Krista Blair

Project Title: Addressing health inequalities in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire: improving access through new models of primary care

What were you doing before starting this PhD?

Prior to my PhD, I was working – and continue to work – as a senior research manager for CFE Research, evaluating programmes aimed at improving wellbeing and tackling inequalities by changing organisations and service systems. I also worked as an independent consultant to the voluntary and community sector, supporting the development and evaluation of projects and services for local communities. My most recent freelance work has been on racial health inequalities for the Nottingham City Place-Based Partnership. Earlier in my career, I worked in the charity sector at local, regional, and national levels, in policy and research roles. 

What motivated you to apply for this specific PhD project?

This research project was designed as evaluation/action research. I am first and foremost an evaluator, and I saw this study as an opportunity to help contribute to the field of evaluation, so that we get better at researching how changes to organisations and services affect wicked problems such as inequitable access to healthcare and health inequalities. I am also particularly interested in developing community-based solutions to what are complex, structural problems – it is exciting for me that our health system is seeking to work more closely with communities and voluntary sector organisations. Problems such as health inequalities are so complex that I think it’s actually easier to approach them at local level – and through ethnographic research at this very local level, we have an opportunity to understand what is going on in a system that is driving or alleviating the problem. 

What difference do you hope to make in Nottingham through this research? 

The incredible unfairness of health inequalities should make us all worried about what that says about us as a society. Many people don’t know that British children in recent years have been getting shorter – but that isn’t everyone’s children, just some people’s children. People in wealthier neighbourhoods will live longer than people in the poorest. This can’t be how we want our country to be. I hope it will contribute in some small way to making life in Nottingham a bit fairer. And, if we can produce knowledge that helps other communities as well, that will be something to be proud of.

What do you hope to be doing in 5 years’ time? (personally and/or professionally) 

I would hope to still be working in evaluation and applied research, but to have had the time and space to be doing much more contribution to evaluation theory and practice. I don’t know what other opportunities my PhD research will have brought me by then – teaching, possibly something else – but I look forward to finding out. I’m sure I will also meet new people through my research, and possibly also have become involved in different activities personally.