Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Social Work and Social Pedagogy
The Social Work, Youth Work and Social Pedagogy Research Cluster brings together academic researchers, practitioners and community partners to advance innovative, values led research that enhances social work, youth work and community practice.
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Our research focus
We work across the full breadth of contemporary social work, youth work and community practice, with core expertise in:
- Children's Social Work
- Youth and Community Work
- Adult Social Work
- Mental Health and Addiction
- Social Support and Social Pedagogy
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Our approach
- Solidarity, Love, Care and Pedagogical Practice: We advance a social pedagogy informed model of social work and community practice rooted in solidarity, compassion and holistic human development
- Co production and Lived Experience: We work alongside service users, carers, young people and front-line practitioners to generate insight that reflects the realities of practice
- Applied and Practice Based Research: Our projects engage directly with professionals, local authorities and community organisations to produce evidence that informs policy, education and frontline delivery
- Transforming Education and Practice Learning: We develop innovative approaches to practice learning, supervision and curriculum design that enrich social work, youth work and community based education and professional development
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Social Work, Social Pedagogy and Inclusive, Prosperous Communities
Our commitment to fostering inclusive, prosperous communities is grounded in social work and social pedagogy principles that place relationships, social justice and human flourishing at the centre of community development. We understand prosperity not only as economic wellbeing but as the creation of conditions in which people, families and communities can thrive socially, emotionally and culturally. This aligns with global efforts to reduce inequality, end poverty and build safe, sustainable and participatory communities. Through values-led, practice-informed research, we work with individuals, practitioners and organisations to address the structural conditions that shape people's lives. Our projects support communities to build resilience, strengthen social bonds and access the resources they need to flourish. In keeping with pedagogical traditions, we promote learning, agency and participation - ensuring that people are not only recipients of services or policy but active co creators of meaningful change.
Recent Community-Based Research Collaborations and Knowledge Exchange (Externally Funded)
Provided multiple evaluations of adult social work, home care provision and crisis mental health services, resulting in innovative social work practice models grounded in solidarity, love and compassion.
Researchers:
- Darren Hill
- Erika Laredo
- Maxine Bell
The evaluation of social prescribing within young people's mental health services and the re imagining of social pedagogy as a community based approach supporting young people experiencing mental distress. This work focuses on creating the right spaces, places and relationships for young people to thrive.
Research:
- Erika Laredo
- Darren Hill
Collaborative research with local government services to develop a deeper understanding of self harm and improve community-based responses to emotional distress.
Researchers:
- Darren Hill
- Bill Penson
- Lousie Warwick-Booth
We have undertaken a regional evaluation of addiction services and safer injecting facilities with Humankind Leeds, contributing evidence to contemporary debates on harm reduction within urban communities.
Researchers:
- Petra Salisbury
- Darren Hill
Dr Paula Beesley has been awarded a Social Work England–funded project examining the efficacy of social work placements across England. Working in collaboration with Northumbria University, the project draws on the lived experience of a social work student and social work apprentices to enrich data collection, analysis and the development of a good‑practice guide. The research focuses on assessment and supervision in practice learning, exploring how different student groups - traditional and fast‑track students, apprentices and ethnically diverse cohorts - experience the same learning activities. It also examines variations across statutory and non‑statutory placements (including social care, health and education) and considers differences in support offered by on‑site versus off‑site practice educators.
Researchers:
- Paula Beesley
- Sharon Vincent
- Rebecca O'Keefe
Gill Impey, the Course Director for the MA Social Work programme, leads and supports a wider Yorkshire Region network of Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs). She coordinates an annual conference that brings together colleagues from higher education, local authorities, and health-based institutions to support knowledge exchange, strengthen regional collaboration, and promote excellence in mental health practice. The AMHP Network plays a vital role in advancing continuing professional development and fostering evidence‑based practice for Approved Mental Health Professionals, ensuring the workforce remains informed, skilled, and responsive to emerging challenges in mental health care.
Researcher:
- Gill Impey
Future, Research, Practice Learning and Social Work Education Projects
Dr Darren Hill and Dr Maxine Bell are collaborating with Bradford Children's Care Trust to develop new theoretical approaches to formulation within the Problem‑Solving Team. Using ethnographic methods - including practitioner shadowing - the project explores the complexities of social work assessment across both court‑based and community settings. If our grants our successful (see below) we will collaborate with Ghent University and Social Services in Belgium to explore a new radical and politically informed approaches to social work practice.
Dr Bell is currently applying for a LBU Small Grant for this work, and Dr Hill has submitted an ISRF Small Group Collaboration bid. Their collective work builds on a longstanding research programme focused on developing a radical, solidarity‑based theoretical framework for social work, particularly within mental health crisis practice. This framing emphasises relational ethics, critical reflection and compassionate, justice‑oriented responses to complexity.
Dr Erika Laredo is collaborating with Bradford Youth Service alongside Dr Darren Nixon (LBU Sociology), supported by Ceasar and Small Grant funding. This research seeks to deepen understanding of how young men living in disadvantaged communities experience, interpret and navigate their social worlds.
Working closely with youth workers and youth ambassadors, the project uses creative and participatory methods to amplify young men’s voices and explore their stories, perspectives and identities. The study provides rich insights into the challenges young men face in contemporary society, as well as the strategies they draw upon to negotiate these pressures.
Central to the research is a commitment to ethical, meaningful engagement - fostering critical dialogue around contemporary masculinities and supporting young men to articulate their experiences within a relational, pedagogically informed framework.
Selected publications
- Bell M, Hill D (2023). Responding to mental health crisis at a street level: mental health practitioners as street level bureaucrats. European Social Work Research, pp. 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1332/QINL4154
- Beesley P (2024). Supporting Students on Placement to Develop a Diligent Attitude to Social Work Student Supervision. The Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning, 22(1-2), 7–23. https://doi.org/10.1921/jpts.v21i3.2145
- Beesley P, Hill D and Matheson S (2026). An evaluation of a collaborative experiential learning model to develop communication skills in social work education. The British Journal of Social Work, 2026 DOI:, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaf302
- Hill D, Bell M and Laredo E (2024). Solidarity is not a dirty word: exploring and locating solidarity as a theory and model for a radical community social work practice. Critical and Radical Social Work, 12(4), 442-455. https://doi.org/10.1332/20498608Y2024D000000022
- Salisbury P and Hill D. (2025). Who’s asking me? Service user perspectives on safer injecting facilities. Journal of Drug Science, Policy and Law. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050324524130874
- Laredo E and Charlton M (2025). "Risky Business:Youth Work in Turbulent Times." In: Gormally, s and Maguire, A and Seal, M, (eds.) Higher Education, Community Connections and Collaborations. Bloomsbury Academic, London, pp. 205-222. ISBN 9781350430754, 1350430757
- Hill D; Laredo E; Mercer D; Rushworth S (2022) The Community Wellbeing Pilot Evaluation. Leeds City Council Adult Social Care.
- Salisbury, P: Hill, D. (2023) Who's asking me? Service user perspectives on safer injecting rooms. Human Kind - Forward Leeds.
- Geddes E; O'Keefe; Hill, D (2023) "What works" in early help? An evaluation of families' experiences of receiving support under an innovative new approach to the delivery of early help in Leeds. What Works for Children’s Social Care.
- Hill D; Laredo E; Busari C (2023) The Connect Together Evaluation. Leeds Beckett University: Barca-Leeds.
- Hill D and Howe D (2024). A Brief Introduction to Social Work Theory. Bloomsbury: London. (Editor).
