Dr Sarah-Jane Hannah Fenton BSc(Hons); PGCert; PGCert ; MPhil; PhD

• 2019-2020 PGCert, Higher Education, University of Birmingham 
• 2012 – 2016 PhD, University of Birmingham (awarded December 2016) & University of Melbourne (awarded August 2017)
• 2015 PGCert Advanced Research Methods and Skills, University of Birmingham (Excellent)
• 2009-2011 PGCert, Psychodynamic Approaches to Working with Adolescents, Tavistock & Portman Clinic (Distinction)
• 2005-2007 MPhil, Comparative Social Policy, University of Oxford
• 2001-2004 BSc (Hons), Geography, University of Exeter (1st)

Sarah-Jane completed her Doctoral Research in 2016, graduating with a dual award degree from the University of Birmingham (2016) and the University of Melbourne (2017). This research explored mental health policy and service delivery for adolescents and young people aged 16-25 years of age. It was a comparative study exploring policy and systems in the UK with those in Australia; and delivery of services to people experiencing mental ill health aged between 16-25 years old. 

Sarah-Jane held a post-doctoral Research Fellow post on an NIHR funded study evaluating the use of patient experience data to improve the quality of inpatient mental health care (EURIPIDES). She re-joined the University of Birmingham as a lecturer in mental health policy in 2018 and she currently co-leads the Innovation in Policy Systems and Services (IPSS) research theme within the IMH. Sarah-Jane was the Post-Graduate taught co-lead for IMH and led on the development of the Masters in Mental Health (MSc).

Sarah-Jane has taught across a range of modules in the Institute for Mental Health, the Department of Social Policy Sociology and Criminology and the Department of Social Work and Social Care at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate level.

Sarah-Jane is interested in supervising PhD work related to youth mental health; mental health policy and practice; qualitative research involving realist methodologies; and research into health and social care involving young people.

PhD title

Mental health service delivery for adolescents and young people: a comparative study between Australia and the UK

Research interests

Youth; mental health; mental health policy and service delivery; realist methodology; international social policy; and comparative research.

Research projects

2020-2024 Co-Investigator – UKRI/ESRC Research Grant, ODA, Colombia – Mapping Mental Health Resources for Young People Living in a Conflict Context at The Colombian Pacific Region, University of Birmingham in partnership with Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)

2019-2022 Project team member – NIHR HS&DR – Early evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme, University of Birmingham

2016 –2018 Research Fellow – Evaluating the Use of Patient Experience Data to Improve the Quality of Inpatient Mental Health Care (EURIPIDES) study, University of Warwick Medical School

2015 –2016 Research Fellow – Family Potential Research Centre for Policy and Practice Research – working on an ESRC Knowledge Exchange project looking at family inclusive policy and practice, University of Birmingham

2014 Research Assistant – Health Exchange project ‘Workplace wellbeing programmes and their impact on employees and their employing organisations: evidence from firms’ – University of Birmingham

2014 Research Assistant – 21st Century Public Servant research – Melbourne School of Government – University of Melbourne

2014 Research Assistant – Faculty of Arts Finance Office – ARC budget centre – University of Melbourne

2013 – 2014 Research Assistant – ARC Discovery project - Melbourne School of Government – University of Melbourne

2013 Research Assistant – Community Organising – University of Birmingham

2012 Research Assistant – Birmingham Policy Commission into Ageing Well in the 21st Century – University of Birmingham