About the team

Our team comprises researchers and members of the public with a wealth of experience of health and social care research with a focus on regulation of professionals, patient experience and patient safety, social care service use, health services research, health inequalities, intervention evaluation, co design of research outputs.

Principal investigators

Professor Louise Wallace

Professor of Psychology and Health, The Open University
Louise is a clinical psychologist (non-practising) who researches how to improve health and social care services. She has researched patient safety, management and the governance of healthcare services. She has also researched how the experience of patients, service users and the public can improve services. Louise also has many years of experience as clinician, and executive and non -executive leader in the NHS. Louise is Co -lead of the research.

Professor Sara Ryan

Professor of Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University
Sara Ryan is Professor Social Care at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is Co-PI of the project with Louise Wallace and is leading WP3 and WP5. Sara's research has focused on learning disability and autism and she has worked with people with learning disabilities on several projects. Sara is also currently leading NIHR funded projects exploring the experience of loneliness and how to better support people with learning disabilities to lead flourishing lives.

Co-investigators

Professor Rosalind Searle

Professor of Human Resource Management and Organisational Psychology, University of Glasgow
Rosalind is a chartered occupational psychologist, and researcher with many years studying trust and its breach in a variety of organisations, including health and social care. Her research includes professional misconduct and its consequences, with prior ground-breaking work for Professional Standards Authority. She is leading the workpackage using retrospective case studies and interviews.

Ms Annie Sorbie

Lecturer in Medical Law and Ethics, University of Edinburgh, School of Law
Annie is a medical lawyer (non-practising) with over 14 years’ experience in the health and regulatory sector. She is Deputy Director of the Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and the Law, and has a research and teaching portfolio which spans health research regulation and professional regulation, with a focus on patient safety. She is a co-investigator on the project.

Dr Sharif Haider

The Open University
Sharif lectures in social work. He is a Registered Social Worker, educator and researcher in the UK and beyond. His research includes the use of virtual reality simulations for training in social work and nursing, and decolonial approach to mental health of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Sharif will lead on the creation of social work-related outputs.

Dr Gemma Ryan Blackwell

The Open University
Gemma is Lecturer in Nursing and is a NMC registered adult nurse-teacher with research experience in a range healthcare providers in the UK and beyond. Her research informs her teaching of online and distance education in health and social care. This includes electronic professionalism in the healthcare sector, and the role of online social networks in healthcare and education. Gemma will lead on the development of online educational resources for healthcare professionals.

Dr Gemma Hughes

The University of Oxford
Gemma is a Health Services Researcher at the University of Oxford. Gemma has researched how policies and practices affect people’s experiences of healthcare, and has experience of working in the NHS and the voluntary sector. Gemma will lead on ethnographic research of Fitness to Practice hearings – studying how the hearings happen and how people experience the hearings.

Mr Richard West

Lay contributor and lead of the Public and Patient Involvement Advisory Group
Richard has been a Patient Advocate for the last 20 years, undertaking voluntary work locally, nationally and internationally in relation to rare diseases and patient involvement in health projects. He has personal experience of fitness to practice, coronial hearings and complex investigations. Richard is a Lay collaborator and lead of the Public and Patient Involvement Advisory Group.

Researchers

Dr Francesca Ribenfors

Manchester Metropolitan University
Francesca is a Research Associate in the department of Social Care and Social Work. Her research has focussed on social care and learning disabilities including housing and transition to adulthood, using various qualitative methods. She has worked in social care services. She will be working across workpackages and supporting with the ethnographic research of Fitness to Practise Hearings.

Lewis Garippa

University of Glasgow
Lewis is a Research Assistant with the University of Glasgow. He holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws in Medical Law and Ethics, and has experience working within the Children’s Hearings Scotland system. His research and interests include access to specialised healthcare services for children, the introduction of new roles within the NHS and the regulation of health and social care professionals, with a focus on patient safety. Lewis will predominately work to support the delivery of the workpackage using retrospective case studies and interviews carried out by the University of Glasgow.

Dr Mari Greenfield

Research Associate at The Open University
Mari is an experienced qualitative and mixed methods researcher, currently working as a Research Associate with The Open University. She holds postgraduate degrees in Social Policy, Public Sector Management, and Health. Her research expertise crosses the disciplinary boundaries of Sociology, Psychology, and Applied Healthcare, as applied to perinatal services and experiences. Mari has professional experience of working within social care. Mari contributes to the analysis of interviews with employers about engagement with the fitness to practise processes.

Project co-ordinator

Miss Desi Todorova

Project Manager, Manchester Metropolitan University
Desi is the Project Manager based at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has worked in various Higher Education institutions for over 6 years, proving operational support. For the past 3 years, Desi has been working on publicly funded projects, ensuring smooth running on day-to-day basis and successful delivery. She has supported multiple NIHR funded projects and has wide knowledge of the terms and regulations. She is the main point of contact for the Witness to Harm project.

Advisors

Graham Pike

Professor of Forensic Cognition, The Open University
Graham is a psychologist whose research has focused on witnesses within the criminal justice system. His work has included the development of new investigative procedures and technologies (such as video identification parades and visual interfaces for children) designed to improve the quality of evidence obtained from witnesses. He has also explored the impact that a criminal investigation can have on the mental health and wellbeing of a witness.

Dr Erica Bowen

Consultant
Erica is a Registered Forensic Psychologist (HCPC), with expertise in research and being an expert witness in judicial proceedings related to family and sexual violence and trauma informed interventions. Erica holds governmental advisory positions for the Ministry of Justice (England and Wales) and the Scottish Government related to domestic violence. She will advise on the emotional impacts of being a witness and the risks of traumatisation.

Vicki Lawson- Brown

The Open University and Lawson-Brown & Nugent Partners
Vicki is a Registered Social Worker and has worked for social work regulators in various differing roles. She has also taught social workers worked for The Open University for the last twenty years. As well as regulatory adjudication, her consultancy work focuses upon complex investigations, mainly in the public sector, either in employment law cases such as bullying, harassment and discrimination, but also abuse cases within the church, care homes and educational establishments. Her work invariably involves interviewing witnesses who have come to harm, either as survivors of abuse or who have been traumatised within the workplace.

Dr George Julian

Knowledge Transfer Consultant
George is a former academic and researcher who now works to support the application of research and knowledge to improve practice and people’s lives. She has worked as an advocate for bereaved families involved with NHS investigation processes, and is a former advisor to the Care Quality Commission. She works as a freelance journalist, using social media to report contemporaneously from Coroner’s Courts and other jurisdictions. She is supporting the project to consider their use of social media and communications.