PhD Empowering foster carers to support sleep in children in care
Develop specialist research expertise through independent enquiry and contribute to knowledge in your chosen field.
Key facts
- Duration
- Full time: 3 years
- Level
- PhDs and postgraduate research
- School
- School of Social Sciences
- School of Education, Humanities and Languages
- Application deadline
Friday 17 January 2025 - 12 noon.
Overview
Sleep problems are common in children and young people and are associated with many adverse effects on psychological and physical functioning (for the child and their carers). Children in care (CiC) (84,000 in England in 2024) have increased risk for sleep disturbance for many reasons. Our preliminary work has found that UK foster carers (FCs) commonly encounter sleep difficulties in CiC and that they need support to manage these issues as night-time difficulties are a source of stress and a potential cause of placement breakdown.
Unfortunately, FCs report numerous barriers to getting the sleep-related help they need, including challenges seeking and accessing appropriate support and also practical difficulties with implementing advice they do receive. Although there are evidenced ways to manage children’s sleep difficulties, the particular requirements of this population need to be understood so that resources and advice can be tailored for this group of children and their carers.
Entry requirements
Entry requirements
Applicants should have a first or upper second-class honours degree from a Higher Education Institution in the UK or acceptable equivalent qualification.
Fees and funding
Fees
University fees and Bench fees will be met by the University for each of the three years of the funded studentship.
This studentship is open to Home / EU applicants with settled or pre-settled status. The annual Bursary is equivalent to UKRI national minimum stipend plus fees (2024-5 rate is £19,237).
How and when to pay
Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.
- For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
- For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page.
How to apply
Please download and follow the application guideline instructions to prepare your application.
Contact hls-applications@brookes.ac.uk with any queries.
This project is advertised on a competitive basis alongside other current Nigel Groome PhD studentship advertisements for Biological and Medical Sciences projects. Part time MPhil/PhD study will be exceptionally considered (Home Fee status applicants only).
Our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, so module availability and course structures may vary from what is listed here. On rare occasions, we may also need to make updates to our course programmes after publication; for full details, please visit our changes to programmes page (opens in a new tab)