Dr Caroline Leah
Senior Lecturer
My profile
Biography
Three words to describe me: Committed, creative and collegial.
When I am not working I enjoy practising yoga, reading, walking my dog, going to gigs and socialising with friends and family.
Words of wisdom
‘They know enough who know how to to learn’. Henry Adams
‘For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them’. Hannah Arendt.
‘When we love, we always strive to become better than we are…’ Paulo Coelho
‘There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure’. Paulo Coelho
Academic and professional qualifications
- BA (Hons) Politics/ Sociology ii.i University of York (1990 -1993)
- MA in Social Work Studies. Manchester Metropolitan University (1999)
- Education Doctorate (EdD) University of Manchester (2018)
Registration with Professional Bodies and Professional Memberships
- Qualified and registered social worker: Health Care Professionals Council Registration Number: SW58241
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Member of British Sociological Association
- Mental Health Research Network
- Global Perspectives, Marginalisation and Thriving Communities Research Group
- AMHP Research Group
Other academic service (administration and management)
- Programme Leader Pg. Cert Advanced Social Work Award (Care Implementers) 2015 - ongoing
Languages
British Sign Language Stage 1.
External examiner roles
- External Examiner for UCLAN BA (Hons) Social Work
Expert reviewer
- Peer reviewer for the British Journal of Social Work; Practice: Social Work in Action, Journal of Social Work Education and the Journal of Qualitative Social Work
- Palgrave McMillan and Wiley book publishers.
- I blog for Mental Health and National Elf.
Consultancy and advisory roles
JSWEC Man Met Representative
Firtsline Advisory member- Kings College SCSWRU.
Editorial Board membership
Guest Editor for Practice: Social Work in Action - special edition on the subject of the Approved
Mental Health Professional’ Forthcoming - March 2020
Membership of professional associations
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Projects
Practice Supervisors Development Programme - Research into Practice and University of Birmingham partnership - November 2019 - June 2020.Consultant and Co-Investigator.15k.
Strength Based Aproaches Practice Framework. November 2019 - ongoing. Co-Invesigator. £94k.
GMCA Pathways To Talking’ project (DfE).To support the development of the GMCA Early Years Academy. February 2020. Researcher.
Teaching
Why do I teach?
To pass on intellectual knowledge in a democratic way and to share critical ideas with you as part of a wider learning community.
I describe my teaching style as collobrative, constructively critical and creative.
Why study…
I lead a post graduate certificate in Advanced Social Work Practice (Care Act 2014). The programme is the leading the way in creative and dynamic practice delivery of the key duties and responsibilities under the Care Act 2014. It includes an expert reference group that links excellent practice at regional and national levels, a yearly conference and local and regional networks for establishing and disseminating transformational practice leadership across Northwest organisations.
Postgraduate teaching
- Pg. Cert Advanced Social Work Award (Care Act) - Assesment and Intervention and Leadership and Management units.
Teaching: Assesment and Intervention unit- Strength based approaches, wellbeing, Care Act 2014.
Leadership and management unit - Leadership theories and application to leadership and management practice, professional identities and roles, organisational culture, hybrid professional identities.
- MA in Social Work
- Unit Lead - Social Research and Evaluation, and Social Work Research and Practice.
Teaching: research design, methodologies, analysis in qulatitative research. Service user research, participatory and co-produced approaches.
Other teaching MA in Social Work: Strength-based approaches, mental health.
Subject areas
Legal literacy, including Care Act (assessment and intervention, practice leadership, safeguarding, self-neglect, integration), Mental Health Act (incl. role of the AMHP, professional identities), Mental Capacity Act and defensible decision making.
Supervision
I have successfully supervised 55 post graduate MSc students in Applied Mental Health at University of Manchester and 28 MA in Social Work students at Manchester Met.
Research outputs
- Qualitative research methods, including case study research
- Questionaires and interviews
- Focus Groups
- Literature Reviews
- Thematic Analysis
- Conceptual Frameworks
- Dissertation supervision (80 completions)
- PhD supervision
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Journal articles
Leah, C. (2024) 'Editorial: What it means to be human, what it means to be hurt, and what it means to thrive.' Qualitative Social Work,
Leah, C. (2022) 'The Role of the Approved Mental Health Professional: A ‘Fool’s Errand’?.' The British Journal of Social Work, 52(7) pp. 3802-3819.
Vicary, S., Stone, K., Hemmington, J., Leah, C. (2020) 'Editorial: The Approved Mental Health Professional. Research Informed Practice; Practice Informed Research.' Practice, 32(4) pp. 247-251.
Leah, C. (2019) 'Approved Mental Health Professionals: A Jack of all Trades? Hybrid Professional Roles within a Mental Health Occupation.' Qualitative Social Work, 19(5-6) pp. 987-1006.
Leah, C. (2015) 'Global Childhoods: Issues and Debates.' BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK, 45(4) pp. 1372-1373.
Leah, C. (2014) 'Our Encounters with Suicide.' BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK, 44(2) pp. 474-475.
Press and media
Media appearances or involvement
BBC radio.
‘Tell it - Sectioned’ November 2019. I was a consultant on the new BBC radio
series, in particular the above episode, which explores the process and
experiences of detention under the MHA1983, from a service user, AMHP and
police perspective. It offers a very important critical commentary on services,
coercion, principles of least restriction: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07sqmmf