Social Care Research Ethics Committee - Members

Professor David Stanley, PhD AcSS FHEA FRSA (Chair)

David Stanley is an independent academic and formerly Professor of Social Care at Northumbria University. Prior to appointment as Chair of the Social Care Research Ethics Committee, he was a member of the Northumberland NHS Research Ethics Committee and of the Department of Health planning group on ethics review in social care research. He has previously managed social work qualifying training courses and worked in residential education and care services for statutory and independent sector organisations. He has also acted as independent chair of complaints reviews panels for a number of Councils with Social Services Responsibilities.

David is a non executive director of Skills for Care, the employer led authority on the training standards and development needs of social care staff in England and a founding Editor of the Journal of Social Work, published by Sage. He is an elected Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is a Fellow and former chair, of the Joint Universities Council for Public Administration, Social Policy and Social Work Education.

Sandra Andrews BSc MSc

After studying Social Psychology and Criminal Justice Policy at LSE, Sandra joined the Police Service as a police officer. She currently works in a Public Protection Unit, these units were set up in order to protect the most vulnerable people in society from the most dangerous offenders. Her work is primarily about protecting very high risk victims of domestic abuse, although it also encompasses vulnerable adults and child abuse victims. She is responsible for creating murder prevention strategies which are achieved through close working relationships with partner agencies such as mental health services, women’s refuge, homeless unit, probation, etc. Always keen to raise awareness of domestic abuse she regularly holds training sessions examining the differing beliefs and tactics used by perpetrators. There are many parallels between the work of public protection and research ethics committees. Sandra believes her experience in this field coupled with the research she undertook as a post graduate will help her contribute to the work of social care research.

“In my opinion the majority of the people I work with are in need of social care in one way or another. It is only through partnership working that we can enable some of those people to access this care.”

Jeanne Carlin MASW

Jeanne Carlin has been a carer for her daughter who has profound and multiple impairments and complex health needs over the past 30 years. More recently she has taken on increasing responsibility for her parents, her father has Alzheimer’s and her mother is physically disabled. As a carer she has been an active campaigner at both a local and national level on issues relating to ensuring the rights and dignity of disabled children and adults. In her role as a carer she sits on a number of research advisory groups, including the School for Social Care Research, National Institute for Health Research.

In her professional role Jeanne qualified as a social worker and started her career in child protection, then managed the children’s disability social work service in Hull and East Yorkshire. She left full time employment in 2001 and since then has freelanced as a disability consultant in children’s services doing research, training, writing for publication and consultancy. She has particular expertise in the areas of communication, complex health needs, short break or respite services and personalisation.

Samantha Clemens BA

Sam has worked in social research for 20 years, and has conducted research across a wide range of social and public policy areas, using a range of methodologies. She is currently Deputy Director of the Health Group at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), where she is involved in a number of projects, ranging from large-scale quantitative studies (such as the National Diet and Nutrition Survey) to smaller studies such as consultation work to assess the feasibility of a survey of people with long term conditions. Sam has been involved in setting up an internal Research Ethics Committee at NatCen, which aims to enhance ethical awareness and facilitate good quality research.

Professor Malcolm Cowburn BA MA M.Phil PhD (Alternate Vice Chair)

Malcolm has over 14 years experience of teaching social work in Universities at both undergraduate and post graduate levels. He has supervised many students on placement in a wide range of social work settings. Recently (at the University of Bradford) he convened (undergraduate and postgraduate) modules relating to Service Users and Carers. He involved Service Users and Carers in the teaching and assessment of these modules. He also set up an MA in Mental Health Practice (Higher Specialist & Approved Mental Health Practitioner award) and involved service users and carers in the development of the new degree. Prior to becoming an academic Malcolm worked for 12 years as a Probation Officer and also set up a therapy centre for children and young people who were sexually abused. Malcolm has worked as a ward volunteer in a hospice for six years and he currently acts, in a voluntary capacity, as a consultant to a post-bereavement groupwork programme in the same hospice. Malcolm's main research interests (male sex offenders and diversity in prisons) are centred in ethically sensitive areas.

