Role
Helen is a Course Leader on MA Social Work
Teaching:
- Residential Care and Social Pedagogy (Children, young people and families Foundation Degree).
- Social work theories and methods (Social work degree apprenticeship).
- Human Growth and Development (MA year 1).
- Research methods in social work (MA year 2).
Helen also supervises undergraduate and post graduate dissertations.
Career overview
Helen previously lectured in Youth Justice at NTU and in Social Work at the University of Birmingham, commencing her current role in 2023. She completed her doctorate on young people's experiences of living in residential children's homes.
Helen has extensive experience as a social worker in the arenas of Youth Justice, Children and Families and Substance Misuse from 2000, when she qualified as a social worker at the University of Bradford. Helen began her career as a Probation Officer before moving into youth justice and other areas of work.
Helen also provided staff training within local authorities and partner agencies in the area youth and familial substance misuse.
Research areas
Helen previously obtained Master's degrees in Global Citizenship and Human Rights (2013), and Research Methods (2015), both at the University of Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé.
Helen's doctoral research was an ethnographic study of children's residential care, exploring the lived experience of children and young people within these settings. Her work is particularly concerned with the impact of movement and change on young people and the care they receive, drawing upon theories of stigma and belonging. Her wider research interests include children in care, childhood, children's rights and participation, family and youth studies.
Helen is currently involved in evaluating the ‘Breathe Free’ domestic abuse programme for ‘Women’s Health Matters’, a Leeds based charity.
Helen has also written on the issue of parental substance misuse and domestic abuse.
Helen remains a registered Social Worker with Social Work England (SWE), and an active member of BASW (British Association of Social Worker's).
In 2017 Helen was involved in the European Project with the Anne Craft Trust, exploring the implementation of human rights in residential settings for children with disabilities.
Publications
Woods, H.Y (2020). 'Residential care, stigma and relational alienation’, (Doctoral Thesis, University of Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé). Available at: (Accessed November 2024).
Lee, S.J, Woods, H (2024). “Culmulative risk of harm” in Child Protection Handbook, Clawson, R., Warwick, L., and Fyson, R, Fourth Edition. London, Elsevier.