Joanna Dean

Service User & Carer Involvement Co-ordinator
Faculty:
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care
School:
School of Allied Health and Social Care
Location:
Cambridge
Areas of Expertise:
Social Work and Social Policy

Jo has led our Service User and Carer Involvement (SUCI) Team of Educators with Lived Experience of Accessing Social Work Services since 2011 and has administrated the pre-placement skills-based Standards and Skills for Social Work Practice (SSP1) module since 2014. Jo co-designs and delivers SSP1 days with the SUCI team to all our first-year social work students in Cambridge and Chelmsford. Jo is currently also the Social Work Admissions Lead for all our Cambridge and Chelmsford BA and MA applicants.

In the spirit of co-production, Jo and the SUCI team help to ensure our candidates are well supported on admission days and that our students successfully prepare to undertake their first practice placement.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @SUCiARU

Background

Jo worked with SEN children in early years settings before undertaking her role co-ordinating our SUCI team. Under Jo’s management, the SUCI team are now equal partners with our practitioner and academic colleagues on admission days and the group has become a well-integrated and highly valued component of the wider social work team.

Jo liaises with academics, practitioners and SUCI colleagues to co-ordinate the delivery and assessment of the SSP1 module across the Cambridge and Chelmsford sites. She co-designed and co-delivers Equality and Diversity training with a SUCI colleague as part of this module and also runs the preparation for assessment days. In addition to this, Jo offers individually tailored support to students needing to recover days to ensure they can complete this compulsory attendance module prior to progressing on to their first placement.

In recognition of her ‘outstanding contribution to the faculty’, Jo received a Dean’s Award in 2018.

Teaching
Standards and Skills for Social Work Practice One (SSP1)
Qualifications
  • PG Cert in Higher Education (Anglia Ruskin University)
  • Masters Degree Wine Business Management (MBA - Diploma) (Royal Agricultural University)
  • Bachelors Degree Sociology with Industrial Relations (BSc) (University of Bath)
Selected recent publications

Fox, J, Dean, J, Amas, D, 2021. Involving people with lived experiences in role-play assessment in social work education in England: implications for practice. Practice: Social Work in Action. doi: 10.1080/09503153.2021.2010694

Fox, J, Dean, J, Williamson, A, 2024. Evaluating a skills-based Equality Diversity and Inclusion learning event delivered to social work academics and students in a UK HEI: Exploring opportunities for social work education. [Publication Pending].

Recent presentations and conferences

Presenting on ‘Equality & Diversity’ and ‘Relationship-based Practice’ at the Interprofessional Learning Conference at Anglia Ruskin University, January 2020 with members of the SUCI team.

Presenting on ‘Raising Awareness of Co-production: Good Practice in Higher Education’ as part of Social Work England’s Social Work Week in March 2023 with members of the SUCI team.