Meet the team
Below are introductions and contact details for the members of the team at Salford. We actively collaborate with a wide range of professionals, stakeholders, and partners across the field, recognising that such collaboration is essential for driving innovation and creating meaningful change in adult social care. Through our podcast and blog, we will highlight and engage with many of these key voices.
Professor Claire Pryor
Claire is the RCN Foundation chair in Adult Social Care Nursing at the University of Salford. Her career has encompassed working as a nursing assistant in care homes, a staff nurse in medical assessment and critical care units, in the community as a junior sister in intermediate care, and as a nurse practitioner for older people in mental health settings. Following her move into education, she has been a lecturer, senior lecturer, assistant professor and now professor. Her focus is on social care nursing, non-medical prescribing, nursing careers and frailty.
Professor Vanessa Heaslip
Vanessa is a Professor of Nursing and Healthcare Equity at the University of Salford. She is an experienced nurse researcher and educator. Her research lies in nursing community groups who experience social exclusion, whose voices are not traditionally heard in the academic and professional discourse and who struggle to access health and other statutory services. Vanessa has been awarded many prizes and awards including: Burdett Hero (2022), International Council of Nursing Global Nurse Leadership Scholar (2021), and Woman of the Year (2019).
Dr Melanie Stephens
Melanie is an Associate Professor in Adult Nursing at the University of Salford. Melanie is a social and health care researcher, who also contributes to the under and postgraduate programmes. She has researched the impact of pressure-redistributing chairs and night time positioning equipment in social care settings. She has also developed interprofessional studies on collaborative learning, virtual wound care clinics and placements in Uganda. More recently, she has led projects on interprofessional student training in Greater Manchester care homes, and nurse-led diabetic foot clinics and self-management education in Uganda.
Dr Siobhán Kelly
Siobhán is a Research Fellow at the University of Salford. Her research interests span several areas related to social care, with a particular focus on supporting marginalised individuals and groups/communities. She has previously worked on a range of projects around ageing, dementia, social participation, social housing, and care homes.
Dr Lorna Chesterton
Lorna is a social scientist and researcher specialising in ageing, dementia and social inequalities. She recognises the value of lived experience in shaping research and works from a person-centred perspective. Her research explores how culture, ethnicity, beliefs and socio-economic factors influence health, agency and access to services. Lorna has also worked on studies around interprofessional education, nursing leadership in digital health and learning disability nursing. She is currently involved in a Delphi study to develop standards for a student nurse placement strategy in social care and also in supporting universities and social care organisations through Action Learning Communities of Practice training.
Ms Caroline Morton
Caroline Morton is Directorate Lead for Social Care Nursing at the University of Salford, Senior Lecturer, and a registered mental health nurse. She has expertise across education and clinical practice, including older adults, prisons, perinatal, and community settings. Her work focuses on strengthening the profile of social care nursing within nursing education, supporting practice learning, and developing partnerships between universities and social care providers. Caroline is passionate about advancing social care nursing as a valued and rewarding career pathway and promoting high-quality learning experiences that prepare students to meet the needs of people accessing care and support. Her recent research projects have focussed on social care nursing workforce development, practice learning, professional identity, and the experiences of people accessing social care services.
Our Wider Team
In addition to the core team at Salford, we are proud to highlight the wider community of colleagues across the University who contribute to innovative, impactful work in the field. Below, you’ll find profiles of the wider team whose projects, partnerships, and leadership continue to strengthen our collective contribution to adult social care at Salford.
- Professor Michelle Cornes
- Michelle leads on homelessness and inclusion health research in the Centre for Applied Health Research (CAHR) and co-leads the Homelessness Research Programme at King’s College London. Current NIHR funded research projects include: A study of the public health impacts of housing-led interventions (Chief Investigator 2023-27); A study of mental capacity and homelessness (Chief Investigator 2024-26); & A study of adult social care in rural and coastal areas (Co-Applicant 2025-2027)
- Dr Adam Spacey
- Dr Kirsty Marshall
- Kirsty is part of a research project led by Prof Carol Atkinson (Manchester Metropolitan University), in collaboration with the University of Liverpool, funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR). The study explores ‘blended roles’- where social care workers take on some duties of community nurses – to better understand how these new ways of working function in practice. Currently, there is limited evidence on their effectiveness and impact.
- Dr Lorraine Henshaw
- Lorraine is a Children & Young People’s Reader. She is currently working on a scoping review centred around understanding the presence of social care nursing in undergraduate nurse education.
- Mr Dan Redfearn
- Dan is an experienced learning disability nurse and social worker whose career spans specialist clinical roles, behavioural support, autism services, and leadership across adult social care.
- Dr Christine Furber
- Christine is an experienced midwifery educator and researcher whose work spans public health, qualitative inquiry, programme leadership, and projects that strengthen education and practice across maternity and wider adult social care.