Dr Hutchinson is a Senior Research Fellow in the Health and Social Care Economics Group and a full academic member of the Caring Futures Institute. She is a mixed methods social scientist who conducts research in ageing and disability. Her research focuses on:

1) the quality of life, psychosocial well-being, and lived experiences of social care recipients

2) social return on investment analysis of health and social care interventions

3) disability employment

Prior to her PhD, Claire worked as an organisational psychologist, project manager and vocational rehabilitation specialist. Dr Hutchinson obtained her PhD and conducted her postdoc at UniSA but has a long association with Flinders, working initially as a casual researcher (2014-2017) before returning to Flinders University in her current position in early 2019.

Dr Hutchinson has been a named Chief Investigator on over $2.9 million of competitive grant funding and has a strong track record of managing and delivering collaborative end-user focused research.

Claire has spent the last three years as project manager of an ARC Linkage project developing new quality of life and care experience instruments with aged care consumers for quality assessment and economic evaluation. These tools - Quality of life-Aged Care Consumers (QOL-ACC) and Quality of Care Experience (QCE-ACC) - are now part of the new National Quality Indicators Program in residential aged care. http://www.qol-acc.org/

Dr Hutchinson is sought after nationally and internationally for her expertise on social return on investment analysis, reviewing international grant applcations and journal paper submissions for several top-ranked journals, as well as being invited as Chief Investigator onto SROI grants in health and social care. She recently commenced as CI on a NHMRC Partnership Grant led by Deakin University to investigate the SROI of Cancer Information Services. 

Her work in disability employment has been across all employment pathways (ADEs, open employment, microenterprise). Dr Hutchinson's current projects include an evaluation of a transition program to improve open employment outcomes for youth with disabilities, the development of a social impact framework for a social enterprise supporting the open employment of people with disabilities, and two projects focused on addressing employers attitudes to employing people with disabilities across several sectors.

Full list of publications via Google Scholar

mixed methods, quality of life, psychosocial well-being, lived experiences, social return on investment, disability employment

Recent funding awarded:

2023-2024 - $524,000. Information Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) Program, Department of Social Services, Australian Government. Co-designing disability employment strategies with people with disability, industry mentors, and disability employment experts to diversify the workforce for people with disability in fashion and hospitality nationwide. Goodwin-Smith, I., Manoharan, A., Jones, J., Hutchinson, C. & Yoon, J.

2022-2023 - $200,000. Aged Care Research and Industry Innovation Australia (ARIIA), Interventions to support retention of female workers aged 50 + in the aged care workforce. Charlton, S., Hutchinson, C. & Van Agteren.

2022-2023 - $128,400. [consultancy project]. Developing a social impact measurement framework. Goodwin-Smith, I., Flatau, P., Tually, S., Coram, V.,Lester, L. & Hutchinson, C.

2022 - $73,304. [consultancy project] A comprehensive literature review of Best Practice Programs across the caring sectors.. Mills, C., Parker, D., Brown, D., Tieman, J. & Hutchinson, C.

2022-2023 - $80,335. Endeavour Foundation Disability Research Fund. Factors that support positive employment outcomes for intellectually disabled persons in hospitality. Manoharan, A., Hutchinson, C. & Jones, J.

2021-2022 - $151,902. Lifetime Support Authority. The impact of home automation: social return on investment and case studies. Laver, K., Hutchinson, C., Williams, P. & Manual, K.

2021-2022 - $25,000. Flinders Foundation. “ACTIVE-DAY’: helping older adults to move more, sit less and sleep well, from hospital to home (CIs) Baldwin. C., Lewis, L., Catcheside, P., Dumuid, D., Hutchinson, C. & Huxley, K. (AIs) Wallen, M., Hewitt, T. & Graham, L.

2021-2022 - $24,990. Flinders Foundation. CR4ALL – Cardiac Rehabilitation for All: Telehealth cardiac rehabilitation tailored to the needs and preference of disadvantaged populations living with coronary heart disease in rural and remote Australia. (CIs) Beleigoli, A., Hutchinson, C., Pinero de Plaza, M.A., Clark, R. & Tirimacco, R., (AIs) Hendriks, J., Tideman, P., Versace, V., Lynch, I & Keech, W.

2021-2024- $319,061. Australian Research Council Linkage. Choosing the way forward: addressing post-parental housing transition needs of adults with intellectual disability and their older family carers. Walker, R., Bigby, C., Wiesel, I., Rillotta, F., Hutchinson, C., & Angley, P.

2021-2025 – $936,786. NHMRC Partnership Grant. Defining the economic and social return on investment of cancer information and telephone support services for all Australians. McCaffrey, N., White, V., Livingston, T., Mihalopoulos, C., Paul, C., Orellana, L., Engel, L., Hutchinson, C., Hutchinson, A. & Aranda, S. (CIs), Ratcliffe, J., Desilva, D., Fradgley, E. & Steiner, A. (AIs).

2021-2022 - $50,575. (Consultancy) Evaluation of 'Aim High': equipping students with disability for open employment, Community Bridging Services. Hutchinson, C. & Alexander, J.

2021-2022 - $158,728. EuroQOL Research Grant. Unravelling the EQ-5D self-report proxy conundrum for older people. Ratcliffe, J., Engel, L., Mulhern, B., Milte, R., Hutchinson, C. & Khadka, J.