Public Policy and Professional Practice

Dr Pat Chambers is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work within the School of Public Policy and Professional Practice.  She was an undergraduate at Keele (1969-73: Dual Honours History and Politics). She returned to complete her MA Gerontology (1992-4) and subsequently her PhD (Gerontology, 2002). She joined the staff at Keele University in 2000, having previously worked at University College Northampton (1998-2000) and Stockport College of Further and Higher Education (1985-1998).  Prior to her career in higher education, Pat worked in a variety of voluntary and statutory agencies in Greater Manchester as a teacher, youth worker and community development worker, as well as contributing to staff development programmes for local authorities (social work; social care; youth service).  

Pat played a pivotal role in the development of the new Social Work degree at Keele and was overall Director of Social Work Programmes from 2004-2007.  She is currently module leader for the following modules on the social work programmes: BA Year 3 Applying Social Work Knowledge and Research; MA Year 2 Area of Practice Adults (2); MA Year 2 Research. Pat is a personal tutor for undergraduate and post-graduate social work students.  She supervises student projects/ dissertations on the following programmes: BA Social Work; MA Social Work; and MRes. Pat also contributes to the Masters programme in Gerontology/ Geriatric Medicine.

Pat is a member of the Research Institute for Life Course Studies and is currently jointly supervising three doctoral students. She has a particular interest in supporting ‘practitioner’ research and is an active participant in the Making Research Count initiative here at Keele. Since September 2007, she has been the academic representative on Staffordshire County Council Social Care and Health Directorate Research Governance Advisory Panel. In 2008-9 she was funded as a practitioner research mentor by the national, Making Research Count /Children’s Workforce Development Council Practitioner Led Research Programme.

In recent years, Pat has been commissioned to undertake a number of evaluations of projects and service delivery; these have included national, regional and local evaluations commissioned by statutory and voluntary organisations.

• SWK-0001: BA Social Workk Year 3 Applying Social Work Knowledge and Research
• SWK-40022 : MA Social Work Year 2 Area of Practice Adults (double module)
• SWK-40020 : MA Social Work Year 2 Research
• SWK-40013 : MA Dissertation
• MA Gerontology (as requested)
• Tutor/ supervisor on: BA Social Work; MA Social Work; MRes