CFJ and Kinship launch ground-breaking research project

CFJ and Kinship launch ground-breaking research project

The Centre for Family Justice and leading charity Kinship launches a new study yesterday to promote the voices, experiences and expertise of special guardians in shaping the research and policy agenda. Funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Scheme and Department of Education, the project will produce a report and toolkit to guide future participatory research into special guardianship. 

The difference that kinship care and special guardianship can make to children’s lives by providing stable homes is receiving unprecedented attention in policy and practice.

The perspectives and experiences of kinship carers have contributed significantly to this focus and has led to their life-changing role being better recognised at local and national level. What is missing however, is their voices, experiences and expertise in helping formulate the research agenda.

CFJ and Kinship have partnered to address this challenge, coming together to work with special guardians who say they can feel they have ‘research done to them but not with them’ to co-design and deliver a ground-breaking academic research project on increasing participatory research in kinship care.

Led by professor and co-director of the Centre for Child and Family Justice Professor Judith Harwin, the research team will also include Kinship’s CEO Dr Lucy Peake and kinship carers Clare Walsh and Sharon Macpherson, who all have strong academic research credentials.

You can read more about the project here: LU News item