Public Policy and Professional Practice

After qualifying as a social worker in 1980 I worked for 17 years within the field of local authority adult services.  My posts included hospital social work, older people’s mental health team and HIV social worker, all of which gave me a wealth of experience working within an inter-agency, multi-professional setting.  My last post was in staff development focusing on training social care staff and developing a specialist service for older people with dementia.

My academic career started in 1997 and I have worked on both BA and MA social work programmes at Sheffield Hallam University, Manchester Metropolitan University and now Keele University, which I joined in 2012.  My specialist teaching areas are social work with older people and qualitative research methods, although I teach on a range of other modules in my current post at Keele.  I will be taking up the position of Director of Post-graduate Social Work at Keele in June 2013. 

I hold a PGCE in Further and Higher Education and am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  I hold a Masters (with distinction) in Counselling, which I received from University of Leeds.  I am currently undertaking my doctorate with the University of Sheffield exploring older women’s experiences of sexuality, which is due to be completed within the next two years.

My research interests focus on:

• Social work with older people
• Issues in older age
• Sexuality

I have a keen interest in participative research, which is one of the key elements of my current research in relation to my doctorate.

Bywater J. and Jones R. (2007) Sexuality and social work.  Exeter: Learning Matters

Jones R. (2011) Researching sexuality and ageing. In Dunk-West P. and Hafford-Letchfield T. (eds) Sexual Identities and Sexuality in Social Work: Research and reflections from women in the field.  Farnham, Burlington: Ashgate.

Jones R. (2012) Social work with older people.  In Davies M. (ed) Social work with adults.  Palgrave Macmillan