He has published in relation to these matters:

• Social Work Admissions: applicants with criminal convictions - the challenge of ethical risk assessment. British Journal of Social Work, 40 (4),1081-1099 (with Nelson, P.)
• 2010 - Principles, virtues and care: ethical dilemmas in research with male sex offenders Psychology, Crime & 16, 1-2,65-74
• 2007 - Ethics, research and policy. In Hodgson, S. M. and Irving, Z. 'Policy reconsidered: Meanings, politics and practices'. Bristol, Policy Press
• 2005 - Confidentiality and public protection: ethical dilemmas in qualitative research with adult male sex offender Journal of Sexual Aggression 11, 1, 49-63

Malcolm is currently a Professor of Applied Social Science at Sheffield Hallam University and has recently led an ESRC funded project exploring Diversity issues in a maximum security prison. This research was scrutinised by an NHS Research Ethics Committee. Malcolm has recently been appointed (July 2011) British Society of Criminology, Chair of Ethics, please visit their website to view his details.

Professor David Croisdale-Appleby, JP OBE PhD FRSH FRIPH FRSA

David is active in the formulation of national policy in health and social care, and campaigns for social justice. He is a Professor at the Wolfson Research Institute; the Durham Business School; and at the School of Medicine and Health at Durham University. He chairs a number of national organisations including Skills for Care (the sector skills council); the English Federation of Disability Sport; Charities Evaluation Service; and inspects Medical Education for the General Medical Council/Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board. He has served on multicentre medical research ethics committees.

Suki Desai BA MA

Suki qualified as a social worker in 1988. She has worked as a social work practitioner within mental health hospital, community mental health team and generic social work team settings. Suki is a founder member of the Leicester Black Mental Health Group and together with other friends set up the Mental Health Shop (now known as Awkwaabayeh) an advocacy project for black people with mental health needs in Leicester. Suki was chair of the management committee for the project for five years.
Suki’s publications are in the area of race and mental health and more recently on the use of new surveillance technologies within psychiatric hospitals.

She has taught at a number of Universities over her sixteen year higher education career including most recently Gloucestershire, Hull and Sheffield. She took three years out to take up a role as a regional director with the Mental Health Act Commission (now part of Care Quality Commission). She has previously been a commissioner with the Mental Health Act Commission and also sat on Mental Health Review Tribunals.

Rachel Dittrich BA MA MA

Rachel has worked in statutory social care services for 7 years. She is currently Research Manager for Hampshire County Council's Adult Services Department and chairs the Department's Research Development and Governance Panel which reviews research locally. Her research interests include the personalisation of adult social care and knowledge management. Rachel is committed to supporting practitioner research in order to increase the social care knowledge base. She is keen to ensurethat research is conducted with, rather than on, service users and carers.

Dr Michael Dunn BA MA PhD

Michael Dunn is a Senior Researcher in Health and Social Care Ethics at the Ethox Centre, University of Oxford. He is an academic with a longstanding interest in undertaking interdisciplinary analyses of the ethical issues that arise in the day-to-day provision of health and social care services in residential care settings. He is particularly keen to establish social care ethics as an important topic for substantive intellectual and practical analysis. Michael has experience of having his own studies reviewed by a healthcare REC, and is keen to develop a service that is tailored to social care researchers, and particularly those using social science and qualitative research methodologies. To read more about Michael’s research, please visit: The Ethox Centre.

Michael also has previous experience working with adults and young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, both as a support worker and learning support assistant.

Susan Harrison PgDip MA MA MHM (Vice Chair)

Susan has worked in UK health and social care management for some 20 years, in the independent and statutory sectors. For the last five years she has worked as a self-employed consultant and interim manager in Adult Social Services.

Susan is committed to developing social care services and management practice that are underpinned by a strong evidence base that demonstrates effectiveness.

She has been involved in managing services that have participated in local and national evaluation and research. She has also commissioned a number of service reviews, needs assessments and commissioning strategies which have drawn on and analysed demographic, epidemiological and service use data.

For a number of years Susan has been a member of the Research Council of a charity working with, and on behalf of, people with disfigurement.

Claire Hopkins BA MSc

Claire began her professional career working for social services, initially in a children's home and then in child protection working with families, carrying out assessments. After graduating and completing a Masters in Social Policy she worked at the Institute of Psychiatry as a researcher. More recently, as a member of the Law Society's Mental Health Review Tribunal Panel, she has represented patients in their appeals against being detained. She is committed to ensuring research is valuable and of high quality and in her membership of the Social Care REC is maintaining her career long interest in social care and social research while managing her busy family life mothering four children.

