Professor Tim Rapley

Tim is a Professor of Applied Health Care Research in the Department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing. He is a medical sociologist with an interest in social studies of medical work, research and practice, as well as, more recently, social care.  He undertakes detailed empirical studies that seek to understand the everyday, taken-for-granted, aspects of health and social care work.  A focus on what people actually do, as opposed to only what they think they do, or they tell you they do, can offer unique, practical and tailored solutions

His work focuses on three substantive areas:

The implementation of care: His work on the implementation of care covers a range of phases, from initiation, scoping and development of novel ideas, to process evaluations of feasibility studies, pilot and full trials. It takes place in a range of settings, including community, primary, secondary and tertiary health care as well as dental and (local authority based) social care.  Theoretically, this work is often driven by his interest in Normalization Process Theory (NPT).  See http://www.normalizationprocess.org- for an introduction to Normalization Process Theory, that offers an interactive toolkit and structured instrument to help people think through implementation issues.

The organisation of care: His work on the organisation of care seeks to identify, describe and understand the experience of care in paediatric, adolescent and adult contexts.  This work engages with a broad range of stakeholders, from patients, servcie users, carers and the general public to the diverse group of health and social care professionals and managers. It seeks to use the findings of the studies to develop practical, tailored solutions to the problems that are identified as well as exploring how to embed organisational policy initiatives. See http://pmmonline.org- for an example of an output from this work.  This a site for all clinicians whom may encounter children with serious musculoskeletal problems. It aims to raise awareness, knowledge and skills to facilitate early diagnosis and referral to specialist care.

Social studies of qualitative research: When not conducting research on medical work, research and practice, he’s interested in thinking, talking, and teaching about the practical, taken-for-granted, ways that qualitative research gets done.  He’s written about the (extra)ordinary work we undertake in relation to qualitative interviews and analysis.  He has also written a book, Analysing Conversations, Discourse and Documents (Sage).     

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Acceptability and feasibility of online delivery of chair-based yoga for older adults with multimorbidity – Lessons from a process evaluation of the Gentle Years Yoga trial, Ward, L., Bissell, L., Howsam, J., Tew, G., Wiley, L., Rose, F., Maturana Palacios, C., Rapley, T. 17 Mar 2025, In: BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
• A pragmatic double blind remote pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial of a self-management app for people with Sjögren disease, Hackett, K., Campbell, M., Pakpahan, E., Vines, J., Lendrem, D., McCready, J., Rapley, T., Ellis, J., Deary, V., McColl, E., McCallum, C. 3 Jun 2025, In: Frontiers in Digital Health
• Exploring agency, autonomy and authority among lead tissue viability nurses: a qualitative study, Pagnamenta, F., Rapley, T., Lhussier, M. Dec 2025, In: Nursing Open
• From eligibility to diagnosis: candidacy and the complex journey of cerebral palsy diagnosis within primary care, Baggaley, J., Seiboth, C., Rapley, T., Basu, A. 12 Feb 2025, In: BMC Pediatrics
• Hospital in-reach family-centred social prescribing pilot for children with neurodisability: mixed methods evaluation with social return on investment analysis, Gordon, L., Hastry, M., Bate, A., Gordon, K., Greaves, E., Dimitriadou, S., Rapley, T., Basu, A. 30 Jan 2025, In: BMC Health Services Research
• ‘Mum feels that the decision has already been made’: From shared decision-making to negotiated compromise in Adult Social Care, Whitehead, P., Rooney, L., Adams‐Thomas, J., Greenup, M., Raffle, A., Southall, C., Whittington, S., Rapley, T. 26 Sep 2025, In: Social Science and Medicine
• Optimising and beta-testing a user-centred, accessible, self-management rehabilitation smartphone app (reCOVer) for long-COVID fatigue using qualitative interview methods, McCready, J., Campbell, M., McCay, K., Moore, J., Deary, V., Vines, J., Higgs-McCallum, C., Webster, D., Ellis, J., Newton, J., Nobbs, C., Rapley, T., Hackett, K. 27 Oct 2025, In: Disability and Rehabilitation
• Perceptions and experiences of chair-based yoga by older adults with multimorbidity - a qualitative process evaluation of the Gentle Years Yoga randomised controlled trial, Ward, L., Tew, G., Wiley, L., Rose, F., Maturana Palacios, C., Bissell, L., Howsam, J., Rapley, T. 5 Mar 2025, In: BMC Geriatrics
• Reducing variance in wound care: a cross-sectional study of chronic wounds in one district nursing team's caseload, Baldridge, W., Pagnamenta, F., Rapley, T. 2 Mar 2025, In: British Journal of Community Nursing
• Self-Care Interventions for Children and Young People With Neurodisabilities: A Mixed Methods Study of Current Therapy Practice in the United Kingdom, Armitage, S., Rapley, T., Kolehmainen, N., Pennington, L., McColl, E., Duff, C., Brookes, R., McAnuff, J. 16 Mar 2025, In: Child: Care, Health and Development

Tim is an experienced supervisor of PhD and MD students and postdoctoral fellows. He has supervised nineteen PhD/MD students to a timely successful completion in a broad range of topics in applied health research.

Current postgraduate supervision:

Adam Webb - Developing the role of non-representational theory in evaluations in North East North Cumbria. ARC NENC

Amy Allan - What is the impact of the Academic Health Science Network North East North Cumbria (AHSN NENC) in the North of England. AHSN

Sam Armitage - Enabling self-care in children with disabilities

Kat Bevan - The relationship of participatory arts and creative development strategies to health inequalities.  Northumbria RDF Studentship. 

Caroline Fernandes - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: (COPD): The development of a brief intervention to improve pulmonary rehabilitation uptake.  North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust and Teesside University

Nahdiah Purnamasari - Implementing an early intervention service for cerebral palsy in Indonesia: Overcoming the obstacles. LPDP (Indonesia Endowment Funds for Education)

Domna Salonen - Understanding opportunities to improve mental health care  in  everyday lives of families experiencing multiple long-term conditions. NIHR Patient Safety Research Collaboration

• BA (Hons)
• MA (Hons)
• PhD