Nicola has research interests in unpaid care, youth mental health, health inequalities, and children’s and young people’s services. She joined the LSE in 2012 and is currently leading a study on young carers, having previously worked on two interlinked studies on unpaid care and employment study. Other work includes an economic evaluation of youth mental health services, a study of the benefits and potential cost savings of early years’ prevention services and support and a study on the long-term economic impacts of bullying in childhood.

Previous work includes research at the charity Maternity Alliance into health-related issues affecting pregnant women and new parents, particularly those in vulnerable situations, and on an ESRC-funded project at the University of Bristol to investigate the patterns of, and reasons behind, the increase in geographical health inequalities in Britain in the 1980s and early 1990s, looking in particular at housing, wealth and income and the impact of social policy and social changes over those two decades.