Jonathan Larner

Health related areas include public health and wellbeing; sports injuries; physiotherapy related topics, such as injury, rehabilitation; leadership and management related topics including quality improvement, change management and team working.

Jon's teaching mainly covers the health related areas of expertise outlined earlier. 

Jon has a strong interest in leadership having held a senior positions in the NHS, the independent hospital sector, professional sport and higher education. He has a passion for engaging students in professional development and enjoys using creative and popular media to make learning memorable. 

Jon has been Course Director for both the BSc and MSc Physiotherapy Programmes in recent years. He is currently module organiser for the Professional Development Modules in years 1 & 2 of the MSc Pre-registration Physiotherapy Programme.

Jon is a Senior Fellow of the Higer Education Academy and a Fellow of the NHS Improvement Faculty.

• MSc in Health Sciences - UEA, Norwich
• Post graduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice - UEA, Norwich
• Graduate Diploma in Physiotherapy – Oswestry & N. Staffs School of Physiotherapy

After leaving school Jon worked for local companies LSR and Anglian Water for 6 years before training to become a physiotherapist. Following qualification Jon was employed on an NHS physiotherapist rotation scheme gaining experience in a variety of healthcare settings across the Norwich area.

His first senior post was a musculoskeletal rotation between out-patients, orthopaedics and rheumatology at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital Trust (NNUH). After 3 years in this role he took a Senior I position in Orthopaedics at the NNUH, working predominantly on the trauma wards.

During this time Jon gained part time experience working for Norwich Rugby Football Club, covering games and running mid-week clinics. In 1998 following the creation of the Football Association Academy system for youth football, Jon joined Norwich City as their Academy Physiotherapist. This role involved looking after the health and well-being of around 120 elite young footballers between the ages of 9 and 16.

In 2001 Jon joined BUPA Hospital Norwich as Physiotherapy Manager and subsequently became Paramedical Services Manager with line-management responsibility for diagnostic imaging, pathology, pharmacy and health screening, in addition to physiotherapy.

Jon joined the UEA as a lecturer in 2005, where he has been ever since. He teaches across the school of Health Sciences, predominantly on the physiotherapy and occupational therapy programmes. He has held a range of academic posts relating to teaching and scholarship. Jon has a special interest in quality improvement and became a Fellow of the NHS Improvement Faculty in 2010 after co-designing a programme of teaching of quality improvement that was rolled out across the School of Health Sciences.

In 2013 Jon became a member of the clinical board of Ipswich based company IPRS on a consultancy basis.

Jon has maintained close ties with Norwich City Football Club developing football-related research partnerships with MSc students. This type of community based research project has also extended to local gymnastics clubs and to the development of the first audit of injuries conducted within motorcycle speedway at the Kings Lynn All Stars. 

Along with students from the MSc programme in Physiotherapy Jon has been working with Norwich City F.C for a number of years on a range of research projects. These cover topics such as:

• Hydration, fatigue and injury in elite youth football.
• Growth, maturation and injury.
• Ankle injury risk factors and patterns within elite youth football.
• Mental toughness and its impact on injury reporting amongst elite youth footballers
• Somatotype grading and its link with the incidence of injury in elite youth football. 
• Biobanding and injury prevention.
• Return to training tests for elite youth football.

Jon is a physiotherapist by profession and has worked clinically in the field of musculoskeletal and sports injuries for many years within the Norwich area. Prior to moving into education Jon worked in the NHS, independent healthcare and in professional sport. Although he teaches across a number of areas and programmes, Jon’s main clinical interest lies in sports injuries. He also has a passion for all aspects of professional development, change management and service improvement.  

Jon is a family man, married to a physiotherapist with 2 children. He is a passionate Norfolk man with a strong belief in the importance of the local community, and has worked as a governor of a local primary school in Norfolk.