As their two-year NIHR-funded research project draws to a close at the end of 2026, researchers from the University of Manchester and the charity Groundswell share what they have learned about integrated health and social care for people experiencing homelessness.

The session covers three themes:

  • Electronic patient records: what 20 years of anonymised data reveal about how homelessness is recorded, and how health conditions and mortality compare for people who have experienced it.
  • Qualitative case studies: what focus groups and interviews across four areas tell us about how integrated care works in practice, and the barriers and facilitators to it.
  • Lived experience: how the project worked with Groundswell’s peer researchers to bring lived experience into the research meaningfully.

Speakers

  • Thomas Allen, Senior Lecturer in Health Economics, University of Manchester. A quantitative researcher using big routine data to understand how people experiencing homelessness use health services and how they might be improved.
  • Kelly Howells, Research Fellow, University of Manchester. A qualitative health researcher interested in medical sociology and health inequalities.
  • Mhorag Goff, Research Fellow, University of Manchester. A qualitative social scientist interested in how health services are organised and in the experiences of marginalised people.
  • Dan Bleksley, Research Manager, Groundswell, leading a team that brings together lived experience of homelessness with professional research expertise to generate research that leads to lasting change.