ROBERT ADAMS is Professor at the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Teesside. He is well established as an author having researched and written many books on health and social care, policy, open learning and practice. Robert spent some of his teaching career at the Open Learning Foundation – and here he was also originator, commissioning editor, and contributing writer in teams developing more than 80 open learning packages in health and social work. Robert has a keen interest in the area of complementary health.Robert has extensive knowledge of the publishing process. He is well established as an author with a record of success in the fields of health and social care (specifically health and social services policy, criminal and youth justice and social work). He is also experienced as an editor, and has recently coordinated a team of 31 contributors on Foundations of Health and Social Care. Many of Robert's edited books, such as Social Work Themes, have established themselves as core texts in the majority of courses in the UK at which they were targeted. Robert spent some of his teaching career at the Open Learning Foundation – and here he was also originator, commissioning editor, and contributing writer in teams developing more than 80 open learning packages in health and social work. These were unit-based, comprising workbooks, associated readers, assessment guides, glossaries and audiocassettes. In addition, Robert designed and co-wrote an open learning book entitled Learning Good Practice in Community Care, CCETSW, London (1992). He acted as consultant to the development of a similar Community Care package for the Open College. He was co-writer (1993) of the 5-book package of Open University books for the Advanced MESOL programme for senior managers in the Health and Social Services, leading to the Diploma in Health and Social Services Management, entitled Developing Management Competence, Learning How to Learn, Managing the Selection and Development of Staff, Staff-Employee Relationships and Working in Teams.Robert has a background that spans both health and social care, and both professional and academic fields. He worked for 7 years in the Prison Department, as prison officer, assistant, deputy and acting-governor; before leaving to become director of Barnardo's multi-professional initiative aimed at providing support for families and children in trouble in the community. From 1984, Robert was chair of the social policy and social work area at Humberside College of Higher Education, later Humberside Polytechnic; and from 1990 to 1996 he was a founding staff member of the Open Polytechnic, later Open Learning Foundation, where he became Head of Health and Social Services Educational Development. In 1996 he took up the post of Professor of Human Services Development at the University of Humberside (now University of Lincoln), and worked as a visiting Professor there from 1997 to 2002. From 2002 Robert took up the position of Visiting Professor at University of Teesside, where he is now based.Robert has a keen interest in the area of complementary health, and is well-equipped to commission, and collate, contibuted chapters by writers with expertise in the specialist fields.
