PhD success - Section 17 Child in Need: Contemporary practice in an area of deprivation
We are delighted to share the news that CFJ student Jen Cooper, supervised by Professors Judith Harwin and Karen Broadhurst, has passed her PhD with flying colours. She had her viva on Friday (6th December) and was congratulated for “her thoughtful and reflective viva” and “defending her work to a high standard”. She has a tiny number of minor amendments to make.
Jen came to Lancaster on a FASS scholarship to study “rurality” in 2020. She had previously done an LLM in International Law and International Relations at Lancaster and obtained a Merit.
Jen’s topic is of considerable current interest to policy-makers and practitioners alike because of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care which has recommended a major shift to early family support. Section 17 was a key vehicle for family support when introduced into the 1989 Children Act. Jen’s thesis provides an important and sobering insight into the extent to which Section 17 is achieving its objectives in an area where family support is most needed. It is the first recent study of its kind. It explores the perspectives of social workers, families and allied health professionals and identifies both positive and disturbing findings by probing national and local policy documentation, the informal and formal logic used by social workers to determine thresholds for access to s17 and the variations between social workers and allied professionals in their interpretation of children in need. The thesis was carried out during Covid, making it particularly challenging.
Some of Jen’s work is already in print. In December 2021 her article “In need of what? Section 17 Provision under the Children Act 1989. Children & Society, 00, e12519. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12519 was Article of the Month'. Further articles are expected.
Congratulations Jen!