Amanda Gavin, a SGSAH Doctoral Researcher in History at the University of Glasgow has been awarded a UKRI Policy Internship. She will be joining the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) from 6 September - 26 November 2021. 

SPICe is the Scottish Parliament’s in-house research unit, providing impartial advice and research to MSPs and their staff.

Amanda's PhD research looks at children’s experiences of the care ‘system’ in Scotland since 1945. It privileges the perspectives of children and the memories of Care Experienced people rather than those of child welfare professionals in the past. This approach has been made possible by the large public archive of witness testimony gathered by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. She is also a member of the global steering group for the first ever Care Experienced History Month in April 2021 which is coordinated by Who Cares? Scotland.

As a SPICe Intern, Amanda will be providing at least one proactive Research Briefing as well as contributing to briefings for Committees and answering enquiries from MSPs. Her research briefing will be about child poverty in Scotland.

"This is somewhat related to my research which looks at children’s experiences of the Scottish care ‘system’ but mostly will be an opportunity to work on a new area that is personally very important to me," Amanda said.

It is envisaged that the briefing will eventually be made publicly available by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe). 

Amanda is looking forward to gaining first-hand experience of working in a political environment and developing a good knowledge of policy-making, law-making and scrutiny processes.

Anyone with a UKRI studentship can apply to work for three months at an influential policy organisation. These include parliamentary and government departments as well as non-governmental bodies. To find out more about these opportunities, please visit the UKRI website here. 

First published: 10 August 2021