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Cat Meredith

Graduate Tutor

Department: Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing

 Cat Meredith ResizedHalf of my time is allocated to teaching across pre and post-qualifying Social Work Programmes, whilst the other half is dedicated to undertaking my PhD, a micro-ethnographic inquiry into the experience of practitioners working at the interface of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and adult safeguarding practice. I was awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2015. I was shortlisted (final 3) in the Northumbria University Student Led Teaching Awards 2016.

I am very passionate about rights-based social work practice with adults. My direct social work practice specialised in working with people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder who presented a high level of risk through self-harming and suicidal behaviours. This work stimulated my interest in the conflict professionals experience between the promotion of autonomy and self-determination and expected statutory responses to unacceptable risk. I have practiced as a Forensic Social Worker, an Approved Mental Health Practitioner, a Best Interests Assessor under the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, a Senior Supervising Practitioner and latterly, a Mental Capacity Act 2005 policy lead.  

A main focus of my teaching and research is how professionals identify, conceptualise and respond to risk, and how decisions are made. I am currently working with my colleague, Carole Southall, to develop Mental Capcity Act training for the children’s social work workforce, and training for independent chairs and authors of Safeguarding Adults Reviews.

Campus Address

Room H201
Coach Lane Campus East


  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Home(pre)schoolers United: The power of peer support during a pandemic: Working parents and grandparents in academia, Grimshaw, L., Meredith, C., Mulholland, K., Heslop, K., Park, V., Allan, J., Duncan, J. 24 Jun 2021, Motherhood and Work
  • Simulation: social work education in a third place, Meredith, C., Heslop, P., Dodds, C. 29 Oct 2021, In: Social Work Education
  • Social Work Theory In Practice, Meredith, C., Heslop, P. 2020
  • Do parents and carers experiencing violent and challenging behaviour from their children fit with a safeguarding model of support?: Messages from a Facebook study, Heslop, P., McAnelly, S., Wilcockson, J., Newbold, Y., Avantaggiato-Quinn, M., Meredith, C. 28 Nov 2019, In: The Journal of Adult Protection
  • Social Work: From Assessment to Intervention, Heslop, P., Meredith, C. Jan 2019
  • BIA Perspectives on the Transition to the Liberty Protection Safeguards, Southall, C., Meredith, C. 24 May 2018, Deprivation of Liberty/ Liberty Protection Safeguards Conference
  • Integrating simulation into the social work curriculum, Heslop, P., Dodds, C., Meredith, C. Nov 2018, In: BMJ Simulation and Technology Enhanced Learning
  • Using simulation-based education to help social work students prepare for practice, Dodds, C., Heslop, P., Meredith, C. 4 Jul 2018, In: Social Work Education
  • How is safeguarding adults performed with people who lack mental capacity due to dementia?, Meredith, C. 5 Jul 2016, 4th Biennial International Symposium on Decisions, Assessment, Risk and Evidence in Social Work

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Deprivation of Liberty Webinar with Alex Ruck Keene 2020
  • Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Deprivation of Liberty/ Liberty Protection Safeguards Conference 2019
  • Oral presentation: From Assessment to Intervention in Social Work 2019
  • Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Joint Social Work Education Conference (JSWEC) 2018 2018
  • Invited talk: NESWA Masterclass Series 2018
  • Invited talk: Social Approaches to Mental Health in an Age of Austerity 2017
  • Oral presentation: Choices, Autonomy and Risk: Developments and Tensions in Adult Safeguarding. 2013

  • Social Studies/Science MA June 01 2001
  • Social Work Diploma June 01 2001
  • English BA (Hons) July 01 1997
  • Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Best Interests Assessor DoLS BIA 2010
  • Post Graduate Certificate in Approved Social Work PGC ASW 2004
  • Post Qualifying Award in Social Work PQ SW 2003
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy FHEA 2015
  • Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice PGHEP 2015


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