Dr. Donna Peach

Current positions

Lecturer in Social work

Biography

Donna has enjoyed a rewarding career in social work since 1985 with roles that have included: working therapeutically with children; senior management; CAFCASS, and an expert witness for the family courts. Donna remains optimistic about the future of social work providing we hear the voices of children, families and those who work with them. She joined the University of Salford as a part-time lecturer, in 2013. Since 2015, Donna has also worked as an independent consultant undertaking numerous, investigations, reviews and evaluations for public, private and charitable organisations, including the police and local government.

Donna’s doctoral research explored the experiences of prospective adoptive parents in 21st Century Britain. Donna has acted as the Principal Investigator for several projects including the Rotherham CSE Needs Analysis study, NHS Not Just A Thought…., and evaluations of the Greater Manchester Police CTZN project and Society Inc Mentoring and Befriending Service. Donna has an international presence and has published journal articles, an international encyclopaedia chapter, and published several book chapters on topics including social work skills, child sexual abuse and exploitation, online communities and scholar activism. Donna supervises doctoral candidates who are using a qualitative or mixed-method or pluralistic methodology, in topics with a focus on health, education and communities. Donna’s research interests are situated within a critical social psychology paradigm and include: adoption, childhood sexual abuse and exploitation, parenting, familial relationships, social and familial policy, power relations, feminist theory, social protest, ethics, social media, qualitative methodologies, pluralism, dialogism, and phenomenology.

Areas of research

Adoption, Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, Critical Social Psychology, Phenomenology, Selfhood, Trauma, Social Work