Brian Taylor

Professor Emeritus of Social Work, Ulster University, Northern Ireland

Website Brian Taylor

Vita

Brian Taylor is Emeritus Professor of Social Work at Ulster University in Northern Ireland. Before moving to the University, he spent 10 years as a practitioner and manager, and 12 years in training and organisation development in health and social care. His research and teaching interests are in professional judgement, decision making, assessment, risk and the use of knowledge to inform practice. Brian is principal organiser of the biennial international symposium on Decisions, Assessment, Risk and Evidence in Social Work. He has supervised PhD students and research projects - and has published widely - on these topics including the books: Professional Decision Making and Risk in Social Work and Understanding and Using Research in Social Work. Brian has collaborated with the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin on projects on Risk Communication in Dementia and heuristic models of professional judgement in child protection. He is a Senior Fellow of the National Institute for Health Research (School for Social Care Research), London and a founder member of the Board of the European Social Work Research Association.

Research Interests

Social Scienes

  • Social Work
  • Decision Making

Medicine & Life Sciences

  • Social Work
  • Decision Making
  • Social Workers
  • Systematic Reviews

Selected publications

Taylor, B.J., Alfandari, R. (2023). Processes of multiprofessional child protection decision making in hospital settings: systematic narrative review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 24(1), 295-312.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105432

Taylor, B. J., Alfandari, R., Baginsky, M., Campbell, J., Helm, D., Killick, C., ... & Whittaker, A. (2022). Making Sense of Risk: Social Work at the Boundary between Care and Control. Health, Risk & Society, 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2022.2147904

Taylor, B. J., Horvat, S., Roszak, P. (2022). Is it harmful? A Thomistic perspective on risk science in social welfare. Journal of religion and health, 61(4), 3302-3316. DOI: 10.1007/s10943-021-01452-x

Taylor, B. J., Søbjerg, L. M., Taylor, B. J., Przeperski, J., Horvat, S., Nouman, H., & Harvey, D. (2021). Using risk factor statistics in decision-making: prospects and challenges. European Journal of Social Work, 24(5), 788-801. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2020.1772728

Taylor, B. J. (2021). Risk-managing decision-making: A psycho-social rationality model. The British Journal of Social Work, 51(7), 2819-2838. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa094