Lecturer
Social Work Colin Bell Building, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA
I am a qualified social worker with research interests in adult support and protection policy and practice, care, vulnerability and participation. I have a background in support work, particularly with people with learning difficulties. I worked as Research Assistant on the Scottish Adult Support and Protection study at the University of Dundee between 2006 and 2008, before moving to the University of Stirling to complete my PhD. My PhD work was based on a re-analysis of the Dundee data, and examined how professionals were practising and making sense of their practice in the complex and evolving policy context immediately prior to the implementation of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 (the ASPSA). The analysis drew out themes of continuing relevance to contemporary policy and practice, including practice contingencies and irreducible uncertainties, power differentials in the construction of "abuse", "vulnerability" and "harm", and the impact on practitioner constructions of professional and agency cultures and different approaches to risk. I have delivered training on adult support and protection to a range of audiences. Whilst at Stirling I have also worked on a number of other studies including a collaborative study of risk and protection with people who use services (Altrum Research Team, 2011), scoping studies with the Multi-Agency Resource Service / WithScotland into aspects of ASPSA implementation for the Scottish Government, a collaborative study of the implementation of the ASPSA with practitioners (Mackay et al, 2011), and a study of the perspectives of independent advocates on work to safeguard adults from mistreatment (Sherwood-Johnson, 2014). I have recently also completed a collaborative study of older people's experiences of safety and vulnerability with Dr Kathryn Mackay, Dr Corinne Greasley-Adams, and staff and older members of Ceartas advocacy in Kirkintilloch.
Professionals' meaning-making in adult support and protection practice Views and experiences of people who use services and carers Adult support and protection policy Comparative and lifespan perspectives on protection and support Voluntary sector involvement in support and protection: particularly the involvement of independent advocacy
Article
Dangerous care: developing theory to safeguard older adults in caring relationships in the UK
Sherwood-Johnson F, Rummery K, Lawrence J, Mackay K, Ramsay K & McGregor R (2023) Dangerous care: developing theory to safeguard older adults in caring relationships in the UK. Journal of Adult Protection. https://doi.org/10.1108/jap-10-2022-0023
Article
Sherwood-Johnson F, Mackay K & Greasley-Adams C (2022) Negotiating safety and vulnerability in everyday life: perspectives of UK older people from participative research. European Journal of Social Work, 25 (3), pp. 485-496. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2021.1882397
Article
Sherwood-Johnson F & Mackay K (2021) Building knowledge for policy and practice based on service user and carer experiences: A case study of Scottish adult safeguarding research. Journal of Social Work, 21 (5), pp. 1182-1202. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017320952047
Research Report
Sherwood-Johnson F, Mackay K & Greasley-Adams C (2019) Feeling Safe? Feeling Vulnerable? Exploring Older People's Views and Experiences of Safety and Vulnerability in Everyday Life. Sir Halley Stewart Trust. Stirling: University of Stirling. https://feelingsafefeelingvulnerable.stir.ac.uk/
Article
Discovery or Construction? Theorising the Roots of Adult Protection Policy and Practice
Sherwood-Johnson F (2016) Discovery or Construction? Theorising the Roots of Adult Protection Policy and Practice. Social Work Education, 35 (2), pp. 119-130. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2015.1130804
Article
Independent advocacy in adult support and protection work
Sherwood-Johnson F (2016) Independent advocacy in adult support and protection work. Journal of Adult Protection, 18 (2), pp. 109-118. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/JAP-09-2015-0026; https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-09-2015-0026
Research Report
Keeping adults safe from mistreatment: an independent advocacy perspective
Sherwood-Johnson F (2015) Keeping adults safe from mistreatment: an independent advocacy perspective. The Carnegie Trust. University of Stirling.
Article
Sherwood-Johnson F (2014) A different kind of practice? Meanings attached by practitioners to the category of "adult protection". Journal of Social Work, 14 (5), pp. 473-490. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468017313479857
Article
The experience of being protected
Sherwood-Johnson F, Cross B & Daniel B (2013) The experience of being protected. Journal of Adult Protection, 15 (3), pp. 115-126. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAP-06-2012-0012
Article
Sherwood-Johnson F (2013) Constructions of vulnerability in comparative perspective: Scottish protection policies and the trouble with "adults at risk". Disability and Society, 28 (7), pp. 908-921. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.732541
Article
Sherwood-Johnson F (2012) Problems with the Term and Concept of 'Abuse': Critical Reflections on the Scottish Adult Support and Protection Study. British Journal of Social Work, 42 (5), pp. 833-850. http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/15/bjsw.bcr115; https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcr115
Article
Brookes I, Archibald S, McInnes K, Cross B, Daniel B & Sherwood-Johnson F (2012) Finding the words to work together: Developing a research design to explore risk and adult protection in co-produced research. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40 (2), pp. 143-151. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-3156.2012.00740.x
Article
Sherwood-Johnson F (2012) What is an "adult protection" issue? Victims, perpetrators and the professional construction of adult protection issues. Critical Social Policy, 32 (2), pp. 203-222. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018311420278
Research Report
Working Together in Adult Support and Protection: Views and Tools of People who Access Support
Daniel B, Cross B, Sherwood-Johnson F, Finlayson S & McConnell F (2011) Working Together in Adult Support and Protection: Views and Tools of People who Access Support. The Big Lottery. University of Stirling and Thistle Foundation. http://www.thistle.org.uk/sites/default/files/publication-files/altrumreport.pdf
Article
Abuse and Protection Issues across the Lifespan: Reviewing the Literature
Sherwood-Johnson F, Hogg J & Daniel B (2010) Abuse and Protection Issues across the Lifespan: Reviewing the Literature. Social Policy and Society, 9 (2), pp. 291-304. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746409990418
