Dr Cat Meredith

Graduate Tutor

School: Communities and Education

Cat Meredith Resized Half 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

Email Cat

@felloutofbed

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Developing the Lived Experience Academy, Gibbs, C., Cameron, A., Brandon, T., Douglas, S., Fernyhough, C., Hills-Wilson, C., Lavery, P., Meredith, C., O'Malley, E., Scott, T., Smith, J. 2 Apr 2025, CNTW Research Conference 2025
‘Take care everyone!’ Care ethics at work whilst homeschooling and caring for children during the COVID-19 pandemic, Grimshaw, L., Heslop, K., Mulholland, K., Park, V., Duncan, J., Allan, J., Meredith, C., Warnock, C. 2 Dec 2024, Care and Coronavirus, Leeds, Emerald Publishing
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

Professional Activity

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