Academic staff

Dr Burney is a scholar of religion with experience of working with British Muslim communities. Her research interests include ‘lived religion’ in the West, how individuals negotiate religious identities in post-secular societies and research approaches that tackle the increasing populism and division observed in multicultural societies.

Tarsem is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Director of Social Work programmes. His recent research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Tarsem has been part of a team working on a project entitled ‘Organisations, staff support and the dynamics and quality of social work practice: A qualitative longitudinal study of child protection work’. As part ...

Tom is currently a Research Fellow on the ‘Achieving Closure’ project. This research seeks to identify what happens when care homes for older people close, improve the processual evidence base to minimise negative outcomes and explore the experiences of the breadth of stakeholders conducting or impacted by care home closures. Beyond this project, Tom is also particularly engaged in ...

Harry joined the University of Birmingham in 2017 as Professor of Social Work. He teaches and does research into social work and child protection, domestic abuse, fatherhood, mobile and ethnographic research methods and theories of social work.  Harry also has a very passionate interest in research into liver disease, supporting patients and promoting organ donation having been kept alive by ...

Joy joined the School of Social Policy and Society as the Service User and Carer Co-ordinator within the Social Work Programmes in October 2007.

Matthew Gibson is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in the School of Social Policy and Society. His research interests relate to emotions and professional practice, and particularly the emotions of pride and shame. He undertook a study on pride and shame in child and family social work and is currently working on the Wellcome Trust funded shame and medicine project; although he has also undertaken ...

Jon is the Director of IMPACT, the UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care.  IMPACT has received £15m from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Health Foundation, and works across the four nations of the UK to get evidence of what works used in practice to make a difference to front-line services and to people’s lives.

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Anne-Marie is the Deputy Director of Education for the College of Social Sciences, and Professor of Social Work in the Department of Social Work and Social Care. She is a qualified and registered Social Worker, with a background in statutory Children & Family and Youth Justice social work practice. Anne-Marie’s areas of practice interest include leadership, children and family social ...

Simon is a lecturer within the Department of Social Work and Social Care. He is involved in teaching on undergraduate, postgraduate and post qualifying programmes. Simon’s research is primarily focussed on application of the social harm framework to change children and families social work in humane and socially just directions.

Simon has been instrumental in setting up two charities, the ...

Debbie Innes-Turnill is a Lecturer in the School of Social Policy and Society. She is a qualified teacher with 25 years’ experience -  including deputy and headship roles, most recently with responsibility for safeguarding. She lectures on the MSc in Advanced Child Protection Studies.

Debbie's research interests are related to child protection practice, leadership, child behaviour as ...

Louise is a registered social worker with practice experience in children and families’ social work and sexual violence services. She works as a social work educator and researcher in the Department of Social Work and Social Care. A key part of Louise’s role involves teaching and tutoring students as part of the qualifying Social Work programmes, and she enjoys leading the ...

Dr Andy Jolly is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Care. He teaches on both the BA and MA programmes, and has research interests around social work practice with migrant families, food poverty and bordering practices in social care.

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Julie B Jones is a qualified and registered Social Worker and Lecturer on the BA and MA Social Work Programmes. She is the Head of Quality for the School of Social Policy and Society, and also the Deputy Head of Education for the School. Her areas of interest include adult social work, with a particular focus on older adults, including people with dementia. 

Laura joined the University of Birmingham in October 2017. She previously worked at Durham University and Liverpool John Moores University. Laura’s research interests centre on work with children and young people, particularly in relation to youth crime and justice. She is a member of the Youth Justice Board’s Academic Advisory Panel and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She ...

Farina started her academic career through her PhD in applied health research where she explored health inequalities experienced by the Pakistani community in the UK. Since then, Farina has gone on to work across several studies exploring the perspectives of various care providers and patients (Diabetes Prevention Programme, CLAHRC Maternity, Junior Doctors Mental Health, and The Shame and ...

