Dr Wendy Turner

Senior Lecturer

School of Health, Wellbeing & Social Care

w.turner@open.ac.uk

Biography

Professional biography

Wendy Turner is the Associate Head of School (Curriculum) and joined the Open University at the start of June 2019. Wendy is a registered nurse for Children and Young People and for people with Learning Disabilities, having worked in the NHS for 16 years, mostly within primary care. Working across health, education and social care in supporting children, young people and their families in areas such as youth justice, palliative care, access to services and working towards best outcomes for these families. Wendy went into HE in 2002. Her Master’s was in Youth Justice and her Professional Doctorate explored young people’s health literacy.

In HE, Wendy has developed and written curriculum, teaching materials, assessment and learning tools for under and post graduate programmes in nursing, wellbeing, education, youth work, youth justice and social care for professional and non-professional programmes. She believes in a partnership approach to her work and enjoys working across teams. Wendy believes in tackling social inequalities through education and knowledge and holds on practice-based education and learning as a route to achieve this. Wendy is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research interests

Wendy’s research interest includes health, well-being, education and social care for children and young poeple and those with learning and other disabilities. She has engaged with co-production research with young people in understanding (and tackling) inequalities through exploring health literacy as an issue of social justice. Her most recent research is an Erasmus+ project to tackle Early School Leaving across Europe.