Sarah Wallace is a Senior Research Fellow at the Welsh Institute for Health and Social Care (WIHSC) and PRIME Centre Wales at University of South Wales (USW), and co-founder and co-chair of the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) Research Network Wales.

Sarah began her research journey at the University of South Wales; first completing a BSc Hons in Health and Social Care (formally Glamorgan University) in 2012, before graduating in 2018 with her PhD. Prior to returning to the University of South Wales to complete her PhD, Sarah worked as a frontline support worker within the third sector supporting women and men experiencing domestic abuse. Following a successful application to a Welsh Government funding stream, she later trained as an (accredited) Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA). She has also worked within a supported housing project for young people and volunteered with a local authority youth offending service when completing her BSc.

Her previous roles include research assistant at USW and a research associate within CACASDE as part of the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care. Since joining WIHSC in June 2019, Sarah has led and supported a number of research projects and evaluations across health and social care that range in size and scope.

Research interests

Sarah’s subject expertise is within the field of VAWDASV. As well as co-chairing the VAWDASV Research Network Wales, she is a member of the World Organisation of Colleges and Academies Special Interest Group for Family Violence. Some examples of her work in this area include:

• A Group Concept Mapping (GCM)  study with the VAWDASV Research Network Wales to establish the VAWDASV Research Priorities for Wales.
• A partnership with the third sector domestic abuse charity Calan DVS and colleagues at USW to develop The Compass Programme, a programme of support for male victims/survivors and an accompanying navigator-training package.
• With colleagues at USW, she is part of a 31 country International study: IMproving Opportunities for primary Care and Advocacy for Family Violence (IMOCAFV) that seeks to develop through consensus the management of Family Violence (FV) in primary care settings.
• In 2020, Sarah worked with Social Care Wales to curate DVA resources for professionals (in the context of Covid-19) and to update DVA social worker guidance ‘Recognising and responding to domestic violence and abuse. A quick guide for social workers’ for the Welsh context.

Sarah’s associated research interests and strengths span across health and social care. Her work has included research with service users, carers and families, the social care workforce, and evaluating social prescribing interventions. Substantive projects include:

• The Evaluation of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 – IMPACT
• Research on the Employment of Personal Assistants in Social Care
• Enhancing Student Well-being through Social Prescribing
• Review of Evidence of Variation in Terms and Conditions for Social Care Employment Contracts in Wales

Sarah research expertise is within qualitative methodologies (including phenomenology and participatory approaches) and mixed methods. She is a trained GCM facilitator, with developing skills in Realist Evaluation.