Professor Joanne Westwood

Joanne was recently Co- Principal Investigator on the DiSCRE study a University collaboration with SOCRATES, an NIHR funded partnership which conducts rapid evaluation with the London School of Economics and Political Science, and King’s College London. The study was coproduced with experts by experience and evaluated the implementation of digital social care records in England in 2024.

Joanne is a member of the Connect Centre, and works with a team of researchers on projects related to identifying and responding to harm and interpersonal violence. Joanne is currently leading a research study exploring Safety in Taxis, which surveyed people living in Lancashire asking about their experiences of feeling safe/unsafe when using taxis.

A recent rapid scoping study project funded by Foundations (2023) and led by Joanne explored the knowledge and awareness of domestic abuse in the early Help and Family Support workforce in 11 Local Authorities in England. Joanne has also carried our research on Children’s Domestic Violence Advocacy with colleagues in the Connect Centre and the Centre for Children and Young People's Participation., Working with colleagues at the University of Stirling and Glasgow University Joanne evaluated a family centre provision in Scotland with a particular emphasis on the support for fathers.

Joanne's doctoral work completed in 2010 examined policy and practice related to child trafficking in the UK and between 2013 and 2015 Joanne contributed to the largest UK study to date into the health effects of human trafficking with the Institute of Psychiatry: King’s College London, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Joanne is currently working with colleagues to ensure that students are fully equipped to develop their professional careers and are self-directed lifelong learners. Digitisation of the curriculum using co created Podcasts, skills development and particularly Hi Fidelity simulation are amongst the range of creative and innovative teaching/learning activities which Joanne has been developing and implemented in recent years.

Joanne has also carried our research and published books, book chapters, and peer reviewed papers focussing on social media in social work practice and education. Joanne's work in this area is designed to support practitioners, students and social work educators to be digitally equipped and competent in line with regulatory body requirements.

Between 2015-2016 Joanne worked with colleagues across the sector in Scotland undertaking commissioned work for the Scottish Social Services Council Review of Social Work education, focussing particularly on Future Skills and Leadership in professional/qualifying social work education. In 2017 Joanne contributed to the External Expert Panel for the new Digital Health and Care Strategy for Scotland and coordinated the Social Media Strategy for the EASSW bi -annual conference in Paris.

Joanne is currently Director of Studies for three Professional Doctorate students topics include; allegations of abuse made against Foster Carers, the experiences of children of Foster Carers and Leadership in HNS organisations) and for two students undertaking PhDs (Responses to women who retaliate in cases of domestic abuse, and Police responses to young people’s experiences of stalking. Joanne is also second supervisor for one PhD student (Service user engagement in Domestic Violence support services) and PhD by publication (awarded).

Joanne is an external advisor to Doctoral students who are researching Nigerian women’s experiences of mental health, and Social workers experiences of cases of witchcraft and spirit possession. Joanne was external examiner for the following PhD students:

Onginjo, P. O. (2020) 'Social Workers Engagement with Client Information Using Social Media in England'. PhD thesis. University of Bedfordshire.

External Examiner: Stanfield, D. Thesis Title: (2018)The professional use of social media by social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand. University of Auckland

External Examiner: Tarsem Singh Cooner (2015) PhD by publication: Researching Enquiry-based Blended Learning in Social Work Education. University of Birmingham 

Joanne is a reviewer for several national and international social work and social sciences publications including: Social Sciences, Child & Family Social Work, Social Work Education: The International Journal, British Journal of Social Work, Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education, Psychology of Violence, Routledge; Palgrave Macmillan; JKP and Policy Press.

Joanne is external examiner on MA Social Work for the University Manchester, BA (Hons) Robert Gordon University, and Goldsmiths, and was previously external examiner at the university of East London, Queen’s University Belfast and Edinburgh university.