Skip to content
Catherine Needham profile picture

Catherine Needham

Co-Investigator, University of Birmingham

Catherine Needham is Professor of Public Policy and Public Management at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham.  Her research focuses on adult social care, including personalisation, co-production, personal budgets and care markets. She has published a wide range of articles, chapters and books for academic and practitioner audiences.  Catherine led the Care in the Four Nations work package within the ESRC Sustainable Care team. She is now leading research on care systems as part of the ESRC Centre for Care and is also a member of IMPACT, the UK centre for evidence implementation in adult social care. She tweets as @DrCNeedham.

Research interests

  • Care systems
  • Care commissioning and markets
  • Personal budgets and direct payments

Key recent publications

  • Needham, C. and Hall, P. (forthcoming) Social care in the UK’s Four Nations, Bristol: Policy Press.
  • Mortensen, N. and Needham, C. (2022) ‘“I do not want to be one of her favourites”: Emotional display and the coproduction of frontline care services’, Public Management Review, early view.
  • Needham, C., Allen, K., Burn, E., Hall, K., Mangan, C., Al-Janabi, H, Tahir, W., Henwood, M., Glasby, J, Carr, S. and McKay, S. (2022) ‘How do you shape a market? Explaining local state practices in adult social care, Journal of Social Policy, early view.
  • Needham, C., Griffiths, E and Mangan, C. (2021) ‘“While you’re there can you just”: the emotional labour of role extending in public services’, Public Money and Management, early view. 
  • Griffiths, M., Hummell, E., Fisher, K., Borg, S., Needham, C. and Venning, A. (2021) Organisations adapting to dual aspirations of individualisation and collaboration in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) market, Australian Journal of Public Administration, early view.
  • Henwood, M., McKay, S., Glasby, J. and Needham, C. (2020) ‘Self-funders: still by-standers in the English social care system?’ Social Policy and Society, early view. 
  • Allen, K., Needham, C., Hall, K. and Tanner, D. (2019) ‘Participatory research meets validated outcome measures: Tensions in the co-production of social care evaluation’, Social Policy and Administration, early view.
  • Dickinson, H., Needham, C., Mangan, C. and Sullivan, H. (eds) (2018), Reimagining the Future Public Service Workforce, Springer.
  • Glasby, J., Needham, C., Allen, K., Hall, K., and McKay, S. (2018) ‘The Goldilocks Question: What Size is ‘Just Right’ for Social Care Organisations?’, International Journal of Care and Caring, 2 (1), pp. 65-87(23).
  • Needham, C. and Dickinson, H. (2018) ‘Any one of us could be among that number’: Comparing the Policy Narratives for Individualized Disability Funding in Australia and England. Social Policy & Administration, 52 (3), pp. 731-49.