Understanding What Matters: Developing effective participatory methods from the research into what matters to children living in kinship care.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sussex
Department Name: Sch of Education and Social Work
Abstract
Kinship care is the caring arrangement in the family constellation for children who cannot remain with birth parents. My PhD research was the first to solely focus on the views of children living in kinship care in England and the first to combine critical realism with dialogical participation. It evidenced children's views as vital for research, policy, and practice - particularly for kinship care, where family lives involve multiple, multifaceted, ambivalent relationships. Child participation must take a relational, dialogical, and multidisciplinary approach. Through international sharing of expertise across disciplines, the Fellowship will develop new insights for the effective inclusion of child voice(s) in kinship care and other child welfare contexts.
My research and knowledge exchange activities to date have informed academic, policy, practice, and public debate, but have also highlighted three persistent concerns:
- The value of creating space for children to talk about family is insufficiently realised in policy and practice, especially in child welfare contexts shaped by anxieties around vulnerability.
- Child welfare debates about risk and care still lack nuance, and policy and practice must better align to the lived realities of childhood.
- The complexities of childhood are obscured by monological, either/or, thinking.
Through interconnected work strands, my Fellowship will address these concerns by:
Promoting the value of child voice
Collaborating with the British Association of Social Work, I will devise written and video kinship care practice guidance - coproduced by children, and also continue to promote the value of children's views through podcasts, briefings for policymakers, press releases, and practitioner forums.
My thesis will be reshaped into a Policy Press book reaffirming the importance of attending to children's insights given international interest in kinship care and likely reforms to UK policy and practice. The book ensures the legacy and accessibility of the PhD - and other related research - for a wide audience, including practitioners and families.
Two further journal publications will link learning from the PhD and other Fellowship activities. They will explore intersections between childhood studies and social work to enhance child participation in research, policy, and practice.
A research visit to NOVA (OsloMet) and UiT in Norway will connect me with research leaders in innovative methods of child participation and kinship care. Through workshops, presentations, roundtable discussions, and one-to-one meetings, we will share learning across national and disciplinary boundaries and explore potential further collaborations. These activities will enhance my research capabilities and illuminate the critical intersection of research, policy, and practice across contexts.
Promoting nuanced debate on risk and (kinship) care
Increasing my publication record and other outputs whilst gaining international interdisciplinary perspectives on child participation provides a robust foundation for more nuanced conversations about risk by ensuring children's insights - including on the importance of safety - are the starting point. This work will also be driven by interdisciplinary guidance from my mentors. Psychologist Prof Boddy applies a critical family studies lens in her child welfare research and brings expertise in child participation. Prof Gupta is an internationally renowned expert in critical social work.
Challenging monological thinking
The publications, study visit, mentors, and collaborative dissemination activities will continue to build on the PhD's theoretical on the value of dialogical critical realist approaches and further the interrogation of their effectiveness. The learning will also allow the transfer of new thinking for child participation and kinship care policy and practice to research, policy and practice concerned with other family arrangments.
My research and knowledge exchange activities to date have informed academic, policy, practice, and public debate, but have also highlighted three persistent concerns:
- The value of creating space for children to talk about family is insufficiently realised in policy and practice, especially in child welfare contexts shaped by anxieties around vulnerability.
- Child welfare debates about risk and care still lack nuance, and policy and practice must better align to the lived realities of childhood.
- The complexities of childhood are obscured by monological, either/or, thinking.
Through interconnected work strands, my Fellowship will address these concerns by:
Promoting the value of child voice
Collaborating with the British Association of Social Work, I will devise written and video kinship care practice guidance - coproduced by children, and also continue to promote the value of children's views through podcasts, briefings for policymakers, press releases, and practitioner forums.
My thesis will be reshaped into a Policy Press book reaffirming the importance of attending to children's insights given international interest in kinship care and likely reforms to UK policy and practice. The book ensures the legacy and accessibility of the PhD - and other related research - for a wide audience, including practitioners and families.
Two further journal publications will link learning from the PhD and other Fellowship activities. They will explore intersections between childhood studies and social work to enhance child participation in research, policy, and practice.
A research visit to NOVA (OsloMet) and UiT in Norway will connect me with research leaders in innovative methods of child participation and kinship care. Through workshops, presentations, roundtable discussions, and one-to-one meetings, we will share learning across national and disciplinary boundaries and explore potential further collaborations. These activities will enhance my research capabilities and illuminate the critical intersection of research, policy, and practice across contexts.
Promoting nuanced debate on risk and (kinship) care
Increasing my publication record and other outputs whilst gaining international interdisciplinary perspectives on child participation provides a robust foundation for more nuanced conversations about risk by ensuring children's insights - including on the importance of safety - are the starting point. This work will also be driven by interdisciplinary guidance from my mentors. Psychologist Prof Boddy applies a critical family studies lens in her child welfare research and brings expertise in child participation. Prof Gupta is an internationally renowned expert in critical social work.
Challenging monological thinking
The publications, study visit, mentors, and collaborative dissemination activities will continue to build on the PhD's theoretical on the value of dialogical critical realist approaches and further the interrogation of their effectiveness. The learning will also allow the transfer of new thinking for child participation and kinship care policy and practice to research, policy and practice concerned with other family arrangments.
Publications
Daniel Shuttleworth P
(2023)
What matters for child participation - The role of valuation-based dialogical participation for children living in kinship care in England
in Children and Youth Services Review
Shuttleworth P
(2023)
The Future of Children's Care - Critical Perspectives on Children's Services Reform
Shuttleworth P
(2023)
Reinventing the Family in Uncertain Times - Education, Policy and Social Justice
Shuttleworth P
(2023)
Recognition of Family Life by Children Living in Kinship Care Arrangements in England
in The British Journal of Social Work