Professor Emeritus of Social Work, Ulster University, Northern Ireland
Institute for Research in Social Sciences
Vita
Brian Taylor is Emeritus Professor of Social Work. 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. His first degree was in physics (with philosophy) at Bristol University and his PhD in the Department of Epidemiology, Queen’s University Belfast. Brian’s research and teaching interests are in professional judgement, decision making, assessment tools and processes, risk (assessment, communication and management) and use of knowledge to inform practice. He was principal organiser 2010-2022 of the biennial international symposium: Decisions, Assessment, Risk and Evidence in Social Work. Brian has supervised research projects and about 20 PhD students on related topics, including some jointly with colleagues in health care, communication studies, psychology, youth & community work, law and computer sciences. Brian Taylor is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences; an honorary Senior Fellow of the School for Social Care Research at the National Institute for Health Research, London; an honorary Associate Scientist of the Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the University of Potsdam, Germany; 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.
Selected publications
Taylor, B. J., Fluke, J. D., Graham, J. C., Keddell, E., Killick, C., Shlonsky, A., & Whittaker, A. (Eds.). (2023). The SAGE Handbook of Decision Making, Assessment and Risk in Social Work. SAGE Publications Limited.
Alfandari, R., & Taylor, B. J. (2023). Processes of multiprofessional child protection decision making in hospital settings: Systematic narrative review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 24(1), 295-312.
Taylor, B. J. (2021). Risk-managing decision-making: A psycho-social rationality model. The British Journal of Social Work, 51(7), 2819-2838.
Glover, S., Hendron, J., Taylor, B., & Long, M. (2020). Understanding carer resilience in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: A systematic narrative review. Chronic illness, 16(2), 87-103.
Taylor, B., & Whittaker, A. (2018). Professional judgement and decision-making in social work. Journal of Social Work Practice, 32(2), 105-109.