Dr Michael Lambert
Research FellowProfile
I am a historian of the welfare state in twentieth-century Britain and its Empire, using sociological approaches to understand social and health policy-making and implementation, along with the impacts of these upon people, organisations, and society. My research uses qualitative and quantitative approaches, with considerable experience in using archival, documentary and organisation records, combined with elite and popular oral interviews. I have a particular interest in place, and have primarily focused upon Liverpool, Merseyside and the North West of England in my work.
I am a co-investigator on the National Institute for Health Research funded project ‘Mapping underdoctored areas: the impact of medical training pathways on NHS workforce distribution’. My work package contributes health policy, history and spatial analysis. My research also underpins my responsibility and commitment in leading Widening Participation within Lancaster Medical School student admissions.
Research Interests
My research explores the dynamics of power, inequality and the state in the development of welfare services across twentieth century Britain and it’s Empire. This extends to critically thinking about each of the ‘five giant evils’ of William Beveridge’s imagination: want, ignorance, disease, squalor and idleness.
Child welfare inequalities as seen through the organisation of state services has been a consistent focus of my research. My doctoral thesis used social case files of ‘problem families’ to understand the antecedents of modern child protection practices, linking decisions about individuals to national policies. I have used this approach in contributing as an expert witness to two major national inquiries: in relation to the selection of children from Scotland by the Fairbridge Society for child migration for the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry in 2019, and the policy framework surrounding the forcible adoption of children of unmarried mothers for the Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry in 2021.
Understanding complex subnational health systems and their logics over time has been the aim of several projects, as well as how the present horizons of current decision-makers are shaped by them. I submitted a report for the Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in 2022 about the myriad reasons why services were centralised and rationalised on their present Crown Street site as part of a strategy advocated relocation. I have contributed several written submissions to Parliamentary inquiries about the historical antecedents of present policy dilemmas. I am also a regular contributor in the ‘Medicine and Society section of the Morecambe Bay Medical Journal, exploring contemporary issues through a historical lens.
Career Details
In 2017 I completed my doctoral thesis on ‘problem families’ was at the Department of History in Lancaster University in 2017. Drawing on expertise in social policy and child welfare, I subsequently worked as a Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow in Early Childhood Studies at Liverpool Hope University from 2016-17.
From 2017-19 I was a Research Associate in the Department of Public Health and Policy at the University of Liverpool exploring the history of the NHS in the Liverpool City Region from 1948 to the present. This was on a Wellcome-funded award led by Professor Sally Sheard entitled ‘The governance of health: medical, economic and managerial expertise in Britain since 1948’.
From 2019-22 I was a Fellow in Social Inequalities in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University. Here, I supported the research and engagement work of the Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities (CASEI) directed by Distinguished Professor Beverley Skeggs. I was also the lead for Archives, Collections and the Documents of life stream as part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership Methods Programme.
From 2022-23 I was a Research Fellow in the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology at the University of Birmingham researching contracting between the NHS and the disclaimed sector from 1948 to 1979. This was on a Wellcome-funded award led by Professor John Mohan entitled ‘Border crossings: charity and voluntarism in Britain’s mixed economy of health care since 1948’.
Gentle giant? Perspectives on the style and impact of Griffiths from within government
Invited talk
Historic forced adoption apology: 18 months on
Government
Endings and disappearances: new landscapes of infant care
Invited talk
Child neglect, family welfare, social work and the state in Britain, 1948-74
Invited talk
Beyond the pale in New Jerusalem: race and the underclass under the gaze of the “classic” welfare state in North West England, 1945-74
Oral presentation
Why an adoption apology?
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
The first 20 years of social work teaching and research at Lancaster University: place, profession and people
Invited talk
On the record or off the case? Archival sources of forced adoption by the British welfare state
Invited talk
Why access to records matters to seeking justice over historic forced adoption in Britain
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Historic adoption: experiences and reflections
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Despite the welfare state: child poverty in the nine historic townships of Tameside, 1945-74
Invited talk
Healthcare in place (ESRC Festival of Social Sciences)
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
“Careful fact-finding, reforming zeal, and intellectual curiosity”: the Social Survey of Merseyside, 1929-34
Invited talk
Eugenics and the hidden history of forcible birth control by Britain's welfare state
Invited talk
Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into the Right to Family Life: Adoption of Children of Unmarried Women, 1949-1976
Expert Opinion
‘“Problem families” and the welfare state in North West England, 1945-74
Invited talk
Using archives and historical research in government inquiries: pitfalls and prospects
Invited talk
First as tragedy then as farce: building the old new Royal Liverpool Hospital, 1935-78
Invited talk
Managing decline: a history of Liverpool, the NHS, and the pandemic
Invited talk
War and the healthcare revolution: the birth of the National Health Service on Merseyside
Invited talk
In conversation: learning from the archives
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Using the past to understand the future dynamics of medical care
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Violent playground? A view from rebellious youth growing up in post-war Liverpool
Invited talk
The Big 100 Debate
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Liverpool in the time of suffrage
Invited talk
NHS archives on Merseyside: reflections and directions on the state of the region’s health services heritage, 1948-2018
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Using history to examine experiences of poverty and welfare by large families in Bradford and West Yorkshire
Invited talk
The early history of Frimhurst, 1957-77
Invited talk
“The dragons’ harvest”? “Problem families” in post-war Sheffield, 1945-74
Invited talk
Merseybeaten? Poverty, policy and the “problem family” in post-war Liverpool
Invited talk
The long history of the “troubled family”
Invited talk
‘“Problem families” on Merseyside, 1943-74
Invited talk
Brentwood Recuperative Centre, 1937-70
Invited talk
An expensive and tragic problem to the community”: “problem families” in post-war Manchester, 1945-74
Invited talk
Brentwood Recuperation Centre for Mothers and Children, 1935-70
Invited talk
- Interdisciplinary network in culture, health, ethics and society