Julie Ridley
Biographic Data
| ID | 3677374 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Julie Ridley |
| GIVEN NAMES | Julie |
| FAMILY NAME | Ridley |
| SIGNATURE | RIDLEY J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Lancashire |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 113 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
‘We are the eyes and ears of the community’
Social prescribing, or connecting people to valued community assets, is a key component of the UK’s health system. However, social prescribing research has inconsistent aims and outcomes, and there is limited data on the views of social prescribing professionals (‘link workers’) themselves. As part of a new model of Community-Enhanced Social Prescribing, this paper presents a co-created reflective case study developed by social prescribing link w…
Understanding the impact on children's citizenship of participating in community-based action research
This paper explores the lived experience of citizenship of working-class girls from a marginalised ex-mining town in northern England engaged as community researchers in participatory action research. The research aimed to better understand the relationships within their local community. Qualitative methods were used to examine the girls’ experience of the research and its impact on their sense of community, which is discussed using the lens of ‘…
Realising the right to equal recognition for disabled people
Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) asserts the right to equal recognition and non-discrimination before the law. It places an obligation on countries to enable people to access support to exercise this right. This is viewed as a shift from ‘substituted decision-making’ to ‘supported decision-making’, with various models emerging. This article considers the right to equal recognition in …
Epistemic struggles
Advocacy for people using health and social care services is widely promoted but its theoretical foundation is under-developed and its impact poorly conceptualised. This paper explores the liberatory potential of independent advocacy, using Fricker's concept of 'epistemic injustice' as a framework. People experiencing mental distress are particularly vulnerable to epistemic injustices as a consequence of deeply embedded social stigma resulting in…
Independent Advocacy for Children and Young People
This article draws on a study of the outcomes and impact of independent advocacy for children and young people to explore how the value of advocacy is understood by them and by professionals, and what differences advocacy can make to the lives of children and young people. Findings indicate that outcomes of advocacy can be significant and wide‐ranging, including both direct effects on the child or young person and wider impact on services. This h…
Is Personalization the Right Plan at the Wrong Time? Re‐thinking Cash‐for‐Care in an Age of Austerity
As personalization has dominated the policy agenda for reform in social care, its roll‐out as a mainstream option has coincided with global programmes of austerity which have targeted services for disabled people. Was this simply bad timing or was its implementation always part of the agenda for reform? Whilst the principle of cash‐for‐care schemes drew strongly on promoting the independence and autonomy of disabled people, early incarnations of …
Rethinking place and the social work office in the delivery of children's social work services
Limited attention has been given to the concept of place in social work research and practice. This paper draws on the national evaluation of social work practices (SWPs) in England undertaken between 2009 and 2012. SWPs were pilot organisations providing independent social work services for children in out-of-home care in five sites. One factor distinguishing some of these pilots was their attention to place. The evaluation employed a mixed meth…
Embarking on self-directed support in Scotland
This article presents findings from a focused scoping review of the published literature on self-directed support (SDS), the term adopted by the Scottish Government to refer to its policy to improve social care outcomes and choices for people using publicly funded services and to distinguish it from personalisation, the term more commonly used in England, and from consumer-directed-care and cash for counselling. The review was undertaken to infor…
When you haven't got much of a voice’
Advocacy serves to promote the voice of service users, represent their interests and enable participation in decision-making. Given the context of increasing numbers of people detained under the Mental Health Act and heightened awareness of the potential for neglect and abuse in human services, statutory advocacy is an important safeguard supporting human rights and democratising the social relationships of care. This article reports findings fro…
Self-Directed Support
Housing support and personalisation
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of housing and housing support services in working with systems of self-directed support (SDS). The paper draws upon findings from an evaluation and follow up study of three SDS Test Sites in Scotland and wider research. Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation of the SDS Test Sites took place in 2009-2011 with a follow up study in 2011-2012. Methods included a literature review; an …
Investing in the relationship
