Dr Rachel Benchekroun
Freelance learning & improvement partner and academic
Voluntary sector mental health recovery programme: what works, for whom and under what conditions? (2026)
The questions: What motivates people to take part in the programme? What do they achieve by the end of the 12 months? What is it about the programme that helps participants to achieve these outcomes?
What I'm doing: Volunteering alongside programme participants, informal conversations, interviews with staff and current and former participants.
Photo by Rachel Benchekroun
DYNAMICS: friendship & support in new bands (2026-28)
The context: The music industry is changing rapidly. It is much more difficult now for new bands to achieve financial stability.
The questions: How do new bands form, what challenges do band members face, and how do interpersonal dynamics and friendships evolve over time?
What I'm doing: Longitudinal interviews (group and one-to-one) and ethnographic observations with 5-8 new bands over two years.
RAPHAEL project (2025-28)
The context: Access to palliative care is very low for heart failure patients internationally and has been highlighted as a priority issue.
The question: How can a new intervention improve access to palliative care for heart failure patients across 9 European countries?
What we are doing: Interviews with patients, informal carers, healthcare professionals and policymakers; feasibility study; randomised controlled trial and process evaluation.
For more information:
https://palliativeprojects.eu/raphael/
Funded by EU Horizon.
Photos by Rachel Benchekroun
Fair Food Futures UK (2023-26)
The context: 1 in 5 households in the UK cannot afford regular access to food. This has a negative impact on physical and mental health.
The questions: What kinds of support do different types of food charities provide? How are they experienced by food insecure families? (How) do they reduce the need for emergency food support?
What we did: Systems mapping; interviews with staff; participant observation as embedded researchers in food charities over 12 months; longitudinal interviews with food insecure families.
What we found: Food charities are diverse in their aims/objectives, funding, structure, access to resources (space, time, food) and the types of support they provide. Some are highly rationalised, some are disorganised (many are somewhere in between!). Everyday practices shape the use of space and time, and vice versa. Rationalised practices can be beneficial in terms of providing access to quality food to large numbers of people, but risk prioritising efficiency and control over holistic approaches and relational interactions. Disorganised practices can be disorienting for families and frustrating for staff. Food charities which are experienced most positively do the following:
- take a holistic view of families' needs by providing access to additional services (e.g. advice)
- are rationalised in their everyday practices but not to extremes
- make effective use of available space and time available (e.g. provide welcoming spaces for families to sit and talk)
- prioritise a relational approach.
To find out more: www.fairfoodfuturesuk.org
Funded by NIHR.
Mothering and personal relationships in the context of precarious migration (2017-23)
The context: Hostile immigration policies introduced by the Coalition government in 2010-15, and by subsequent governments since then, along with an array of insecure immigration statuses, the condition of 'no recourse to public funds' and the resulting financial hardship have a significant impact on mothers and their children.
The questions: How do the above conditions affect mothers' personal relationships and access to support? How do different forms of social infrastructure help or hinder the development of their support networks and wellbeing?
What I did: Ethnographic research over 20 months. Volunteered in several support organisations; 'hanging out' with 22 mothers; longitudinal in-depth interviews; sociograms; knowledge exchange workshops.
What I found: Insecure statuses and hostile policies shape mother-child relationships, couple relationships, friendships and relationships within faith groups and with practitioners in organisations. Relationships are important sites of material, financial, informational, emotional support. But mothers have to navigate tensions in relationships with care - for example tensions between privacy and openness, or between autonomy and connectedness. Reciprocity is important in friendships, but having limited resources to reciprocate may deter mothers from asking friends for help.
To find out more, see my book and articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
and watch the video. (Partly funded by ESRC.)
Growing up in coastal towns (2019-23)
The context: Young people growing up in coastal towns in the UK have poorer life chances than those living in otherwise similar non-coastal towns. Social inequalities have widened since the 1960s.
The questions: What types of social infrastructure exist for young people living in coastal towns? How does this affect their social and geographical mobility?
What we did: Co-produced two linked research projects with young people. Interviews with young people and older people, creative methods, mapping, walking interviews.
What we found: Many young people (and older people) don't feel safe in public spaces - and young people's access to safe places for leisure and entertainment has reduced over time. Opportunities for secure, well-paid work are limited locally. Inequalities grow between young people who move away and those who stay.
To find out more, see our blogposts or read our articles (1, 2).
Funded by UCL Grand Challenges.
Photos by Rachel Benchekroun
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Early childhood education and care: COVID-19, environment and wellbeing (2020-22)
The context: The COVID-19 pandemic led to lockdowns and strict public health measures in many countries in 2020 and 2021, affecting how early childhood education and care settings were able to operate.
The question: How did COVID-19, lockdowns and public health measures impact on practitioners and children (and their parents/carers) in early childhood education and care settings?
What I did: Interviews with parents and practitioners in England. (International partners also interviewed parents and practitioners in Italy, Senegal and Aotearoa-New Zealand.)
What we found: Lockdowns and subsequent public health measures restricted parents' and children's access to supportive social spaces, affecting their wellbeing.
Social networks in a pandemic (2020)
The context: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a national lockdown in England in March-July 2020, confining people largely to their homes.
The question: How did COVID-19 and the first national lockdown affect people's everyday interactions with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours?
What I did: Interviews with 11 London residents every two to four weeks by phone/video-calling between April and July 2020; sociograms; diaries about daily interactions.
What I found: Lockdown measures shaped family and friendship practices, as well as perceptions of these relationships, in particular ways.
Photo by Kristoffer Trolle uploaded to https://flickr.com/photos/126744325@N07/51087395881