Dr Karen Broadhurst

PhD Supervision Interests

PhD completions

Kellie Thompson: Child Protection (The development of integrated services to safeguard children and support families, ESRC CASE studentship) graduated 2009

I am currently supervising the following PhD students:

Peter Denenberg (with Sociology): Child-centred study of foster care

Joy Spiliopoulos (with Educational Research) : Migrant identities

Marjorie Hearton: Adoption (Adoption panels and decision making)

Paula Doherty: Child Protection (Defining significant harm in safeguarding work: analysing decision-making in borderline Cases, ESRC CASE studentship).

Emily Yeend (with Statistics, ESRC sponsored student)

I welcome applications from PhD students in the field of child welfare (see research interests above).

Research Interests

I have undertaken a range of applied research projects that aim to contribute to the international knowledge base that informs policy, legislation and practice in child welfare and child protection. Current work is focused on the intended and unintended consequences of procedure and protocol, practice possibilities post-bureaucracy in child welfare and how technologies might be harnessed to good effect for both service provides and service users. I am particularly interested in strengthening the social science knowledge base for social work practice and the links between academic and practice sites. In 2009, I foundedthe interdisciplinaryChild Welfare Research Unit, within the deparment of Applied Social Science at Lancaster University.

Web address:http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/groups/cwru/index.htm

Research Networks: I am a member of the international network DANASWAC (discourse and narrative approaches in social work and counselling) web-site address:

Current Projects

CAFCASS pre-proceedings pilot: The role of the Children's Guardian in public law pre-proceedings work. Funded by the Child and Family Court Advisory Services, 2011-2012 (Principal Investigator).

Recently completed projects:

1. Academic Lead: National Evaluation of Peer Support Pilot Programme - Children's Workforce Development Council. This evaluation examined the potential and actual impact of peer support for children's services managers tasked to lead change in the context of workforce reform. This 12 months project completed inMarch 2011. Reports available from CWDC web-site.

2. Principal Investigator - Lancashire County Council Children's Services: 'Front-Door Troubles'. This project examined processes of referral and response in children's services and the operation of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). The project team worked alongside the local authority to troubleshoot 'front-door' problems with respect to safety and consistency of thresholds for initial response. In partnership with Lancashire County Council, the project aimed to generate new locally derived solutions to entrenched national/international problems of referral and response in child welfare and protection (completed, 2011). Reports available from project team.

3. Intended and Unintended Consequences of Legal Protocols: the case of the Public Law Outline. Working with Kim Holt (Bradford University), this project focused on the impact of the Public Law Outline, specifically the intended and unintended consequences of the new protocol's likely diversion of a percentage of 'edge of care' cases from care proceedings. The study focused in detail on decision-making in the administrative space, in regard to Human Rights issues (completed 2010). See publications list below.

4. A two year ESRC funded project, with the title:'Error blame and responsibility in child welfare: problematics of governance, an invisible trade' is recently concluded (with Sue White, Principal Investigator, Dave Wastell,Chris Hall, Sue Peckover and Andy Pithouse). There are a number of outputs from this project which focus on issues of regulation, discretion and the introduction and impact of Information Technology in child welfare practice. http://www.publicservices.ac.uk/research/error-blame-and-responsibility-in-child-welfare-problematics-of-governance-in-an-invisible-trade/

5. A 24 months study ofchildren missing from school systems (see publications list below for published reports of this project).This project was undertaken between 2002 and 2004 and was funded by the CYPU (Children and Young Person's Project) http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/faculty/activities/257/ - See publications list below for outputs.

Editorial Work

I am book review editor for the journal Child and Family Social Work.

I am a member of the editorial boards of Child and Family Social Work and Sociological Research Online. I am also a referee for a range of national and international journals and funding bodies.

Current Teaching

I convene and teach courses on the BA and MA Social Work that focus on social work with children, families and young people.I chair the departmental ethics group and take a lead role in service user and carer involvement in the social work degrees. I currently supervise a cohort of 5 PhD students.

• A Review of Cases of Contested Adoption

  01/05/2012 → 30/09/2012
  This is the first detailed study of cases contested by birth parents, where an Adoption Order has been made. The study will report to the Department for Education in September 2012. ... Read more»

• Children missing from education in Blackpool

  01/01/2002 → 31/12/2004
  The first two stages of the study involved desk top research to review policies and practices in tracking missing children within the authority and interviews with children and their carers. The fin ... Read more»

• Judith Masson Seminar: web-cast now available

  20/06/2011
  The web-cast of the recent seminar given by Professor Judith Masson (Bristol University) is now available from the web-pages of the Child Welfare Research Unit. Follow this link: http://www.lancs.ac.u ... Read more»

• NSPCC Guidance featured in leading practice magazines.

  19/01/2011
  New NSPCC guidance: Ten Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them (Lead Author, Dr. Karen Broadhurst) is featured by the following practice magazines: Community Care http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/children ... Read more»

• Interim Evaluation Report is published: National Peer Support Programme

  24/09/2010
  The interim report of the evaluation of the national Peer Support Programme for the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) is now published online at: http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/social-work ... Read more»

• ESRC project graded 'outstanding'

  27/11/2009
  An inter-university, interdisciplinary research project led by Professor Sue White with Karen Broadhurst (Lancaster University), Dave Wastell (Nottingham University), Chris Hall (University of Durham) ... Read more»

• New Horizons in Safeguarding Children

  (Organiser) 23/5/2012
  Activity: Participation in conference
  Read more»

• 2nd European Social Work Research Conference

  (Speaker) 24/1/2012
  Activity: Participation in conference
  Read more»

• Child and Family Court Advisory Service: Annual Conference

  (Keynote/plenary speaker) 12/9/2012
  Activity: Participation in conference
  Read more»

• Leicestershire and Rutland Family Justice Board: Annual conference

  (Keynote/plenary speaker) 5/10/2012
  Activity: Participation in conference
  Read more»

• Role of the Children's Guardian in light of court modernisation programme

  (Speaker) 30/9/2012
  Activity: Invited talk
  Read more»

• Review panel member

  (Reviewer) 1/1/2010
  Activity: Membership of peer review panel or committee
  Read more»

• BASPCAN International Conference

  (Speaker) 16/4/2012 → 18/4/2012
  Activity: Participation in conference
  Read more»

• Families, Relationships, Societies

  (Editorial board member) 1/1/2011 → 1/1/2016
  Activity: Editorial activity
  Read more»

• Child & Family Social Work

  (Editorial board member) 1/1/2008 → 1/1/2013
  Activity: Editorial activity
  Read more»

• Commentary: Family Law Week

  (Contributor) 1/1/2012
  Activity: Media article or participation
  Read more»

• NAGALRO

  (Keynote/plenary speaker) 15/10/2012
  Activity: Participation in conference
  Read more»

• Family Justice Council Annual Debate, Central Hall, Westminster

  (Speaker) 3/12/2012
  Activity: Public lecture/debate/seminar
  Read more»