Providing more consistent and continuous relationships for looked‐after children and care leavers is a current preoccupation in social work in light of many criticisms of the quality of such relationships. Recommendations for more direct work have spurred new models of service delivery in children's services aimed at improving individual outcomes. Independent S ocial W ork P ractices ( SWP s), a new organizational model piloted in some areas of E…
Independent Children’s Social Work Practice Pilots
Objectives: To investigate whether a new model that delegates some out-of-home care services from the public to the private and not-for-profit sectors in England enhances practitioners’ job control and stress levels. Methods: A 3-year longitudinal matched-control evaluation examined changes in Karasek demand-control model and Maslach burnout levels of 2,050 staff working in five social work practice (SWP) pilots, their host local authorities and …
Subjective experiences of compulsory treatment from a qualitative study of early implementation of the Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
Compulsory psychiatric treatment is highly contested, and little research has focused specifically on direct experiences. The Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act, 2003 introduced new roles and provisions including community treatment orders, and was designed to increase participation, ensure treatment was beneficial and was the 'least restrictive' alternative. This article draws on findings from semi-structured interviews with 49 indi…
Foster carers and family contact
Foster carers have an important role to play in maximising the quality of any contact between children and their parents and monitoring its effects on the child. This article explores how a sample of foster carers view family contact and the professional support they receive concerning their role in this activity. It draws on a large-scale survey (N = 1405) of English foster carers conducted in 2011 as part of the Social Work Practices evaluation…
Turning away from the public sector in children's out-of-home care
Themes, Issues and Dilemmas
When self‐directed support meets adult support and protection
Purpose This paper aims to explore the possible connections between self‐directed support and adult support and protection, both of which are important policy developments in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on findings from the national evaluation of the test sites or pilots of self‐directed support in Scotland and interviews at two time points with adult protection leads in the test sites. These interview data are set in t…
Matching, Ethnicity and Identity
Ethnicity and adoption have taken centre stage in the Coalition Government's focus on child care social policy in the UK. The current political perspective is one of promoting the placement of children of minority ethnic heritage with white families, in order to avoid delay in adoption where no families of a similar ethnic heritage are available. John Wainwright and Julie Ridley reflect on the contemporary debate by discussing the findings from a…
Disclosing disability in the context of professional regulation
In the UK, the ‘fitness to practice’ criteria that allow regulatory bodies to use health standards to restrict entry to the human professions have resulted in some disabled people being excluded from this workforce. Disclosure of disability is therefore a risky process for those aiming to practice or train in nursing, social work and teaching. This research, commissioned to inform the Disability Rights Commission's Formal Investigation into fitne…
Partners in care
Carers are seen as legitimate stakeholders in wider policy processes and increasingly as 'co-producers' and key providers of care. Mental health carers, however, especially those caring for relatives subject to compulsory care and treatment, often feel overlooked and marginalised, caring in complex circumstances with little or no professional support. The Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (MHCT Act) implemented in 2005 aspired …
Direct What? The Untapped Potential of Direct Payments to Mental Health Service Users
This article describes research carried out for the Central Research Unit of the Scottish Executive about Direct Payments to mental health service users including people with dementia. Previous research had found that Direct Payments were not often, if at all, offered to mental health service users. Using focus groups, interviews and a telephone survey, Scottish Health Feedback explored the extent of implementation of Direct Payments across Scotl…
Epistemic struggles
Advocacy for people using health and social care services is widely promoted but its theoretical foundation is under-developed and its impact poorly conceptualised. This paper explores the liberatory potential of independent advocacy, using Fricker's concept of 'epistemic injustice' as a framework. People experiencing mental distress are particularly vulnerable to epistemic injustices as a consequence of deeply embedded social stigma resulting in…
Disclosing disability in the context of professional regulation
In the UK, the ‘fitness to practice’ criteria that allow regulatory bodies to use health standards to restrict entry to the human professions have resulted in some disabled people being excluded from this workforce. Disclosure of disability is therefore a risky process for those aiming to practice or train in nursing, social work and teaching. This research, commissioned to inform the Disability Rights Commission's Formal Investigation into fitne…
Embarking on self-directed support in Scotland
