Nicola Jones

I am a registered social worker and Lecturer in the School of Social Work at the University of East Anglia.  As a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, my current teaching focus relates to developing, preparing, delivering and assessing on UEA's Integrated Social Work Degree Apprenticeship programme.   I have a number of leadership roles including Course Director of the Social Work Degree Apprenticeship programme and Disability Liaison Officer. 

Having worked in the community with disabled people and families during the early part of my career, I qualified as a social worker in 2012.  As part of my training, I gained experience working in a private fostering agency and in an NHS Community Mental Health Team.  Following qualification, I completed my 'Assessed and Supported Year in Employment' with associated academic studies at the University of East Anglia and worked in a front-line local authority team supporting disabled adults.  I later moved to a team focusing on working with people with learning difficulties and complex behaviour including mental health problems before securing a PhD studentship at UEA's School of Social Work.  During my doctoral studies, I worked as an Associate Tutor, and following completion of my PhD I worked as a Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University in the School of Education and Social Care before taking up my current role in 2022.

My PhD thesis looked at personalisation in adult social care and explored the impact of personal assistance on relationships between disabled parents and their children.  Key findings from this study are currently being disseminated through publication in journal articles and conference presentations.

My interest in personal assistance stems from experience gained from working alongside colleagues who used this form of support, and developed through further study. I graduated from the University of Leeds with a Master’s Degree in Disability Studies in 2014, studying part time alongside my social work role.  In partial fulfilment of my studies, I completed a small-scale independent research project which explored the complexities of the employer/employee relationship for disabled people who hold a personal budget.  Findings indicated the complexity and challenge of this relationship and highlighted the various ways disabled employers seek to manage it. My PhD research was inspired by what disabled people told me about their experiences of being a parent alongside their role in managing their personal assistants.

I currently teach on the following courses:

Social Sciences and Social Work (BA Year 1)

Becoming a Social Work Apprentice (BA Year 1)

Law, Diversity and Social Work (BA Year 1)

Working with Disabled Adults (BA Year 1)

I have previously taught on the following modules:

Applied Social Work Theories (BA Year 1)

Social Work with Children and Families (BA Year 2)

Research - Evaluating Knowledge and Evidence in Practice (BA Year 2)

Safeguarding in Context with Children and Families (MA Year 1)

Dissertation (MA Year 2)

ASYE (Post graduate CPD module)