Honour for our Chair of Citizen Participation

Our Chair of Citizen Participation, Professor Peter Beresford OBE, has been awarded an Honorary Degree by Edge Hill University.

Professor Beresford is a leading figure in the arena of citizen participation and involvement, and a leading voice in relation to service-user and carer participation in service design, delivery and evaluation. He has a strong background as both a researcher and also a long-term user of mental health and other services.

During the graduation ceremony, Professor Beresford called on the graduates from health, social care and social work degrees to be advocates for young people and a line of defence for them when needed.

Along with his role at Essex, Professor Beresford is also Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Brunel University, Co-Chair of Shaping Our Lives and a visiting professor at Edge Hill University.

In 2007 he was awarded an OBE and in 2016 he was named on Power 100, a list of Britain's most influential people with a disability or impairment.

After the ceremony, Professor Beresford said: “It was a thrill and an honour to be awarded this Honorary Degree. It’s another sign that work on citizen involvement and participation is being seen as increasingly important both in the UK and internationally. That’s another reason why I am proud to be Essex’s Professor of Citizen Participation, the first such chair in the country.

“In these difficult days of change when every aspect of our lives seems to be subject to increasing uncertainty, including the political system we all live in, I am especially proud that my work on user involvement and participation, key to my role at Essex, has now received formal recognition by the award of an Honorary Doctorate.”