Writtle University College and ARU have merged. Writtle’s full range of college, degree, postgraduate and short courses will still be delivered on the Writtle campus. See our guide to finding Writtle information on this site.

Dr Val Reed

Val Reed

Areas of Interest

Education, Health Care

Honorary Award

Honorary Fellow, 1999

Biography

Dr Val Reed is a researcher, academic and eminent figure within the field of Forensic Psychiatric Nursing. After gaining his PhD from the University of Nottingham, he went on to work in a number of senior research roles including Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham and Research Consultant to the Special Hospital Services Authority. He is particularly noted for his work in the development of a new clinical classification and therapeutic instrument - The Behavioural Status Index. His extensive experience has made him well-placed to influence national research policy, and he has served as Scientific Adviser to the Office of the Chief Government Scientist, and as Adviser to the Nursing Research Group at the Department of Health. Val is also a founder of the European Workgroup on Psychiatric Research. He was Visiting Professor at this University and played a significant role in the development of our Faculty of Health and Social Work. He is currently professor of forensic mental health at Sheffield Hallam University.

In 1999 Dr Val Reed was made an Honorary Fellow of the University.



Citation

"The Senate of Anglia Polytechnic University has great pleasure in recommending the award of an Honorary Fellowship of the University to Dr Val Reed for his contributions to scholarship, research and consultancy in the field of forensic psychiatric nursing and to the development of research at Anglia.

For a university such as Anglia a close working partnership with the professions and their practitioners is an essential element in our effectiveness as an institution and we have been fortunate in the quality of these relationships down the years in many subject areas. Dr Val Reed is an outstanding example of University-profession collaboration. His contributions to Anglia have covered several elements. He played a very influential formative role in the Faculty of Health and Social Work and was one of our first Visiting Professors, with a continuing research brief. He is a regular external attendee of the Research Degrees Committee and has, down the years, been a supervisor of a whole cadre of PhD students from the Special Hospital Services Authority (nurses, psychiatrists, social workers and educators) in the fields of forensic and mainstream psychiatric care, whom he registered with Anglia. Invariably his students are immediately recognisable in their submissions by very clear research foci, superb methodological preparations and insightful analyses. Since research supervision is, in part, a serendipitous process, this meticulous approach has rubbed off on his Anglia fellow supervisors to the great benefit of the University. That many of his former students are now taking senior academic positions in British, Asian and Middle Eastern universities is a testament to his effectiveness in developing high quality academics as well as high quality research oriented practitioners.

However, Val Reed is an eminent international figure in forensic psychiatric nursing in his own right. His interests over the years have ranged from clinical problems relating to children and adults with learning disabilities (whilst a Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham and where he obtained his PhD) to the development of an exciting pioneering new clinical classification and therapeutic instrument (The Behavioural Status Index) which has great potential as cross-cultural aid to behavioural diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. Much of the work of his latter years has been as Research Consultant to the Special Hospital Services Authority, closely associated with Rampton Hospital.

He has been influential in national research policy fora as, for instance, Scientific Adviser to the Office of the Chief Government Scientist and also as adviser to the Nursing Research Group at the Department of Health; as a member of the Governing Board of the Institute for Research with Physical and Mental Handicap and numerous others. He is a founder of the European Workgroup on Psychiatric Research, and his international status is not only demonstrated by a vast array of scientific papers, but by Visiting Professorships in Asian universities. He also has close links with Sheffield Hallam, Central Lancashire and Leeds Universities.

May I therefore invite you, Vice Chancellor, in recognition of Val Reed's distinguished scholarly record and his contributions to the research endeavours of the University, to confer on him an Honorary Fellowship of the University.