Dr Claire Hargreaves
Research Fellow, Senior Research AssociateProfile
I am a quantitative social scientist, with over ten years experience in research focused on communities, criminal and family justice, and the interlinks with health and social care. My research involves large scale data linkage (including national and international administrative data), data management, statistical analysis and data visualisation, as well as primary data collection, survey design and public engagement.
I am a Research Fellow based in the Sociology Department leading an ESRC funded fellowship, aiming to deliver a new farming-household typology based on characteristics of the farmer, farm household and farm business, and subsequently identify patterns in policy engagement and health vulnerabilities. The project aims to assist policymakers, markedly those charged with the delivery of agricultural policies in England and Wales to refine proposals and inform a more equitable approach to policy intervention by offering a nuanced understanding of the socio-economic and business characteristics of farming households. This understanding will aid policymakers and farming stakeholders in anticipating the diverse impacts of policies across different farming sub-groups.
Alongside this, I am working on a 24-month ESRC-funded data linkage study, led by Professor Judith Harwin (School of Law, Lancaster University), investigating the impact of family drug and alcohol courts (FDACs) on parental offending through the linkage and analysis of three administrative data sources, FDAC, Cafcass and the Police National Computer (PNC). I am also co-investigator on a 30-month NIHR-funded project, which aims to provide a comprehensive evidence framework to inform the provision of social care for imprisoned women which will be of utility too service commissioners, providers and frontline staff.
I have recently worked on a range of projects within the Nuffield funded Family Justice Observatory Data Partnership, led by Professor Karen Broadhurst (Sociology, Lancaster University) and Professor David Ford (SAIL Databank, Swansea University). I recently led on the project ‘Uncovering private family law: what can the data tell us about children’s participation?’ investigating, through the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) administrative data, the proportion of private law cases in which children directly participated and the implications for children, families and the family justice system. I have also exposed, through the linking of Cafcass Cymru to health records in Wales, the heightened socioeconomic and health vulnerabilities of women and men involved in private law proceedings in Wales.
External Roles
As part of an ESRC funded six-month placement at the Home Office, I explored behavioural patterns of priority and prolific offenders in disadvantaged areas. An important part of my research included data linking, through several deterministic techniques of multiple complex longitudinal databases, including the Drugs Data Warehouse and the Offender Assessment System (OASys).
I also, on a three-month visiting fellowship to Statistics Norway, linked multiple Norwegian population registers comprising 25 million records to determine the effects of static and dynamic socio-demographic characteristics (including education, family type, marital status, employment and benefits) on recidivism rates of convicted offenders in Norway over a 15-year period. I applied several survival analysis techniques including, life table analysis, Cox proportional hazard analysis and discrete time hazard analysis.
Research Grants
Sustaining their family, community and nation. Who are our farming households? Developing a farming-household typology in England & Wales using AD|ARC, Economic and Social Research Council – ADR UK Fellowship, £189,105 (PI) Awarded August 2024 [Start date October 2024], 18-month project.
Women’s Social Care in Prison: Identifying needs and an appropriate service response, National Institute for Health Research – School for Social Research, £349,304 (Co-I, one of six) Awarded August 2021 [Start date April 2022], 30-month project.
Scoping the current data landscape on adult social care through the criminal justice system, University of Manchester, Institute for Health Policy and Organisation Seedcorn Funding, £5,000 (PI) Awarded January 2021, 6-month project.
A social care based evaluation of COVID-19: Understanding workforce response and effects (The SECURE Study), National Institute for Health Research – School for Social Care Research, £438,163 (Co-I, one of twelve) Awarded January 2021, 24-month project.
Models of social care provision in prison: Preparatory work for a mixed methods study, National Institute for Health Research – Programme Development Grants, £148,357 (Co-I, one of five) Awarded December 2020, 12-month project.
Care and support for people with social care needs on release from prison, National Institute for Health Research - School for Social Care Research, £393,243 (Co-I, one of four) Awarded June 2019, 27-month project.
Effective Healthcare Support to Care Homes, National Institute for Health Research - School for Social Care Research, £346,795 (Co-I, one of three) Awarded November 2016, 30-month project.
Social Care in Prisons, National Institute for Health Research - School for Social Care Research, £201,838 (Co-I, one of three) Awarded May 2015, 14-month project.
Behavioural characteristics of cyber-criminals in online trading, Economic and Social Research Council - Secondary Data Analysis Initiative Phase 2, £141,424. Awarded August 2014, 18-month project.
DSI: Feeding their family, village and nation. Who are our farming households? An analysis of Administrative Data | Agricultural Research Collection (AD|ARC) in England and Wales, exploring the socio-economic and health characteristics of farming househol
01/10/2024 → 31/03/2026
Research
Investigating the impact of family drug and alcohol courts (FDACs) on parental offending: a data linkage study
01/10/2022 → 31/03/2025
Research
Women’s Social Care in Prison: Identifying needs and an appropriate service response
01/04/2022 → 30/09/2024
Research
DSI: Establishment of a Data Platform and Analytics Service for the Family Justice Observatory and the provision of research and results to the FJO and general public.
01/01/2019 → 30/04/2024
Research
DSI Environment Theme Away Day
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Who are our farming families? The forgotten dimension of farming
Invited talk
FFARm: Farm and Farm-household Archetypes Reframed
Invited talk
Uncovering Private Family Law: What can administrative data tell us about children's participation?
Invited talk
What do we know about the ethnic diversity in the family justice system in England and Wales
Invited talk
What do we know about the ethnic diversity in the family justice system in England?
Invited talk
What do we know about the ethnic diversity in the family justice system in England and Wales?
Invited talk
Ethnicity of individuals in family courts
Invited talk
The Family Justice Data Partnership: The use of Cafcass administrative data for research
Invited talk
Overview of Cafcass administrative data and their relational database in SAIL
Invited talk
Uncovering private family law: Adult characteristics and vulnerabilities (Wales)
Invited talk
Uncovering private family law: Adult characteristics and vulnerabilities (Wales)
Invited talk