Michelle Simpson, HDRC Research Ambassador
Meet Michelle
My background and where I work in the Council
I am a Senior Practitioner and Social Worker in the Fostering Support Service. This service is part of the Corporate Parenting and Sufficiency department at Coventry City Council.
I am strongly committed to improving social work practice. This means making sure that social work is done right, and improving the systems that affect how both social workers feel about their everyday work, and the outcomes for children and families.
I am also a Co-Chair of the Neurodiversity Workers Support Group and a member of the Disabled Employees Network at the Council. This is a group that supports inclusive workplace practice and helps employers learn more about inclusive working. I am also a member of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England Committee.
My work is influenced by my neurodivergent perspective. Neurodivergence describes how brains function, learn, and process information differently from what is considered "typical". For me and my work, this means thinking deeply, recognising patterns, and thinking critically.
This perspective is what makes me interested in inclusion, ethical practice, and creating environments where difference is understood and supported. I am particularly motivated to use research as a practical way to improve how we work, challenge the way organisations are set up so that they do not harm their workers, and support systems that can last and are based on understanding trauma.
I support the delivery of services to foster carers who care for children in care. This includes supporting them in their work, making sure the children are safe, helping them to stay in the same home as long as possible, and learning across the service.
I bring a lot of experience in helping children and families who have been affected by child sexual abuse, including harmful sexual behaviour (HSB). While this is not the main focus of my job, I use this knowledge to improve how we think about our work, provide guidance and encourage learning across services.
I am particularly interested in the barriers that stop us from doing a good job in this area, and in the major benefits of getting this work right for children's recovery, family relationships, and practitioner confidence.
I also volunteer as a Peer Review Cadre – Subject Matter Expert within the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP), working within the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, led by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC).
This role involves contributing professional insight to peer reviews alongside policing, partner agencies, and voluntary organisations, complementing academic research, and supporting practice-focused review activity. This experience informs my interest in how peer review cadre models could be adapted within social work to strengthen reflective cultures, ethical decision making, and evidence-informed improvement.
The areas that I am interested in researching are closely connected to what is happening on the ground and include:
- Making social work better by treating people ethically, focusing on relationships, and understanding trauma
- The health and happiness of employees, the way the company is organised and how its systems are designed.
- Support for Neurodiversity (various forms of autism and other developmental differences) among social workers and in services for children and families
- Help for children who have been sexually abused or have engaged in harmful sexual behaviour, including support for their recovery
- Using treatments that are evidence-based
- Approaches to safety and recovery that are based in the community
- The role of nature-based activities in improving wellbeing and helping to regulate emotions
- Peer review and learning models as ways for organisations to learn and get better
I am particularly interested in working with academic partners on research that links what happens in social work practice with what happens in policy, and shows how practitioner knowledge can support effective and sustainable social work systems.