The Centre for Public Policy and Management

Applied policy research

The team

The CPPM has a strong multi-disciplinary team with a wide range of interests and expertise in public sector research. The team includes:

Members of the team	Specialist skills	Areas of interest

Professor Paul Spicker (Director of the CPPM)	Social policy and administration	Social exclusion Housing management Health and social care Service delivery Poverty
Professor Justin Greenwood	Political science	European Union Public affairs Interest representation
Dr Peter McLaverty	Sociology	Local government Housing policy
David Gibbons-Wood	Economics	Labour markets Training and skills
Dr Peter Strachan	Management	Environment
Veronica Strachan	Law	Administrative law
Kirsteen Close	Public administration	Local government Local government management and structure Children's services
Lisa Gibbons-Wood	Law	Social work
Linda Strangward	Public policy	Social indicator research Homelessness

The team is further strengthened by the participation of members of the Aberdeen Business School, who offer more skills in law, management and public policy.

About the team

The researchers who have been engaged in recent projects include, in alphabetical order:

Dr Paul Arnell Paul Arnell is a Senior Lecturer in Law specialising in international issues. He is Course Leader for the RGU LLM/MSc course in International Trade, and worked with the CPPM in an Oxfam commissioned project on the effect of international trade on the Scottish economy.

Kirsteen Close. Kirsteen Close is a Lecturer in Public Policy and Management, working on issues of service delivery and public administration. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1989, Kirsteen worked in legal practice for several years, specialising in the area of family law. She joined the Robert Gordon University in 1995 and has published in the areas of local government, child protection and political participation. Her current research interests are in the area of children's services, and she is part of the CPPM team working on issues on child poverty.

Photo: Kirsteen Davidson

Dr Peter McLaverty. Peter McLaverty is a Reader in Public Policy and Management. He has been employed as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Housing Policy, University of York, where he worked on a number of research projects. He has published articles on housing policy and has carried out qualitative and quantitative research. He has also published work on public participation and community empowerment. His work with the CPPM includes research on public engagement, homelessness, and on financial inclusion.

Professor Paul Spicker. Paul Spicker, the Director of the CPPM. holds the Grampian Chair of Public Policy at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He has written widely in the field of social policy, having published ten books, several shorter works and over 50 academic papers. His research has included studies related to benefit delivery systems, the care of old people, psychiatric patients, housing management and local anti-poverty strategy. He has experience of housing and welfare rights work, and has also been a consultant on social welfare in practice, serving a range of agencies at local, national and international levels.

Linda Strangward. Linda Strangward is a Researcher in the CPPM, and the Centre’s Administrator. She obtained her B.A. Hons in Public Policy and Management at RGU in 1995. Her undergraduate project was on the implications of EU structural funds for the UK. Her work for the CPPM includes work on public engagement, social inclusion, poverty and the needs of homeless people.

Dr Peter Strachan. Peter Strachan is a Lecturer in Management. He works on a range of issues in the management of local authorities and the public sector, including Best Value and Quality Management. He has published extensively. His work for the CPPM this year has included homelessness research and work on social inclusion

Veronica Strachan. Veronica is Head of Department in Law and in Economics and Public Policy. She is a qualified solicitor and regularly teaches on Continuing Professional Development courses for legal and other practitioners. She has contributed to a general legal textbook on Scots law, and is co-author of a book on Social Work law in Scotland. Her work with the CPPM includes public consultations on charity law and civil partnership registration.

David Gibbons Wood David Gibbons-Wood is an economist and is Director of the Centre for International Labour Market Studies. He has undertaken numerous studies of social exclusion, labour market issues, skills and training for local agencies, including Aberdeen City Council, Scottish Enterprise Grampian, the Scottish Executive and the Scottish University for Industry.

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