Dr William McGovern

Associate Professor

School: Communities and Education

William McGovern is an Associate Professor within the Department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing. He has previously been the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Director of Ethics and also Director of Patient, User and Public Involvment. He is currently the Public Involvement co-lead for the NIHR National Evaluation Team: IDEAS. Will is a widely recognised as a subject expert in the field of Substance Use and Recovery and also an emerging expert on Public Involvement, Engagement, Mental Health and Well Being. He has over 30 year experience as a drug and alcohol practitioner, public involvment lead, researcher, academic and community activist.

Since completing his Doctoral studies in 2017, Will has went on to be awarded an Individual Three Schools (mental health) Career Development Grant (2023) and subsequent continuation Prevention grant award (2026) from the National Institute for Health Research. He has participated in over 40 funded research/consultancy/CPD projects and has led funded research on Serious Violene and Criminal Exploitation, Stigma, Trauma and Domestic Violence and Recovery from co-occuring Mentl Health and Substance related concerns. Will's work is concerned with intervention development, process evaluations and exploring concerns relating to inequality, discrimination and stigma.

Will is committed to promoting public involvement and engagement and bringing policy makers, academics, practitioners, people with lived experience and carers together to learn from the experiences of marginalised communities and to find more creative ways of working together. He has just completed a new Open Access Edited Collection of work on Public Involvement and Community Engagement in Applied Health and Social Care Research. He is in the process of editing another open access collection on Public involvment and Lived Experience in Higher Education Institutions: due for publication December (2026).

Campus Address

M005 Manor House, Coach Lane Campus (West)

Email William

@GovernWilliam

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
A systematic review of qualitative studies exploring how parents affected by intimate partner violence and abuse and their children experience child welfare, health and criminal justice responses, McGovern, W., Smart, D., Alderson, H., Barron, C., Cooling, V., Frost, H., Kaner, E., Hackett, S., McGovern, R. 7 Mar 2026, In: BMC Public Health
Cultivating safe spaces for critical reflection and staff care: Lessons learned through a study exploring lived experiences of child and family social workers, Cavener, J., Lochhead, L., McGovern, W. 1 Feb 2026, In: Child and Family Social Work
Navigating between spaces: faith based stigma among South Asian and Muslin carers of individuals with problematic drug and alcohol use, Sattar, Z., Shrimpton, L., Alderson, H., Sahito, A., McGovern, R., McGovern, W. 12 Jan 2026, In: Global Discourse
A qualitative exploration of the implications of a differential multi-agency understanding and interpretation of Domestic Abuse, Sarma, K., McGovern, W., McGovern, R., Smart, D., Barrett, S., Kaner, E., Cooling, V., Hackett, S., Alderson, H., Thomason, P. 31 Mar 2025, In: Journal of Family Violence
A reply to ‘Perceptions of a UK Bangladeshi community on accessing dementia health and care services within the context of the English National Dementia Strategy’ by Hussain et al, McGovern, W. 4 Dec 2025, In: Global Discourse
Community asset mapping: An ethical, strength-based approach to co-production and inclusion, Hall, K., Shrimpton, L., Alderson, H., Lhussier, M., McGovern, R., Sattar, Z., Watson, P., McGovern, W. 10 Nov 2025, Public Involvement and Community Engagement in Applied Health and Social Care Research, Leeds, Emerald
Community Asset Mapping: Promoting Inclusion and Equity and Countering Stigma in Applied Substance Use Research, McGovern, W., Shrimpton, L., Alderson, H., Hall, K., Lhussier, M., Sattar, Z., Watson, P., McGovern, R. 28 Sep 2025, In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Introduction to PICE Work and Themes Within the Collection, McGovern, W., Lhussier, M., Alderson, H., Bareham , B. 10 Nov 2025, Public Involvement and Community Engagement in Applied Health and Social Care Research, Leeds, Emerald
Public Involvement and Community Engagement in Applied Health and Social Care Research: Critical Perspectives and Innovative practice, McGovern, W., Alderson, H., Bareham, B., Lhussier, M. 1 Dec 2025
Putting the Onus on the Offenders: Implementing Project Cautioning and Relationship Abuse Awareness Raising Workshops for Alleged First-Time Offenders of Domestic Violence and Abuse, Alderson, H., Morgan, S., Roy , J., Armitage, R., McGovern, R., McGovern, W., Shrimpton, L., Hazan, E., Scott, S. 23 Dec 2025, In: Violence Against Women

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Substance Misuse Support for Military Veterans in Newcastle, Graham, P. (Principal Investigator), McGovern, W. (Co Investigator), Newcastle City Council, 02/09/24 - 31/03/25, £25,000.00
Making every community asset count: improving health and reducing inequalities for people experiencing homelessness, Cooper, C. (Principal Investigator), McGovern, W. (Co Investigator), Arts & Humanities Research Council, 01/02/24 - 31/01/27, £1,255,235.00
Half Day CPD event, McGovern, W. (Principal Investigator), Newcastle City Council, 27/11/23 - 27/11/23, £2,744.00
Exploring Non-clinical Drug and Alcohol harm and service access experiences of British South Asian youth, Sattar, Z. (Principal Investigator), McGovern, W. (Co Investigator), Newcastle City Council, 01/04/23 - 31/03/24, £24,211.00
Community Asset Mapping the Mental Health and Drug and Alcohol Services, Organisations and Recovery Groups in the Newcastle Area, McGovern, W. (Principal Investigator), Newcastle City Council, 01/02/23 - 31/01/24, £49,971.00
Building and Evidencing Community Asset Partnerships in Housing and Health to address Health Disparities in North East North Cumbria, Lhussier, M. (Principal Investigator), McGovern, W. (Co Investigator), UK Research and Innovation, 01/11/22 - 31/07/23, £195,356.00

PGR Supervision

Paris Selby-Grace TBC ***JWh 11/09/2025*** Start Date: 01/10/2025

Qualifications

Sociology PhD December 08 2017
Professional Development PGCert September 26 2014
Community Work MA September 01 2004
BA (Hons) July 31 2003
Youth and Community Worker DipYCW 2000
Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2014

Key Publications

Addison, M.; Stockdale, K.; McGovern, R.; McGovern, W.; McKinnon, I.; Crowe, L.; Hogan, L.; and Kaner, E. (2017 submitted) Exploring the intersections between Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and other substance use in a police custody suite setting in the North East of England, Special issue of Drugs, Education, Policy and Practice

Addison M, Stockdale K, McGovern R, McGovern W, McKinnon I, Crowe L, Hogan L, Kaner E. Exploring Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) use and its consequences for police practitioners and substance users in the North East of England. N8 Policing Research Partnership, 2017

James, D. Hall, A. Lombardo, C. and McGovern, W. (2014) "A video feedback intervention for workforce development: exploring staff perspective using longitudinal qualitative methodology" Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities.

McKenna, L., Graham, P., Goss, J., Gallagher. J. Robson, I., McGovern, W. (2012) “Social Impact Assessment of SAFC Foundation of Light’s Wider Family Learning Programme”, Evaluation Report, for the SAFC Foundation of Light (Unpublished)

McGovern, W. (2012) Guide to the toxic trio: Managing multiple parental problems, substance use, mental health and domestic abuse, Community Care Inform.

McGovern, R. and McGovern, W. (2011) Voluntary risk-taking and heavy-end crack cocaine use: An edgework perspective. Health, Risk & Society, 13 (5). pp. 487-500. ISSN 1369-8575.