Jay Kirkham

Biography

Jay has twenty years’ experience as a solicitor specialising in tort, private family and land law. In 2009 she chose to embark on a new career as a Child Protection Social Worker by attending Keele University to undertake a Master’s Degree in Social Work. After graduation she joined Stoke on Trent City Council and practiced within their Children in Care and Safeguarding Referral Teams where she was committed to improving outcomes for children and their families. She has extensive experience of providing expert evidence in the Family Court and enabling permanence planning, family support, special guardianship, foster care and adoption for children and young people. She dealt with complex cases involving all aspects of abuse and neglect and worked closely with families and professionals from various agencies and multi-faith communities. She is further qualified in systemic family therapy, assessment of parents with learning disabilities and is a Practice Educator.

In 2017 she was seconded to the North West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership as a Consultant (Academic) Social Worker. This introduced her to social work education and she formed part of a team carrying out research projects seeking to improve social work education for students, newly qualified and experienced social workers. Additionally she was able to contribute to the BA and MA social work programmes at Keele by providing lectures and workshops supporting the application of theory to practice.

Jay has been a lecturer at Keele since 2018 where her teaching specialises in social work law and working with children and families. Her research interests correspond to collaboration between law, social work practice and ethical issues. Her PhD proposal seeks to identify challenges faced by child protection social workers and in particular the interaction between employer/employee relationships. The research seeks to improve and inform social work education. She is currently studying a Master’s Degree in Higher Education to achieve Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and her research in this area seeks to establish the effectiveness of revision resources she has developed for social work law.

Professional and Academic Memberships

• Social Work England
• Solicitors Regulation Authority
• Social Work Law Association
• Keele Institute for Social Inclusion
• Health and Care Professions Council
• Law Society