SURE

I am an Associate Professor of Practice Research, Vice Chancellor's Research and Knowledge Exchange Fellow, NIHR ARC NENE Social Care Research Fellow, Senior Fellow AdvanceHE, and a registered Social Worker (Social Work England). I describe myself as a neurodivergent, academic-based practitioner-researcher. My areas of interest are practice research, neurodiversity, and safeguarding. I have developed an approach to empower practitioners (across a range of professions) to engage in, and lead, practice research – Facilitated Practice-based Research (copyright University of Sunderland) (FPR). This model is neurodiverse and trauma-informed and consists of an intensive, facilitated, research programme in which a group of practitioners work together to co-design, co-construct, and co-implement a piece of group practice research relevant to current practice issues. Research findings are then implemented into practice and monitored for impact. It is linked to the module SWKM43 Reflexive Practice Research. As a neurodivergent person, I combine my lived experience with research to create spaces that are neuro-inclusive i.e. open and accessible, acknowledging all neurological diversity.