This article presents findings from a focused scoping review of the published literature on self-directed support (SDS), the term adopted by the Scottish Government to refer to its policy to improve social care outcomes and choices for people using publicly funded services and to distinguish it from personalisation, the term more commonly used in England, and from consumer-directed-care and cash for counselling. The review was undertaken to infor…
When you haven't got much of a voice’
Advocacy serves to promote the voice of service users, represent their interests and enable participation in decision-making. Given the context of increasing numbers of people detained under the Mental Health Act and heightened awareness of the potential for neglect and abuse in human services, statutory advocacy is an important safeguard supporting human rights and democratising the social relationships of care. This article reports findings fro…
Investing in the relationship
Providing more consistent and continuous relationships for looked‐after children and care leavers is a current preoccupation in social work in light of many criticisms of the quality of such relationships. Recommendations for more direct work have spurred new models of service delivery in children's services aimed at improving individual outcomes. Independent S ocial W ork P ractices ( SWP s), a new organizational model piloted in some areas of E…
Matching, Ethnicity and Identity
Ethnicity and adoption have taken centre stage in the Coalition Government's focus on child care social policy in the UK. The current political perspective is one of promoting the placement of children of minority ethnic heritage with white families, in order to avoid delay in adoption where no families of a similar ethnic heritage are available. John Wainwright and Julie Ridley reflect on the contemporary debate by discussing the findings from a…
Foster carers and family contact
Foster carers have an important role to play in maximising the quality of any contact between children and their parents and monitoring its effects on the child. This article explores how a sample of foster carers view family contact and the professional support they receive concerning their role in this activity. It draws on a large-scale survey (N = 1405) of English foster carers conducted in 2011 as part of the Social Work Practices evaluation…
Rethinking place and the social work office in the delivery of children's social work services
Limited attention has been given to the concept of place in social work research and practice. This paper draws on the national evaluation of social work practices (SWPs) in England undertaken between 2009 and 2012. SWPs were pilot organisations providing independent social work services for children in out-of-home care in five sites. One factor distinguishing some of these pilots was their attention to place. The evaluation employed a mixed meth…
Turning away from the public sector in children's out-of-home care
Partners in care
Carers are seen as legitimate stakeholders in wider policy processes and increasingly as 'co-producers' and key providers of care. Mental health carers, however, especially those caring for relatives subject to compulsory care and treatment, often feel overlooked and marginalised, caring in complex circumstances with little or no professional support. The Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (MHCT Act) implemented in 2005 aspired …
Subjective experiences of compulsory treatment from a qualitative study of early implementation of the Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
Compulsory psychiatric treatment is highly contested, and little research has focused specifically on direct experiences. The Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act, 2003 introduced new roles and provisions including community treatment orders, and was designed to increase participation, ensure treatment was beneficial and was the 'least restrictive' alternative. This article draws on findings from semi-structured interviews with 49 indi…
Direct What? The Untapped Potential of Direct Payments to Mental Health Service Users
This article describes research carried out for the Central Research Unit of the Scottish Executive about Direct Payments to mental health service users including people with dementia. Previous research had found that Direct Payments were not often, if at all, offered to mental health service users. Using focus groups, interviews and a telephone survey, Scottish Health Feedback explored the extent of implementation of Direct Payments across Scotl…
Is Personalization the Right Plan at the Wrong Time? Re‐thinking Cash‐for‐Care in an Age of Austerity
As personalization has dominated the policy agenda for reform in social care, its roll‐out as a mainstream option has coincided with global programmes of austerity which have targeted services for disabled people. Was this simply bad timing or was its implementation always part of the agenda for reform? Whilst the principle of cash‐for‐care schemes drew strongly on promoting the independence and autonomy of disabled people, early incarnations of …
Independent Children’s Social Work Practice Pilots
Objectives: To investigate whether a new model that delegates some out-of-home care services from the public to the private and not-for-profit sectors in England enhances practitioners’ job control and stress levels. Methods: A 3-year longitudinal matched-control evaluation examined changes in Karasek demand-control model and Maslach burnout levels of 2,050 staff working in five social work practice (SWP) pilots, their host local authorities and …
Realising the right to equal recognition for disabled people
Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) asserts the right to equal recognition and non-discrimination before the law. It places an obligation on countries to enable people to access support to exercise this right. This is viewed as a shift from ‘substituted decision-making’ to ‘supported decision-making’, with various models emerging. This article considers the right to equal recognition in …
Housing support and personalisation
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of housing and housing support services in working with systems of self-directed support (SDS). The paper draws upon findings from an evaluation and follow up study of three SDS Test Sites in Scotland and wider research. Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation of the SDS Test Sites took place in 2009-2011 with a follow up study in 2011-2012. Methods included a literature review; an …
Themes, Issues and Dilemmas
When self‐directed support meets adult support and protection
Purpose This paper aims to explore the possible connections between self‐directed support and adult support and protection, both of which are important policy developments in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on findings from the national evaluation of the test sites or pilots of self‐directed support in Scotland and interviews at two time points with adult protection leads in the test sites. These interview data are set in t…
Direct What? The Untapped Potential of Direct Payments to Mental Health Service Users
This article describes research carried out for the Central Research Unit of the Scottish Executive about Direct Payments to mental health service users including people with dementia. Previous research had found that Direct Payments were not often, if at all, offered to mental health service users. Using focus groups, interviews and a telephone survey, Scottish Health Feedback explored the extent of implementation of Direct Payments across Scotl…
Partners in care
Carers are seen as legitimate stakeholders in wider policy processes and increasingly as 'co-producers' and key providers of care. Mental health carers, however, especially those caring for relatives subject to compulsory care and treatment, often feel overlooked and marginalised, caring in complex circumstances with little or no professional support. The Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (MHCT Act) implemented in 2005 aspired …
Disclosing disability in the context of professional regulation
In the UK, the ‘fitness to practice’ criteria that allow regulatory bodies to use health standards to restrict entry to the human professions have resulted in some disabled people being excluded from this workforce. Disclosure of disability is therefore a risky process for those aiming to practice or train in nursing, social work and teaching. This research, commissioned to inform the Disability Rights Commission's Formal Investigation into fitne…
When self‐directed support meets adult support and protection
Purpose This paper aims to explore the possible connections between self‐directed support and adult support and protection, both of which are important policy developments in Scotland. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on findings from the national evaluation of the test sites or pilots of self‐directed support in Scotland and interviews at two time points with adult protection leads in the test sites. These interview data are set in t…
Matching, Ethnicity and Identity
Ethnicity and adoption have taken centre stage in the Coalition Government's focus on child care social policy in the UK. The current political perspective is one of promoting the placement of children of minority ethnic heritage with white families, in order to avoid delay in adoption where no families of a similar ethnic heritage are available. John Wainwright and Julie Ridley reflect on the contemporary debate by discussing the findings from a…
Housing support and personalisation
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of housing and housing support services in working with systems of self-directed support (SDS). The paper draws upon findings from an evaluation and follow up study of three SDS Test Sites in Scotland and wider research. Design/methodology/approach – The evaluation of the SDS Test Sites took place in 2009-2011 with a follow up study in 2011-2012. Methods included a literature review; an …
Investing in the relationship
Providing more consistent and continuous relationships for looked‐after children and care leavers is a current preoccupation in social work in light of many criticisms of the quality of such relationships. Recommendations for more direct work have spurred new models of service delivery in children's services aimed at improving individual outcomes. Independent S ocial W ork P ractices ( SWP s), a new organizational model piloted in some areas of E…
Independent Children’s Social Work Practice Pilots
Objectives: To investigate whether a new model that delegates some out-of-home care services from the public to the private and not-for-profit sectors in England enhances practitioners’ job control and stress levels. Methods: A 3-year longitudinal matched-control evaluation examined changes in Karasek demand-control model and Maslach burnout levels of 2,050 staff working in five social work practice (SWP) pilots, their host local authorities and …
Subjective experiences of compulsory treatment from a qualitative study of early implementation of the Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003
Compulsory psychiatric treatment is highly contested, and little research has focused specifically on direct experiences. The Mental Health (Care & Treatment) (Scotland) Act, 2003 introduced new roles and provisions including community treatment orders, and was designed to increase participation, ensure treatment was beneficial and was the 'least restrictive' alternative. This article draws on findings from semi-structured interviews with 49 indi…
