Sheffield SSCR UG Internships Blog Series (2026 Cohort)

Over the summer, the Sheffield School for Social Care Research (SSCR) recruited their first Undergraduate interns, teaming up with the University’s SURE scheme. Our internship funding helps us deliver on our aim to support talented Undergraduates to gain experience in applied adult social care research, and provide students with the opportunity to undertake a discrete and meaningful research activity that will result in a high quality research experience. We were absolutely delighted by the engagement, commitment and talent demonstrated by our first three interns and in this blog series, you can read about their experiences in their own words.

For the final post in our 2026 series, we have Aruzhan Dauletova, 2nd year student in Politics and International Relations who completed a project called Literature Reviews for Social Work Online Team Training (SWOTT) Toolkits Project, supervised by Research Associate Claire Cunnington, and Professor Michaela Rogers. 

Aru says: 

"During my internship, I researched the lived experiences and practical implications of No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) and developed a draft Social Work Online Team Training (SWOTT) Toolkit, alongside a two-page visual handout designed to present key information in an accessible and practical format for frontline professionals. I also conducted a literature review exploring the relationship between NRPF and vulnerability to domestic abuse. Through the project, I developed my skills in literature searching, critical analysis, qualitative research, evidence synthesis and translating research into accessible, practice-focused resources.

I wanted to understand how academic research can translate into practical support for people facing real-world challenges. Working on NRPF allowed me to explore how immigration and welfare policies affect people’s everyday lives and how research can help frontline social care professionals better understand and respond to these experiences. It also gave me the opportunity to work on an area that sits at the intersection of social care policy, inequality and human rights, which I found particularly meaningful.

This experience has strengthened my interest in research, policy and political research, while giving me practical research skills that I can carry into my future career. It has also taught me how to communicate complex evidence to different audiences and how research can inform practice and policy. As I pursue a career in political research, I believe this experience will help me approach policy issues with a stronger understanding of their real-world and human impacts."

Aru was supervised by Claire Cunnington, Research Associate. Of her experience, Claire says: 

"The work (literature reviews for the SWOTT project) had previously been requested by our subscribers but we did not have capacity so Aru's contribution has been invaluable. Aru has carried out high quality work going beyond what we asked of her. She produced an accurate handout for our subscribers about no recourse to public funds, an in depth literature review about the impact of NRPFs on domestic violence and abuse but also made a significant contribution to a future toolkit on the subject. We are delighted by her contribution!"