Child Protection and Child Well-Being

The department researches child protection practice, particularly focusing on practice-near methodologies to investigate the lived experiences and practice realities. This includes the micro-components of practice, such as what people do and how they do it, and the macro-components, such as the social, cultural, and political pressures and expectations that influence the experience and practice of child protection work.

Projects

2020 - Development of a Child Neglect Measurement Tool

2017 - ongoing: Undocumented Children and their Emotional Health and Wellbeing. Principal Investigator: Sian Natasha Thomas

2017-18: Evaluation of DorsetCC Reinvigorating Social Care, Department for Education Innovation Fund Programme. Co-Investigator: Harry Ferguson.

2015-16: Evaluation of Leeds Innovation Project, Transforming Services and Outcomes for Children and Families Through Restorative Justice, Department for Education (c£440,000) Co-Investigator: Harry Ferguson. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/625222/Leeds_Family_Valued_-_Evaluation_report.pdf

2014-15: Evaluation of child and family social workers well-being, experience and the impact of Continuing Professional Development, Nottinghamshire County Council.

2012-13: Performing child protection: How (and where) social workers relate to children and parents on home visits and in other spaces, ESRC, (£99,900). Principle Investigator: Harry Ferguson.

Achieving for Children’s England Innovation Fund Project: Better by Design (£56,450 [£1.1million project total]). Principle Investigators: Mark Chesterman and Matthew Gibson.

‘Organisations, staff support and the dynamics and quality of social work practice: A qualitative longitudinal study of child protection work’, ESRC Standard Grant, Open Call (£677,000) Principle Investigator: Harry Ferguson, Co-applicant: Tarsem Singh Cooner

Using 360-degree immersive video case studies to improve child protection practices

Staff

Dr Tarsem Singh Cooner

Associate Professor of Social Work
Department of Social Work and Social Care

Tarsem is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Director of Social Work programmes. His recent research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Tarsem has been part of a team working on a project entitled ‘Organisations, staff support and the dynamics and quality of social work practice: A qualitative longitudinal study of child protection work’. As part ...

Telephone
+44(0)121 414 8184
Email
t.s.cooner@bham.ac.uk

Professor Harry Ferguson

Professor of Social Work
Department of Social Work and Social Care

Harry joined the University of Birmingham in 2017 as Professor of Social Work. He teaches and does research into social work and child protection, domestic abuse, fatherhood, mobile and ethnographic research methods and theories of social work. Harry also has a very passionate interest in research into liver disease, supporting patients and promoting organ donation having been kept alive by ...

Email
h.ferguson.3@bham.ac.uk

Matthew Gibson

Lecturer
Department of Social Work and Social Care

Matthew Gibson is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in the School of Social Policy and Society. His research interests relate to emotions and professional practice, and particularly the emotions of pride and shame. He undertook a study on pride and shame in child and family social work and is currently working on the Wellcome Trust funded shame and medicine project; although he has also undertaken ...

Telephone
+44(0)121 415 8028
Email
m.j.gibson.1@bham.ac.uk

Dr Jason Schaub

Associate Professor in Social Work
Department of Social Work and Social Care

Jason is an Associate Professor in Social Work, and Director of PGR for the School of Social Policy and Society. His teaching and research examine gender and sexuality, leadership in social work, and children and families social work. He is co-chair of the UK regional network for International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR) and previously chair of Sexuality in ...

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 5732
Email
j.schaub@bham.ac.uk

Siân Thomas

Lecturer
Department of Social Work and Social Care

Siân is a lecturer in social work, and conducts research in the areas of migration, sexual and gender-based violence, and child welfare and protection. She is deputy director of the Step Up to Social Work programme and a member of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS), a University of Birmingham research centre focused on the study of migration and diversity.

Telephone
+44(0)121 414 5728
Email
s.n.thomas@bham.ac.uk

Publications

Gibson, M. (forthcoming) Pride and shame in child and family social work. Bristol: Policy Press.

White, S., Wastell, D., Walsh, T. and Gibson, M. (forthcoming) Reassessing attachment theory in child welfare. Bristol: Policy Press.

Haunted Futures: the stigma of being a mother living apart from her children following state-ordered court removal. Stigma, Health, and Inequality workshop. Cardiff University. 11th-12th January 2018

Gibson, M. (2017) Social worker or social administrator? Findings from a qualitative case study of a child protection social work team. Child & Family Social Work, 22(3):1187–1196. DOI: 10.1111/cfs.12335

Haunted Futures: ghosts, motherhood and child protection. Institute of Social Futures Breakfast Briefing. October 2017

Haunted Futures: Ghosts, motherhood and child protection. British Sociological Association annual conference. University of Manchester. April 2017

Smithson, R. and Gibson, M. (2017) Less than human: a qualitative study into the experience of parents involved in the child protection system. Child & Family Social Work, 22(2):565-574. DOI: 10.1111/cfs.12270

Churchill, H. and Fawcett, B. (2016) Refocusing on Early Intervention and Family Support’, Social Policy and Society. vol. 15 (02), pp 303-316.

Gibson, M. (2016) Constructing pride, shame, and humiliation as a mechanism of control: a case study of an English local authority child protection service. Children and Youth Services Review, 70:120-128. DOI: DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.09.016

Fawcett, B. (2014) Children and Disability: Constructions, Implications and Change, International Social Work. DOI: 10.1177/0020872813515011

Fawcett, B. and Hanlon, M. (2009) ‘Child Sexual Abuse and Indigenous Communities in Australia: A Case Study of Non-Inclusive Government Intervention, European Journal of Social Work, Vol 12, Issue 1, pp: 87 – 100. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691450802221048

Fawcett, B., Featherstone, B. and Goddard, J. (2004) Contemporary Child Care Policy and Practice, Basingstoke, Palgrave

Courses and Modules

MSc/PGDip/PGCert Advanced Child Protection Studies (distance learning)