Written by Megan Hadfield, PhD Criminology.

Upon starting a PhD many thoughts enter your mind, how will I write 80,000 words? Do I know 80,000 words? Will I finish on time? Where do I even begin?

Those questions are not answered straight away. I am into my final 18 months whilst writing this and I can assure you I still ask myself these questions a lot. Even writing out 18 months on a piece of paper is daunting – a huge piece of work boiled down to 80,000 words. Most likely, the final months of your PhD journey will be cramming in as much writing, re-drafting, editing, you can possibly handle. That’s the PhD life: reading, writing, over-thinking, going into rabbit holes, repeating it all, to come out with something you are proud of. You still seek more, need to know more, understand more, find out more, read more, write more.

Sometimes it helps to stop, take pause, reflect on the world outside your PhD. A pause was exactly what I needed to reset my brain.

In July 2025, I started my 3-month placement at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which is made up of all 10 local authorities within Greater Manchester and the Mayor (Andy Burnham), working on large strategic region-wide areas, such as transport, health, education, night-time economy, policing, and so on. At the GMCA there is the Safer and Stronger Communities Team, which is concerned with community safety and policing. Within this team there are those who work on violence against women and girls, violence reduction, prisons and probation, and Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking (MSHT). It is in this last area where I carried out my placement.

Megan’s placement took place with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority

My PhD thesis looks at the interrelationship between immigration policy, destitution, and exploitation, in the attempt to understand the lived experiences of those going through these systems, and how they impact (explicitly and implicitly), and what options are there to address failings in these systems. Be mindful, that as the PhD moves on, these aims may shift (a little) as well as the research questions I pose (a lot).

Nevertheless, the opportunity to undertake a placement, in the sector I am researching, in the organisation I admire and would like to move into, was exactly what I needed.

Finding a Placement 🔍

I saw on the ESRC website that they offered a placement scheme for the equivalent of 3 months. This time on placement was then tagged onto the end of my funding. The NWSSDTP offer a few options for undertaking a placement during your PhD, you can find out more information at Research in Placement Practice Scheme (Research in Practice Placement Scheme | North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership).

I chose to develop my own placement, as I had already been in conversations with a staff member at the GMCA, who had a piece of work for me to do. After that, it was straightforward. I had to fill in a form firming up what the placement intended to achieve, the activities undertaken, a provisional timeline, expenses potentially incurred, and how it pertained to my research.

It was the same as the Humanities Doctoral Academy placement, in which you could not complete a placement not directly related to your own research. I also had to supply a letter of support from the placement organisation, in this case the GMCA, and permission from my supervisors on the relevance of this placement.

My Placement 🪪

This placement proposed a 3-stage piece of work, which meant each month I would be tasked with something new to build on the previous stage, with the organisation of a conference as my final task. The placement evolved as time went on. I will explain this in more detail shortly, but to begin with I was asked to work towards creating an options paper, in response to a research project two of my supervisors had completed the month before. This research project was a review of partnership working within Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Greater Manchester, to take an audit of what we are doing, successes, and what we can do better in GM, in anti-slavery and trafficking partnership working. This project drew up a number of recommendations which it presented to the GMCA and its partners, which identified where GM could improve its anti-slavery and trafficking activities, and create an even more joined-up approach. My placement was concerned with forming an options paper to present to decision makers, which addressed these recommendations, with the hopes of creating an Anti-Slavery and Trafficking Action Plan, in some form.

A Placement to Suit You 🤝

As explained, my research is interested in the ways in which immigration policy, destitution, and exploitation interact with one another, how impact each other, and what options are there to improve the current state of affairs. Therefore, this placement has been an amazing opportunity for my own personal development, alongside professional and academic. It was a fast-paced role, with the majority of it being independent work, with deadlines set to present my work to date. The first month of the placement was all desk-based research, looking at the recommendations from the review and scouring the internet for examples of good practice, which addressed these recommendations.

I was able to use my research skills, not only to find relevant pieces of work, but to also thematically address the recommendations and base my research around these themes. The second stage involved going through this research to draft up an options paper, which included the activities and examples of good practice across the UK (and globally), the pros and cons, cost analysis, and how it addressed the recommendations. Finally, and this is where the placement shifted more in aims, we were hoping to present the options paper to various stakeholders, host tabletop exercises to whittle down the options. However, preliminary discussions with key stakeholders revealed a shift in direction was needed, and thus the third stage of placement was focussed on condensing down a 20-page options paper, into a 3-page briefing note of the best options, to present to the Deputy Mayor and a Chief Executive from a local authority.

Conference experience as part of the placement with GMCA

A Learning Curve 🧠

This shift was a learning curve for me in numerous ways, firstly I had to be ready to discard (but not burn) the work I had produced over a month. This is something I have always struggled with. Secondly, I had to pivot, I had to go from presenting all options and discussing them with stakeholders, to condensing a huge document down to three, easily-accessible pages. And finally, I had to present my first ever piece of policy-related MSHT work to the Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester. I did it though.

Despite an impending sense of imposter syndrome and an (obsessive) attachment to my words, I was able to produce a briefing note (for the first time ever), on time, receiving high praise. So, I return to my opening thoughts, I think this placement was exactly what I needed.

In brief, throughout this placement, I honed and improved my research and writing skills, and moreover, I developed new skills. These new skills are essential throughout your PhD into your future careers.

1. Being flexible will help you to be resilient – letting go of previous work, storing it somewhere for a later point, is a key skill to have, not just in the workplace, but during the PhD too.
2. Hushing the noise in your head – imposter syndrome is real, but the evidence is to the contrary. You can do it, sometimes your head just tells you that you can’t. Don’t listen to it and you will prove to yourself you absolutely can do it.
3. Take a break – A break with a purpose can be just what you need to return your PhD and hit the ground running, with a joie de vivre that you thought you had lost before those 3 months. Taking time off to rest, recuperate, or try something new is always a positive.

Find out more about Megan Hadfield’s research in her introductory PhD profile. 

Related