Professor Peter Beresford
Honorary Professor

Summary

Peter Beresford OBE is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Brunel University London and was also the former Director of the Centre for Citizen Participation. His particular areas of focus are public, patient and service user involvement in policy and practice; democratisation and participatory approaches to research, particularly in relation to user controlled and user involvement research.

He has a longstanding involvement in issues of participation and service user involvement in research and evaluation, as writer, researcher and educator. His areas of particular interest are disability, mental health, palliative care, social work and social care, welfare reform, social work education and participatory research.

He is an academic who is also actively involved in the development of policy, practice and research through affiliations and strong networks with national (and international) research, policy, practice and service user organisations and structures. His involvement in policy and practice development has a particular focus on social care and social work. He has been a member of many government and non-statutory committees and is currently a trustee of the National Skills Academy for Social Care and member of the Department of Health’s Ministerial Forum for Social Care Leadership and Workforce Recruitment and Retention Group. He is also a Fellow of the NIHR School for Social Care Research and a Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University

The Centre for Citizen Participation had a record of successful research and other collaborations with other academic, professional and public organisations nationally. Peter is also Chair of Shaping Our Lives, the national user controlled organisation and network concerned with the strategic development of user involvement and improved service quality in health and social care. Shaping Our Lives is a strategic partner for user involvement in the third sector with the Department of Health and a frequent research partner of Brunel University London.

He has published widely in his fields of interest (see http://www.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/searchp.asp). He writes regularly in the Guardian and writes a regular column in the journal of The College of Social work (see also http://journalisted.com/peter-beresford and http://www.theguardian.com/profile/peterberesford.

Qualifications:

OBE BA Hons PhD AcSS FRSA DipWP