Research

My research and writing interests are in the development of children placed for foster care and adoption, and I have a special interest in permanence in foster care and the application of attachment theory and resilience to social work and family placement practice.  My goal has been to use developmental theory and research to provide practitioners with models for working with children and their carers in foster care and adoption, but I also continue to have an interest in child protection and the role of the courts. My work has included a focus on the policy, planning and practice contexts for long-term or permanent foster care and how these work alongside permanency planning systems for adoption.  International comparisons are invaluable in this field and they have been possible through links to a range of universities and social work agencies, particularly in Norway and Sweden.

Current and recently completed research projects

Looked after Children and Offending (March 2010 – August 2011)

Report (PDF)
Summary (PDF)

This national project is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and is a partnership between The Adolescent and Children’s Trust (TACT) and the Centre for Research on the Child and Family at the University of East Anglia (UEA). The project has the support of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Youth Justice Board. The multidisciplinary research team at UEA is led by Professor Gillian Schofield and Dr Vicky Scaife, and includes Dr Jane Dodsworth and Nigel Stone. The project researchers are Dr Emma Ward and Laura Biggart.

Aims of the project

The project’s goal is to improve the life chances of looked after children at risk of offending and criminalisation through meeting the following aims.

• To identify risk and protective factors which increase or decrease the likelihood of offending by young people in care.
• To identify resilience factors that can be promoted in looked after children to reduce the likelihood of offending.
• To identify features of the care and justice systems which may increase/reduce the likelihood of the unnecessary criminalisation of looked after children.
• To identify the key transitional/turning points which are opportunities for interventions to divert children from offending.
• To develop an evidence based typology of looked after children and offending.

Methods

The project is undertaking a systematic analysis of available literature, an analysis of nationally collected outcome data and a national survey of practice in local authority LAC and YOT teams. To build on this information the project will focus on four case study local authorities. Within these authorities the research tasks will include conducting interviews with 120 young people, file searches and interdisciplinary focus groups.

Outcomes

The multi-perspective study will contribute to the development of national inter-agency guidance and policy on improving outcomes for looked after children at risk of and involved in offending. 

 

2008- 2010 Planning for Permanence in Foster Care

Research Briefing
Executive Summary
Final Report

The Planning for Permanence in Foster Care project is funded by the Nuffield Foundation. It builds on the findings from the Permanence in Foster Care study funded by the Big Lottery Research Fund (see below) and looks in more depth at a cohort of children and social work practice and planning in six local authorities with different planning models. The aims are:

• To compare how different care planning models in six local authorities currently define and apply the concept of permanence in ‘long-term’ and ‘permanent’ foster care, in particular when planning for children of different ages.
• To investigate social work practice in assessing, planning, linking and matching for long-term and permanent foster care – both those children who are matched with new families and those matched with existing carers.
• To investigate the views and experiences of social workers, foster carers and children of different care planning, linking and matching models.
• To contribute to the development of care planning and social work practice in permanent family placement in foster care, both in local authorities and the independent fostering sector, and to offer comparisons with some of the permanence planning and matching practice that has developed in adoption.

The project will conduct an analysis of care planning profiles and assessment documents and reports. We will also conduct interviews with foster carers and children and young people. In addition, the project will also include an exploration of the role of the independent fostering sector in providing permanent placements in foster care, and the nature of local authority commissioning arrangements. It will report its findings summer 2010.

The project team is
Professor Gillian Schofield (Project lead) - g.schofield@uea.ac.uk
Mary Beek (Senior Research Associate) - m.beek@uea.ac.uk
Emma Ward (Research Associate) - emmalouise.ward@uea.ac.uk
Dr Clive Sellick (IFP project lead) - c.sellick@uea.ac.uk

2008-9 Parenting While Apart – the experiences of birth parents of children in long –term foster care

This project has been funded by the ESRC and is an investigation of a group of parents who are often neglect by research.  Although the role of birth parents is recognised to be a key issue for foster children, the experience of birth parents has received less attention from researchers than the experience of foster carers and foster children.   This is true not only in the UK but also in Scandinavia.  This study is therefore being developed in collaboration with the University of Bergen (Dr Toril Havik and Bente Moldestad) and the University of Gothenburg (Dr Ingrid Hojer).

The study will run from January 2008 - December 2008.  The sample, in three different agencies, will be 25 - 30 birth parents of foster children who were under the age of 10 at placement and who have been in their planned long-term foster family for at least a year. The methodology will combine the use of focus groups and qualitative interviews.  In addition, focus groups of children’s social workers will be set up to discuss the challenges and benefits of working with birth parents of children in long-term foster care.

This international study will complement existing studies of long-term foster care by specifically investigating the experience of birth parents, with the aim of improving the quality of social work practice.

2006-7 Permanence in Foster Care 

This project, funded by the Big Lottery, is a partnership between BAAF (British Association for Adoption and Fostering - the fund holders), the Fostering Network and the University of East Anglia as the research partner.  The project includes mapping and investigating systems for planning and supporting permanence in foster care across all local authorities and Independent Foster Care Providers in England and Wales.  The starting point was a questionnaire survey, followed up by targeted telephone interviews and foster carer focus groups. The research products will be a research review/report for policy makers, managers and practitioners; practice guidance for practitioners; an explanatory booklet for foster carers and a separate booklet for children and young people.

1997- 2006  Growing up in Foster Care

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, this is a longitudinal prospective study (undertaken with Mary Beek) of children placed in foster families with a long-term foster care plan. In Phase 1 (1997-1999) a sample of 53 children (age range 4-11) were identified and base line data was collected (through questionnaires and interviews) regarding the children, the foster and birth families and the social work practice. The children were almost all from backgrounds of abuse and neglect and presented a range of emotional, behavioural and educational difficulties. (findings published in Schofield G, Beek, M, Sargent K with Thoburn J (2000) Growing up in Foster Care London, BAAF )

In Phase 2 (2001-2003) the sample were followed up and although the majority (73%) of placements were stable after 3 years, children’s developmental progress and progress in terms of family relationships were very varied.  Some children were doing well in stable placements, others were doing poorly in stable placements - and others were doing better after moving to new placements. Phase 2  was used to develop a) an attachment theory based understanding of children’s different styles of coping and how this affected their progress b) an attachment theory based model of parenting using Mary Ainsworth’s dimensions associated with secure attachment – availability, sensitivity, acceptance and co-operation – to which was added ‘promoting family membership’,  which is at the heart of permanence c) an understanding of the role of the different contexts of the placement e.g. social work practice in relation to contact. (findings published in Beek M  and Schofield G (2004) Providing a Secure Base in Long-term Foster care London, BAAF and other articles- listed below)

In Phase 3 (2005-7) it has been possible not only to follow up the progress of the  young people in their foster families, but also to investigate adolescence in long-term foster care, with a focus on the routes for leaving care and leaving or not leaving home.   Each case can now be tracked over a nine year period to show the varied pathways, developmentally and in terms of placements and family relationships, which each young person has taken.  The picture that is emerging is not surprisingly of a wide range of outcomes, with some very successful and some very troubled young people and foster families.  Also emerging in some cases is a picture of some very complex interactions between foster family and birth family ties, as young people move into adulthood and reflect back on their lives and build their adult identities.  Leaving care social work practice is evolving and there is variety in the extent to which leaving care workers are able to be  advocates for young people, but also pay due attention to the significant role of foster families. (articles in preparation)

2004 -  2006  Attachment for Foster Care and Adoption

Funded primarily by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, with support from the Gulbenkian Foundation, this project was designed to build on both our foster care research and the wealth of attachment theory and research literature in developmental psychology. This collaborative research dissemination and practice development project was a partnership between Gillian Schofield  and Mary Beek (UEA), John Simmonds and Julia Feast (BAAF), Dr Miriam Steele (formerly University College London, the Anna Freud Centre – now at the New School for Social Research, New York) and Jeanne Kaniuk (Coram Family). The goal was to develop a core text (Schofield G and Beek M (2006) Attachment Handbook for Foster Care and Adoption), video/DVD and training programme (all published by BAAF).  

2000-2003 UEA / LAC Partnership Project

For this large scale study of 24 local authorities, funded by Eastern Region and East Midlands ADSS, the team included Jonathan Dickens, June Thoburn, Gillian Schofield and Darren Howells.  Using detailed analysis of Department of Education and Science held data on children’s placements and moves and questionnaires, it was possible to identify two groups of children and young people - those children coming into the system and the long-stay children. Analysis of this latter group showed the varied pathways taken though different placements as agencies worked to achieve permanence.

1997-2002 The Experience of Growing up in Foster Care

Pathways from childhood to adulthood. This was a qualitative study of 40 young adults (18-30) who had grown up in long-term foster care, in which I undertook the interviews and analysis.  The study was supported by the School Research Investment Fund.  The contrasting pathways of long-term foster children through to adulthood was very striking for this sample too, with some very stable and successful young people including several who had overcome adversity to become stable and successful partners and parents and several who were university graduates.  In contrast, others had struggled with problems such as alcohol dependency and depression and were still trying to manage the legacy of their childhoods.  This project was published as Part of the Family (2003) BAAF.

2001 Foster Carers’ Perspectives on Permanence

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, this project (conducted with Mary Beek) was a focus group study funded in order to contribute to the debate about the terms of the new Adoption and Children Act in relation to Special Guardianship. It raised some important concerns about the role of local authority support and allowances post-adoption and post-Special Guardianship (findings published as an article by BAAF 2002).

Research supervision

I have supervised a range of Masters level students who have successfully completed research projects. I supervised an experienced practitioner and lecturer who recently submitted a successful doctoral thesis on parenting severely learning disabled young adults. I am currently supervising one doctoral student who is researching looked after children’s participation in decision making and another  who is researching young women’s experience of entry to and exit from prostitution.

[If you are interested in completing a research degree in the areas outlined above, please click here]

Teaching

Social Work Qualifying Programmes
Early Child Development and Child Observation
Child Placement: Providing a Secure Base

Post-qualifying MA in Advanced Social Work
Child Development for Practice
Child Placement

MRes in Social Science Research Methods
Introduction to Social Science Research Methods: Focus Groups