Claire Lambert MSc

Claire is a social researcher, with a background in qualitative and quantitative research methods. She leads Ipsos MORI research on disability and social care, where she has gained extensive experience in conducting research with people receiving care and support, staff working in the sector, and stakeholders. Her work is wide-ranging, and typically involves surveys, cognitive testing of questionnaires, depth interviews, discussion groups, deliberative events, and evaluation of public policies. Resulting from her work, Claire has a lot of practical insights into how research is conducted on the ground, and the issues that researchers face in their day-to-day work when conducting projects involving disabled people, users of care and support services and carers.

Valerie Lang BSc(Econ) MBE

Valerie has had a lifetime’s experience of disability, having been born with Cerebral Palsy. Although her parents were told that she was ineducable, she was educated at special school, at technical college, and at London University. She worked first as an Assistant Librarian, and was later promoted to Senior Research Officer at the Civil Aviation Authority. She has been retired for 11 years. She has experience on the Boards of charities, including Scope (when it was the Spastics Society), HomeShare, and Mobility Choice. She has just retired from the Board of the European Disability Forum. She has used care services both in public and private sectors, but finds great limitations in the care provision for older people. Valerie has had five years as a member on the Moorfields & Whittington Hospitals REC. She felt that her experience might be of more relevance to the Social Care REC than to a healthcare REC.

Irene Linder

Irene has worked in social care for over 22 years. She started as a care assistant in a unit for the Elderly, a few years later becoming Assistant Manager. After being redeployed she worked caring for elders who had Dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease. Irene recognises the support of the families as being an important part of the care package. She is now semi retired. In the past she has been a carer of a close family member using social care services.

Irene has been a member of a Health Care REC for seven years, but sees the need for research in a social care setting. She is committed to support quality involvement in research to improve the social care evidence base.

Craig Moss MSc

Craig has worked in the substance misuse field since 2000 within Addaction, the UK’s largest charity solely dedicated to the treatment of drug and alcohol addiction, helping its service users, their families and communities towards recovery. The charity specialises in a range of treatments for substance misuse, from frontline interventions such as needle exchange, through to counselling and residential rehabilitation.

As Addaction’s Research Manager, Craig is responsible for all the charity’s research, contributing to the research and development agenda within Addaction and the wider substance misuse field. Craig leads on all research projects within Addaction’s research governance framework, which includes ethical review. Craig is qualified in Social Research Methods and is trained in professional research ethics. He is particularly interested ensuring vulnerable adults, young people and their families receive the highest standard of social care.

Bridget Penhale BA MSc/CQSW

Bridget has worked in an academic setting for the past 12 years, mostly in the field of Social Work and Social Care. This has included teaching student social workers about ethics and ethical practice in community care. She now works as a Reader at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where she has a research focus on older people and supportive care in later life and specifically on violence, abuse and neglect of older people and vulnerable adults. Prior to this Bridget had a lengthy career as a social worker and manager in a number of different settings, mainly specialising in work with older people and their carers. As her focus has been social work and social care rather than healthcare (despite working at times in healthcare settings) Bridget was keen to be involved in a Social Care REC, where she brings both her research and practice experience to assist the committee.

Dr Kathylene F Siska BA MSW PhD

Kathylene moved to the UK in 2007, after retiring from 22 years of university teaching in the US. Her main areas of teaching in MA social work programmes in the US were research methodologies and she supervised an average of 40 M level dissertations annually. Since moving to London, she has taught on a BA (Hons) social work programme.

Her field of social work practice was learning disabilities and children born at risk of developmental delay. After leaving active social work practice, Kathylene facilitated faculty and resident research with a medical school, which necessitated working with the researchers to develop sound and ethical projects for study.

As a professor at a research intensive university in the US, Kathylene chaired the ethics committee for the university. This committee reviewed approximately 300 faculty and post graduate student proposals for human subject protections. The proposals reviewed ranged across all disciplines within the university, except for drug trials and animal research, which were reviewed by a separate ethics committee.

Kathylene is committed to ethical research which protects the respondents from unnecessary risk while promoting research which informs our understanding of social care provision.