Dr Duncan Helm

Senior Lecturer

Social Work Colin Bell Building, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr Duncan Helm

Contact details

About me

A registered social worker with experience of child welfare and protection work in local authorities and in integrated services. An academic since 2003. my expertise is in child welfare and in assessment and working with risk and uncertainty. I directed undergraduate child protection CPD provision at the University of Dundee before moving to the University of Stirling in 2008 where I was director of the MSc Applied Professional Studies programme until 2019. I am currently the Head of Social Work at the University. My doctoral research was in judgement and decision making and my areas of interest include intuition in judgement, analysis and assessment in professional practice and practice-near research methods. I am happy to consider applications from prospective PhD students.

My doctoral studies are in the field of judgement and decision-making in social work. I have a particular interest in sense-making and analysis in professional practice. I have published books, chapters and journal articles exploring the nature and use of intuition in social work. I have conducted ethnographic research into sense-making in social work offices and I have developed an ecological model of judgement to promote discussion and critical reflection on the subjective nature of professional judgement. I am a member of a number of local, national and international research networks.

Event / Presentation

Ecology of Judgement in Child Welfare and Protection . Ecology of Judgement Seminar

Analysis and Professional Judgement in Child and Family Assessment. BASPCAN Scottish Branch Conference

Testing the application of GIRFEC in child protection practice. BASPCAN Scottish Branch Conference

Sense-making in child and family assessments. Reconstruct Annual Conference

Making the Meaningless Meaningful - Analysis in Assessment. Professional Judgement

Keynote speech. Child Inclusive Practice Annual Forum

Chair. GIRFEC 2013

Analysis in practice: A study of sense-making in a children and families social work team. . WithScotland Webinar December 2014

A webinar presentation of findings from an ethnographic study of judgement in a social work office.

Judgements or Assumptions? The role of analysis in assessing children and young people’s needs. ESRC Seminar ‘Interrogating Harm and Abuse Across the Lifespan’

Analysing and Reporting Children’s Needs and Experiences. Pre-conference workshop - Child Inclusive Practice (Australia)
A day-long workshop developing enhanced skills and knolwedge in analysis of children and young people's needs in assessments.

Judgements or Assumptions?. Making Research Count seminar (York)

Research centres/groups