Assessment, Risk and Decision Making in Social Work: An Introduction

About Brian J. TaylorCampbell Killick

Campbell Killick PhD is Lecturer in Social Work at Ulster University Northern Ireland where he teaches assessment and decision making on undergraduate (qualifying social work) courses and post-qualifying post-graduate courses. He is Course Director for the MSc in Research Methods for social workers service users carers and others involved in social work services. Campbells research focuses on professional decision making particularly in relation to the abuse of children and adults. Campbell is Co-Founder and Deputy Convenor of the Decisions Assessment and Risk Special Interest Group (DARSIG) of the European Social Work Research Association and Coordinator of Ulster Universitys DARES initiative which supports research teaching and organisation development for social work in relation to decision-making assessment risk and the use of evidence to inform practice and management of services. He is co-author of Assessment Risk and Decision Making in Social Work published by Sage. Brian J Taylor PhD is Emeritus Professor of Social Work at Ulster University Northern Ireland. Professionally qualified in social work and teaching he spent 10 years as a practitioner and manager and then 15 years in training and organisation development in health and social care before joining the University. Brian was founder and principal organiser of the biennial conference series: Decisions Assessment Risk and Evidence in Social Work 2010-2022. He has taught researched and published on these topics including being author on over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has supervised about 20 PhD students including some jointly with colleagues in communication studies health care psychology youth and community work law and computer science. Brian is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences; honorary Senior Fellow of the School for Social Care Research at the National Institute for Health Research London; and honorary Associate of the Harding Centre for Risk Literacy at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development Berlin. He was a founder member of the Board of the European Social Work Research Association (ESWRA) and founder-Convenor of the ESWRA Decisions Assessment and Risk Special Interest Group.