Leanne Dew is a Principal Research Analyst in the Department of Health and Social Care

As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
My first dream was to be a palaeontologist…. until I realised that I didn’t like dirt. Followed by a very brief period when I wanted to be a ‘math-magician’…. until I realised that I had the wrong end of the stick and being a mathematician was more about numbers than magic.

When did you first turn towards a social research career?
After university, I was reflecting on what I had enjoyed most about studying sociology and psychology, and realised it was in the ‘reveal’ when a body of research causes you to rethink something you thought held true. I liked the systematic collection of evidence and building a deeper understanding of a problem. There was a slight hiccup in that I hadn’t taken as many research methods modules as I should have done to pursue a career in academic research. But I was lucky enough to be able to do a Master’s in social research - and I was procrastinating when I was meant to be writing an essay when I found out about the Government Social Research Fast-stream. And the rest, as they say, is history.

What was your first professional job? And first project there?
It was doing ageing and pension analysis at the Department of Work and Pensions. The project of which I first had a sense of ownership was designing and commissioning an evaluation of employment support for older workers. With some very interesting conversations about what we meant by ‘older’ without seeking to offend anyone…

Where did your career go next?
What motivated that/those moves? I moved to work on the European Social Fund evaluation in May 2016. A certain referendum around that time made that interesting! The motivation was to get more hands-on experience of evaluation, but was also partly down to the luck of departmental placement rotations. A more planned career move was to the Department of Health (as was then!) to work on commissioning and managing public health and cross-cutting research. And I haven’t looked back - I’m still in the same directorate and loving it (although now doing social care research instead).

What has been your best professional moment?
So many to choose from, but a recent one would be commissioning a piece of research on the impact of Covid on people with learning disabilities. The commissioning wasn’t smooth, but it was an important topic and one that hadn’t been explored in other Covid research projects - and we got a great outcome. Learning Disability England have published some brilliant accessible policy briefings and videos from the project on their website

...and worst?
What a question! I’m not sure that I can pick out a definitive worst moment, and actually the frustrating challenges that come up when you are commissioning or conducting research are what make it so interesting. If pushed I’d probably have to say something around being elbows deep in some messy dataset, trying to wrangle Excel formulas that I never quite seem to get right first time to try and get the data into a fit state to actually begin the analysis that I want to do!

Do you have a social research hero/heroine?
I came to social research through sociology and psychology - and the classics that first got me interested in research will always hold a place in my heart. But I am inspired daily by many of the researchers who are challenging the way we do research to make sure that we are striving to make it more accessible and inclusive.

Do you have a favourite quote?
One that has stuck with me since my undergrad stats course is ‘Rubbish in, rubbish out’. Whilst this was referring to the quality of data going into your statistical analysis and the robustness of the answers or inferences from that analysis, I think it also has a nice broader application too.

What would you say to encourage a young person today considering a social research career?
Go for it - it can be such an interesting and varied career. There are constantly new problems and challenges that can be better understood or addressed, or new ways to look at age-old problems.