Lindsay Giddings

Professional biography

Lindsay is co-lead of the Social Work Research Group at the OU, an active group that meets bi-monthly and includes people interested in a wide variety of areas of social work research and scholarship.

The main theme that unites Lindsay’s research interests is the social work workforce and issues around resilience, satisfaction at work and stress and burnout. Lindsay's doctoral research focuses on retention within the social work workforce and utilises IPA (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis). Lindsay is seeking to understand how people in stay in children and family’s social work roles for longer than the career average of eight years in the UK.

Lindsay has a keen interest in the climate crisis, and how this intersects with social work. Together with Dr Gillian Ferguson, Lindsay completed a research project in 2023 looking at social work regulation and education and the response to the climate crisis. Developing on this work, they are now completing a further project that considers social work students’ knowledge and understanding of the climate crisis. Gillian and Lindsay have presented on their research to colleagues and will be presenting at conferences in the summer. They also have a journal article in press.

Since moving to work in Higher Education, Lindsay has developed an interest in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) She is interested in how academics develop their identity as education practitioners, as well as how practitioners from professional backgrounds move into the SoTL space. Lindsay is currently involved in an international collaborative writing group, working with international colleagues to develop an understanding of how we can foster sustainable relationships within in-person and online teaching in Higher Education.

Lindsay is currently leading a TEF (Teaching Excellence Fund) funded project related to the education of Practice Educators in England, as well as being involved in a project led by Dr Gillian Ferguson that is seeking to develop post-qualifying learning for social work practitioners in Scotland in the area of child protection.

Lindsay is currently module chair of the new Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work modules K834 and K835. Lindsay is co-chair of the postgraduate social work module K832 (Developing Social Work Practice). 

Previously, Lindsay has worked on production for the social work law module (K271), the social work apprenticeship End Point Assessment module (KXY324), and the rewrite of the level 1 social work and social care module (K123). Lindsay was co-chair of the module team for the level 1 undergraduate social work module K113 (Foundations for Social Work Practice), and part of the module team for the postgraduate social work module K833 (Advancing Social Work Practice). She was an Academic Conduct Officer for a number of years and a member of the specialist Fitness to Practice group.

Lindsay also works as an associate lecturer, teaching on KE322 (Young Lives, Parenting and Families).