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David CC Carson

Workshops provided by David Carson

This site - under construction - provides information about the workshops I can provide, related publications and research I am under-taking.  The workshops are summarised below but more detailed descriptions can be accessed via the links in the column to the left. 

Positive approaches to professional risk-taking in human services.  


By definition harm will, sometimes, result from risk-taking. However human services professionals - e.g. doctors, nurses, police, prison and probation officers, social workers, teachers and many more - have been discouraged from taking risks through fear not only of the harm to their patients, etc, but also the potential attacks upon their character and damage to their reputation. This one-day workshop identifies a number of practical strategies which these professionals can adopt to make it easier to justify and to improve their decisions. It has been provided, many times, to different professional audiences and much of the content is now included in Carson, D. and Bain, A. (2008) Professional Risk and Working with People: Decision-making in Health, Social Care and Criminal Justice, London: Jessica Kingsley Publications.  

Developing expert witness skills


You may be brilliant at your job but, when it comes to being a witness in court (or other tribunal), you are in other peoples' workplace. You will be questioned by someone who is trained and experienced in asking questions which may undermine your evidence - and reputation. This workshop, which has been provided many times to human service professionals, will give you practical skills in protecting your evidence and enhancing your reputation. The workshop contains several practical sessions to enable you to practice suggestions, including predicting and dealing with questions designed to undermine you, or your evidence. Carson, D. (1990), Professionals and the Courts: A Handbook for Expert Witnesses, Birmingham: Venture Press is, unfortunately, out-of-print. 

Investigations: From fact-finding to proof.


Many disciplines and professions are involved in investigations, not just the police and prosecutors. However there are remarkably few studies which examine the whole process, from identifying what happened, through discovering and assessing the evidence, to proving it - reliably - in a court or other tribunal. Whilst there have been important developments (such as in the forensic sciences, legal psychology and the 'New Evidence Scholarship'). 'silo-thinking' is still extensive. I am working towards providing workshops which will suggest practical steps identifying ways in which facts may be investigated, and evidence presented, so that more rigorous and reliable proof may be demonstrated. 


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