Sharanya is a Research Fellow in the Department of Social Work and Social Care.  She is currently working on an applied research project funded by the West Midlands ARC that aims to evaluate strengths based practices adopted and implemented by Local Authorities in Adult Social Care.

Professor Robin Miller is an applied academic with an international reputation in relation to integration and leadership in health and social care. He is the Co-Editor in Chief of the international journal of integrated careand has researched widely the implementation of transformational programmes in primary health and social care. Robin has been P-I or Co-I to over £17 million of ...

Meena Plappert is the programme manager for the ‘Achieving Closure’ project, exploring what happens to older people and care staff when care homes close, how best to manage closures in a way that minimises negative outcomes for older people and families, and key lessons for Councils as they manage future closures. She provides management to members of the research team while closely ...

Chris’ background is in dementia specific social science research within social care contexts. He is a qualitative methodologist.

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Dawn is Lecturer and Erasmus and Study Abroad Lead in the Department of Social Work and Social Care. Dawn is also based within the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) as the LGBT*Qi Lead and member of the teaching team on the Community and Practitioner Research Programme.

She is currently working on four research projects: ‘Queer Brexit: the migrant experience’; ...

Naomi qualified as a social worker in 2003 and has worked in Adult Social Care for most of her career.  Naomi has managed various services for local authorities, including Learning Disability Services, Preparing for Adulthood, Fostering and Mental Health.  Naomi has a particular interest in Learning disabilities, Preparing for Adulthood, Strengths-based Approaches and supporting people ...

Jason is an Associate Professor in Social Work, and Director of PGR for the School of Social Policy and Society. His teaching and research examine gender and sexuality, leadership in social work, and children and families social work. He is co-chair of the UK regional network for International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR) and previously chair of  Sexuality in ...

Makhan provides strategic and academic leadership to the social work and social care group. His research and teaching interests are in leadership within health and social care organisations, the emotional contexts of practice within social work and reducing risks of violence toward children and young people.

Denise Tanner is Associate Professor (Social Work). She teaches on BA and MA Social Work courses.  Her areas of teaching and research interest include adult social work/social care policy and practice; social work with older people; social work skills; social perspectives of mental distress; and service user involvement in education and research.

Obert Tawodzera is a research fellow in the Department of Social Work and Social Care, where he is working as the project officer for IMPACT (Improving adult Care Together) which aims to increase the use of high-quality research evidence to improve and support innovation within the adult social care.

He completed his PhD which focused on how Zimbabwean migrant care workers in the UK ...

Jerry is currently leading national research for the Department of Health Policy Research Programme to explore how Local Authorities (and their partners) are responding to the challenge, embedded in the Care Act, to build capacity so as to ‘prevent, reduce or delay’ the need for social care services. He is also co-investigator in the ODESSI trial led by Prof Stephen Pilling at ...

Siân is a lecturer in social work, and conducts research in the areas of migration, sexual and gender-based violence, and child welfare and protection. She is deputy director of the Step Up to Social Work programme and a member of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS), a University of Birmingham research centre focused on the study of migration and diversity.

Kelly is a Lecturer and registered Social Worker specialising in work with children, young people and families. She teaches on Pre-Qualifying and Post Graduate Social Work programmes within the School of Social Policy and Society, leads the Department for Social Work and Social Care’s Student Staff Forum, is a member of the Welfare, Inclusion and Social Engagement Committee and ...

Sue has practice interests in housing debt, social security and anti-poverty measures.

Caroline recently joined the University of Birmingham as a Lecturer within the Department of Social Work and Social Care. Caroline is a qualified social worker and practice educator and has previously worked in a statutory children and families context, with a particular focus on child protection work. Caroline’s PhD research explores the use of reflective supervision in social work and ...

Dr Shazia Zafar is a scientist in applied health research and social science who conducts research using quantitative and qualitative methods. 

She is currently exploring the impact which results from care home closure. As little evidence currently exists on the impact of care home closure, the results will provide key lessons to local governments nationally.

Her projects are both UK based ...