Mandy Dunbar - Academic Staff

Mandy is a Physiotherapist who has worked for UCLan since 2003 with expertise focused on Neurological Physiotherapy, Professional issues and Work Based Learning. In recent years Mandy has worked as Academic Lead for Work Based learning, serving the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, streamlining Quality Assurance processes and implementing systems and initiatives with a focus on work based partnerships and enhancing student experience.

Mandy works with the Work Based Learning Administrative team to enable students to fulfil their potential as members of the future workforce by providing a framework of support for programme teams to realise this potential, whilst working with partners to coordinate high quality placement experience. Mandy works across the region to facilitate shared approaches to student support and assessment across Health & Social Care professions and currently chairs the North West Practice Education Group and represents UCLan within Regional groups implementing complex software solutions to facilitate student experience. Mandy also represents the North West at the Pan England Practice Education Group to ensure a national voice for our North West partners.

Mandy qualified as a Physiotherapist in 1997, with her clinical work focused across the North West. Mandy specialised in Neurological Physiotherapy, with her focus being complex clinical presentation in both rehabilitation and community settings. As the BSc(Hons) Physiotherapy programme at UCLan developed in 2003 Mandy commenced a Lecturer Practitioner role, moving into full time education in 2004. Mandy was involved in the development and delivery of the Foundation Degree in Health & Social Care and Assistant Practitioner programmes as well as Physiotherapy. Mandy worked alongside clinical colleagues at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in the development and implementation of Collaborative Learning in Practice (CLiP) which has subsequently developed across our partner organisations within Nursing and is now being developed across other professions within the region. Mandy works to support all healthcare professions in the development and implementation of Quality Assurance approaches and operational management of work based learning, supporting the development of approaches to support validation across programmes.

Qualifications

Areas of Interest / Expertise

External Affiliations / Memberships

Grants

2007 - Wheelchair Users and carers participation in the urban environment – Awarded £7,856
2014 - Research Internship – ‘An exploration of the relationship between growth and injury rates in elite academy football players’ – Awarded £2000
2014 – Graduate Internship – Graduate Physiotherapist/Sports Therapist – Blackburn Rovers Academy, primarily working in a research role. ‘Exploring the relationship between growth, performance factors and injury in elite academy football players’ - Awarded £3500
2015 – Idea Investment voucher – funded by UCLan and Blackburn Rovers Football and Athletic Ltd – ‘Talent Preservation Project’– Awarded £40,000
2016 – Research Internship – ‘An exploration into the validity and reliability of functional pitch side balance tests in elite academy football.’ – Awarded £2000
2016 – Implementation and evaluation of CLiP® project at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals - £23,500