Foster carers and family contact
Foster carers have an important role to play in maximising the quality of any contact between children and their parents and monitoring its effects on the child. This article explores how a sample of foster carers view family contact and the professional support they receive concerning their role in this activity. It draws on a large-scale survey (N = 1405) of English foster carers conducted in 2011 as part of the Social Work Practices evaluation…
Turning away from the public sector in children's out-of-home care
Themes, Issues and Dilemmas
Embarking on self-directed support in Scotland
This article presents findings from a focused scoping review of the published literature on self-directed support (SDS), the term adopted by the Scottish Government to refer to its policy to improve social care outcomes and choices for people using publicly funded services and to distinguish it from personalisation, the term more commonly used in England, and from consumer-directed-care and cash for counselling. The review was undertaken to infor…
When you haven't got much of a voice’
Advocacy serves to promote the voice of service users, represent their interests and enable participation in decision-making. Given the context of increasing numbers of people detained under the Mental Health Act and heightened awareness of the potential for neglect and abuse in human services, statutory advocacy is an important safeguard supporting human rights and democratising the social relationships of care. This article reports findings fro…
Self-Directed Support
Rethinking place and the social work office in the delivery of children's social work services
Limited attention has been given to the concept of place in social work research and practice. This paper draws on the national evaluation of social work practices (SWPs) in England undertaken between 2009 and 2012. SWPs were pilot organisations providing independent social work services for children in out-of-home care in five sites. One factor distinguishing some of these pilots was their attention to place. The evaluation employed a mixed meth…
Independent Advocacy for Children and Young People
This article draws on a study of the outcomes and impact of independent advocacy for children and young people to explore how the value of advocacy is understood by them and by professionals, and what differences advocacy can make to the lives of children and young people. Findings indicate that outcomes of advocacy can be significant and wide‐ranging, including both direct effects on the child or young person and wider impact on services. This h…
Is Personalization the Right Plan at the Wrong Time? Re‐thinking Cash‐for‐Care in an Age of Austerity
As personalization has dominated the policy agenda for reform in social care, its roll‐out as a mainstream option has coincided with global programmes of austerity which have targeted services for disabled people. Was this simply bad timing or was its implementation always part of the agenda for reform? Whilst the principle of cash‐for‐care schemes drew strongly on promoting the independence and autonomy of disabled people, early incarnations of …
Epistemic struggles
Advocacy for people using health and social care services is widely promoted but its theoretical foundation is under-developed and its impact poorly conceptualised. This paper explores the liberatory potential of independent advocacy, using Fricker's concept of 'epistemic injustice' as a framework. People experiencing mental distress are particularly vulnerable to epistemic injustices as a consequence of deeply embedded social stigma resulting in…
Realising the right to equal recognition for disabled people
Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) asserts the right to equal recognition and non-discrimination before the law. It places an obligation on countries to enable people to access support to exercise this right. This is viewed as a shift from ‘substituted decision-making’ to ‘supported decision-making’, with various models emerging. This article considers the right to equal recognition in …
Understanding the impact on children's citizenship of participating in community-based action research
This paper explores the lived experience of citizenship of working-class girls from a marginalised ex-mining town in northern England engaged as community researchers in participatory action research. The research aimed to better understand the relationships within their local community. Qualitative methods were used to examine the girls’ experience of the research and its impact on their sense of community, which is discussed using the lens of ‘…
‘We are the eyes and ears of the community’
Social prescribing, or connecting people to valued community assets, is a key component of the UK’s health system. However, social prescribing research has inconsistent aims and outcomes, and there is limited data on the views of social prescribing professionals (‘link workers’) themselves. As part of a new model of Community-Enhanced Social Prescribing, this paper presents a co-created reflective case study developed by social prescribing link w…
Political science (19 works) · Psychology (18 works) · Public relations (13 works) · Medicine (12 works) · Nursing (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Healthcare innovation and challenges (8 works) · Business (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Social Work (7 works)