchill Fellowship Experience 

Jessica Smith is Principal Researcher for Population Health at Greater Manchester Combined Authority. In 2018, she was awarded a Fellowship by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to travel to Sweden, Germany, and Italy to explore how GPs are meeting the needs of refugees and asylum seekers. In this blog, she shares her Fellowship experience and encourages others to apply. 

This time last year I was drafting my application for funding from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (WCMT): a fantastic organisation that gives grants to people from the UK to travel overseas for a minimum of four weeks and carry out research. The aim is to bring back learning and insight to the UK and is open to any UK citizen: being a researcher, by training or profession, is not a prerequisite. 

I had toyed with the idea of applying to the WCMT for some time. I had signed up to the mailing list a few years ago and every year, when the applications opened, I would be reminded of what an amazing opportunity it sounded. But it was only in 2018 when it felt like the right time for me. This was partly for practical reasons: I had been in my job for some time and a request for an extended period of leave - four weeks away from the ‘day job’ - felt reasonable. 

But it also felt like the right time for me to revisit research skills that I’d not flexed for a while. Whilst my background is in social research, in recent years I’d moved into a management position: at the time, I led a team of qualitative analysts at the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It had been a while since I had been involved in the nitty-gritty of research, and I missed it.  

I also had a potential topic in mind. Having led qualitative work into the state of the GP sector in England for CQC, I had developed an interest in the role of general practice in meeting the needs of patients whose circumstances might make them vulnerable. I was particularly interested in how GPs can best support refugees and asylum seekers. 

Approaching my fourth year at CQC, I was reaching a point where I was considering ‘what next?’ for my career. Having gained knowledge of health and social care services through a regulatory lens, I was growing increasingly interested in health inequalities and the wider influences that affect people’s health. 

After a couple of rounds of written applications and an interview at the WCMT head office, in February 2018 I found out that I had been successful in securing funding to travel to Sweden, Germany, and Italy to explore how GPs are meeting the health needs of refugees and asylum seekers.

In the months that followed, evenings and weekends were busy spent contacting potential interviewees and planning my research trip. At times it felt like a second job but at every turn the WCMT team were on hand to provide advice and support via email and online seminars. I also picked the brains of members of the North West WCMT group: a supportive and sociable network of Churchill Fellows, past and present.  

I undertook my research in September and October 2018 (I blogged about it whilst I was away) and published my report of findings in April this year: a requirement of the funding. To travel, carry out research, and learn from others’ experiences was a fantastic opportunity. 

It also prompted me to consider new job opportunities and gave me new focus as to what I wanted to work on next. I concluded that I was keen to stay in a managerial role within research and analysis and, ideally, one that related to tackling health inequalities. 

In April this year, I joined Greater Manchester Combined Authority as Principal Researcher for Population Health. I manage a team of Population Health Analysts and we work closely with the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership to provide insight into the health of the Greater Manchester population. We also make links between population health and wider strategy, policy, and delivery; particularly in relation to important factors that affect people’s health, such as housing and employment. 

Through the WCMT, I’ve had the opportunity, since returning, to share my findings with others. In June, I gave a presentation at the North American Refugee Health Conference in Toronto and later this year I will be presenting findings to the European General Practice Research Network who kindly supported me in accessing interviewees. 

For anyone with a project in mind that marries personal interest with the potential for improvement here in the UK, I’d encourage you to apply. The process is a supportive one and the opportunities for professional and personal development are limitless. The deadline for applying for funding for 2020/21 is 17th September 2019.