Presenters - Keynote Speakers
Marit Bergum Hansen 17 years and now works at the Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (RBUP) in Oslo, a foundation established in 1998 by the Ministry of Health and Care
Services. RBUP aims to contribute to the
development of clinical multidisciplinary
scientific knowledge on child and adolescent mental health.
Professor Mark Courtney
Executive Director, Partners for Our Children, School of Social Work, University of Washington, USA
Mark E. Courtney is a leading expert on child welfare services in the United States and has conducted extensive research on individual, family, and societal contributors to the well-being of children placed in out-of-home care. Mark holds the Ballmer Chair for Child Wellbeing in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington. He is also Director of Partners for Our Children, a public-private partnership housed at the University of Washington devoted to improving child welfare services. He was the McCormick Tribune Professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and Director of the Chapin Hall Center for Children from 2001 to 2006.
Visit the Partners for Our Children website
Professor Paul Durning
Professor of Education Sciences at the University of Paris X Nanterre and Director of Observatoire National de l’Enfance en Danger (National Observatory of Childhood at Risk), France
Paul Durning is Professor of Education Sciences at the University of Paris X Nanterre and Director of the National Observatory of Childhood at Risk. He is also Executive Director of GIP, a public interest group involved in childhood mistreatment. Previously he has worked for the MIRe (Mission de recherche et d’expérimentation), a department of the Public Health Ministry where he was responsible for the family and child problems, concentrating more particularly on the July 1989 law, regarding child abuse.
Dr Phil Fisher
Research Scientist, Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC), Oregon, USA
Dr Fisher is a research scientist at Oregon Social Learning Center, a non-profit, collaborative, multidisciplinary research centre dedicated to increasing the scientific understanding of social and psychological processes related to healthy development and family functioning.developed and directs the Multi-dimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers (MTFC-P) programme. Much of his research focuses on foster care, the effects of early stress on neural systems, and the prevention of health-risking problems and strengthening of parenting in American Indian communities. Phil is a licensed clinical psychologist. Visit the OSLC website
Helen Jones
Advisor, Department for Children, Schools and Families, England
Helen Jones has a background in social work with children and families including the management of family placement services and policy development and implementation in local government. She is now an advisor within the Department for Children, Schools and Families on policy for looked after children. A major focus has been on the need to improve the environment of care and the quality of looked after children’s day to day experiences for example, through the development of the Healthy Care Programme. Helen has been particularly involved with a range of initiatives and evidence-based programmes to improve outcomes for looked after children including responsibility for developing and managing the Multi-dimensional Treatment Foster Care programme and Multi-systemic
Therapy in England. Most recently Helen has been involved in writing the Care Matters White Paper and is now working on its implementation.
Gerri McAndrew
Chief Executive, The Frank Buttle Trust, England
Gerri qualified as a Social Worker in 1975. She then worked in four Inner London Boroughs as a Practitioner and Assistant Director of Social Services, specialising in children’s services. She was Director of Fostering Network, and joined the Frank Buttle Trust as Chief Executive in 2003. The Trust offers financial support to children and young people in need, and commissions research to influence change in policy and practice in respect of services to children. Gerri is currently a Trustee of End Child Poverty, and Shaftesbury Homes & Arethusa and was previously a Trustee and Chair of the National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations and President of the International Foster Care Organisation. She has been an Adviser on a number of Government groups throughout the UK and, in particular, the Prime Minister’s Adoption Review. Visit the Frank Buttle Trust website
Emily Munro
Research Fellow, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University, England
Emily Munro is Research Fellow at the Centre for Child and Family Research (CCFR), Loughborough University, England. She has undertaken a number of studies funded by the Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families to inform policy and practice and promote positive outcomes for vulnerable children and families.
Emily is a coordinator of the 'Transitions to Adulthood for Young People Leaving Public Care' International Research Group. She is also currently leading research on a prospective study of very young children at high risk of significant harm. She is also project managing an evaluation of the effectiveness of Local Safeguarding Children Boards which is being undertaken in collaboration with the Centre for Research in Social Policy.
Ian Sinclair
Research Professor, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, England
Ian Sinclair took his first degree in philosophy and ancient history.
After that he worked in secondary teaching, probation, social services, counselling and industrial and social research. Ian was appointed Professor of Social Work at University of York in 1989. In 1996 he became co-director of the Social Work Research and Development Unit at the same university. This has now joined with the Social Policy
Research Unit where he is a part-time Research Professor.
Ian’s earlier work was in the fields of
delinquency, adult relationships, and the welfare of old people. He gained his PhD from LSE while working at the Home Office Research Unit. More recently he has published on residential care and foster care for children. His latest study was done with Dr Claire Baker, Jenny Lee and Dr Ian Gibbs and dealt with stability and movement in the care system. His views are also influenced by his wife’s experience as a trained social worker in residential work and her activities in providing lodgings and support to homeless adults and young people.
Professor Mike Stein
Research Professor, Social Policy Research Unit, University of York, England
During the last 25 years Mike has researched the problems and challenges faced by young people leaving care. His current research includes the maltreatment of adolescents. He is a co-ordinator of the International Research Group 'Transitions to Adulthood for Young People Leaving Public Care' and has published extensively in the field. He has been involved in the preparation of best practice and training materials, as well as Guidance for Leaving Care legislation in the UK, and has consulted on the development of leaving care services internationally. Visit the SWRDU website
Professor Harriet Ward
Director, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University, England
Harriet qualified as a Social Worker in 1973. From 1996-1999 she was a senior lecturer at Leicester University. She has undertaken extensive research in the field of assessing need and evaluating outcomes in children’s services and now Professor of Child and Family Research, she is director and co-founder of the Centre for Child and Family Research at Loughborough University. She leads a research programme funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families which explores effective interventions for vulnerable children and young people, and the
resulting outcomes. Harriet's leadership of the Looking After Children programme (1993-2001) has been a highly influential contribution to government policy and practice in the UK and abroad.
Visit the CCFR website
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