I am a Senior Lecturer in Social Work and the Course Lead for the MSc Social Work.  I also co-lead the Department of Law and Criminology's Health and Social Care research cluster.  Before joining Royal Holloway in 2015, I practiced as a social worker 2002-2017 (part time 2015-17) in children's services, adult social care, the NHS and homelessness services in both Dublin and London.  

Teaching

My teaching runs across the portfolio of degrees offered within social work at RHUL - BSc Social Science, MSc Social Work and MSc Advanced Practice.  In 2024/25 I am the module lead for the following modules: SW3013 Housing and Homelessness: Perspectives, Policy and Practice; SW5022 Law and Policy for Social Workers; SW5025 Research Methods and Dissertation. 

Research

My research aims to address how adults with marginalised identities access adult social care and considers socio-legal aspects of safeguarding policy.  Projects include:

1) Discriminatory Abuse and Safeguarding Adults - this research stream was initially funded through consultancy via the Local Government Association and the charity Research in Practice.  I am currently scaling up this work on discriminatory abuse with colleagues Dr. Jane Healy and Ros Dray from Criminology and Social Work at University of Bournemouth.  This project has had four peer-reviewed publication outputs, several blogs and a podcast, as well as a recent national webinar to 100 practitioners via Research in Practice, a number of practitioner-facing presentations with the Local Government Association and several local authorities have invited me to speak to their workforce.  

2) Inherent Jurisdiction of the High Court in Safeguarding Adults (with Dr. Daniel Bedford (University of Portsmouth) and Dr. Philip Bremner (KCL).  This project is British-Academy funded, one ouput has been published and two more are in progress.  I presented work from this strand to LB Tower Hamlets annual safeguarding conference in 2024 as well as at an academic conference. 

3) Homelessness and Need - My PhD study is now in the writing-up stage and relates to the perspectives of people who are homeless in relation to their support needs and how these are met. I have presented this work at several national and international conferences and for a local authority and two other university's social work research clusters.

4) Human Rights and Older People's Care Homes (with Dr. Jane Marriott and Dr. Natalie Pitimson, both at RHUL) - This is early seed-funded work looking at how human rights are affirmed at care homes across Europe, drawing on documentary analysis of inspection reports in Council of Europe countries.  Outputs are expected in 2025.

External Engagement, Memberships and Collaboration

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an external examiner for social work programmes at both University of Hull and Ulster University.  I am a member of the Advisory Group on Discriminatory Abuse hosted by the Local Government Association's Care and Health Improvement Programme.  I joined the editorial board for the journal 'Practice: Social Work in Action' in April 2023.  I was on the Organising/Scientific Committees for the International Sexuality and Social Work Conference (for conferences in 2022, 2023, 2025).  I am undertaking two Safeguarding Adult Reviews for English local authorities as consultancy projects.