Many individuals and families across the UK are affected by food insecurity and rely on foodbanks alongside a wide range of health, welfare and community support services. These organisations provide essential help, but they often work independently. This can make it hard for people to find the support available to them, and hard for providers to coordinate their efforts, while capacity to fully meet people's needs remains limited.
This PhD project builds on a successful research placement with Leicester South Foodbank, funded by the Collab Research Hub. The placement found that over 40% of people using the foodbank were experiencing priority debt, and 28% were living with the ongoing impact of a physical or mental health condition. Many also needed support beyond emergency food, including healthcare, housing, employment and financial advice. It highlighted the need to see referral support as a connected network rather than a collection of separate services.
The researcher will use systems thinking, an approach that looks at how the different parts of a system connect and influence one another, to map the wider network of organisations supporting people experiencing food insecurity across Leicestershire. This includes foodbanks, healthcare providers, housing services, employment support, financial advice organisations and local authorities. Using interviews, surveys and workshops, the project will explore where gaps, overlaps and weaknesses exist in referral pathways, and what helps or hinders organisations to work together. Stakeholder workshops will bring organisations together to co-create practical solutions and shape an evidence-based framework for strengthening collaboration.
The project will produce recommendations for Leicester South Foodbank, partner organisations and local authorities to improve joined-up services and better meet the needs of the people they support. It also contributes towards the Trussell foodbank network's ambition of ending the need for emergency food. By extending the placement to a larger scale, the research will generate knowledge that can support more coordinated, resilient and person-centred community support systems across the UK.
This project has been co-created with and is supported by researchers from 冈本视频 and Loughborough University, and partners at Leicester South Foodbank. The successful candidate for this project will be enrolled at 冈本视频.
Project Aims
The project aims to:
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Co-create, through stakeholder workshops, an evidence-based systems framework and practical recommendations to improve coordination, referral processes and integrated service delivery.
Full Supervisory Team
- Lead Academic Supervisor: Dr Tung Dao (冈本视频)
- Academic Co-Supervisor: Dr Ayham Jaaron (冈本视频)
- Academic Co-Supervisor: Dr Wolf Ellis (Loughborough University)
- Community Supervisor: Bruce Harrison (Leicester South Foodbank)
Estimated thesis submission: