Partnerships
We have well established partnerships with other academic institutions, research centres, local authority children's services departments and other organisations.
We are currently working or have previously worked with colleagues
from many other institutions including: University of York, University
of Kent, Queen's University Belfast, Thomas Coram Research Unit,
University of Dundee, Royal Holloway, Open University, University of
Cardiff and University of Glasgow.
Such partnerships offer significant opportunities for joint learning
and cross fertilisation of ideas and CCFR welcomes the opportunity to
develop these further.
The work of the Centre aims to link research, policy and practice and to bring direct benefits to local authorities and the children and families they serve.
We have links with over 30 local authorities and cooperate with them in both research and development.
The current prospective study of babies involves close collaboration with 10 local authorities across the UK. Click here for more information on this project
We are also working with the 12 local authorities in the North East of England to develop and implement the Cost Calculator for Children's Services in the region. Click here for more information on this project
This is a group for senior managers from the authorities participating in CCFR's research programme, providing a forum at which preliminary results can be identified and their implications explored through open discussion between local authority members and the research team.
The group meet several times a year to receive updates on the research being undertaken and to discus any issues in an informal setting.
If you are a member of our Looked After Children Benchmarking Group, click here to go to our secure website area where you can download documents of interest to the group. If you have anything you wish to add to this area, please contact us
Professor Ward is a member of EUSARF, a group concerned with the advancement of knowledge in the field of residential care, foster care and their alternatives for children and youth with psycho-social problems. EUSARF aims to promote and develop empirical and theoretical research in this area within Europe.
Professor Ward is an honorary research fellow at the University of Quebec’s 'Grave-Ardec' - the work of which investigates the development and victimisation of children.
CCFR has worked with Grave-Ardec on comparisons of the concept of ‘partnership’ in foster care between Canada and England.
Initiative Aides is a research project evaluating an innovative model of collaboration between organizations in the health and social services providing services to children exposed to multiple risk factors. Click here for Initiative Aides website
Professor Ward is also a member of this association which aims to promote cross-national collaboration on outcome evaluation in the area of child and family services. The group exchanges experiences and knowledge through publications, meetings, seminars and international workshops.
Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC) is a non-profit, independent research centre located in Oregon, USA, dedicated to increasing the scientific understanding of social and psychological processes related to healthy development and family functioning.
CCFR and OSLC are collaborating on a project designed to translate our work on the Cost Calculator for Children’s Services for application to child welfare systems in the United States. Funding for this project has been obtained from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), USA.
As part of ongoing research into the transitions to adulthood for young people leaving public care, Professor Harriet Ward and Emily Munro from CCFR along with colleagues from the University of York, Queen’s University Belfast, and University of Washington have established an international forum of experts from a range of disciplines to learn more about the situation in other countries.
Academics from twelve countries across Europe and from Israel, Jordan, Canada and the US are members of the group, which holds regular seminars to exchange research findings. The group has met on several occasions, initially in Brussels in 2003, followed by seminars in Belfast (2005), Budapest (2006), Dublin (2007), Oxford and Germany (2008). They will meet again in Spain in 2009.
Mike Stein and Emily Munro have recently published an international edited book with chapters written by representatives from each country in the seminar group, which explores how different policy agendas and legal frameworks impact on transitions to adulthood from care. For more information or to order a copy, please visit the Jessica Kinglsey Publishers website: www.jkp.com
Find out more about our current 'transitions' research
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