Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre
We are delighted to celebrate Professor Andy Pithouse, who has recently been awarded an MBE for services to social care and education policy. Andy has made a significant and lasting contribution to social work research, both in Wales and internationally. His work has helped shape how social work is understood, studied and valued, influencing generations… Read More
Research from CASCADE, Cardiff University’s Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre, has been referenced in the Senedd during a discussion on the future of Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs) in Wales. During questions to the Counsel General, Rhys ab Owen MS highlighted the potential benefits of the FDAC approach and referred to evidence… Read More
Imagine you’re 13. You’ve been removed from your home. You’re living with people you didn’t choose, in a place you didn’t pick. Adults you’ve never met are writing reports about you, and a judge you’ve never seen is going to decide who you live with. Will you go home to your parents? Stay with your… Read More
CASCADE researchers Louise Roberts and Samantha Fitz-Symonds have contributed expert insight to a newly published Parliamentary briefing on improving outcomes for children in care. The report, Improving outcomes and support for children in care, was produced by the UK Parliament’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) to support evidence-informed policy development. It brings together… Read More
We’re delighted to announce the launch of Experimental Methods and Children’s Social Care: The Contribution of Randomised Controlled Trials, co-edited by David Westlake from CASCADE, alongside Michael Sanders (School for Government, King’s College London) and Vanessa Hirneis (The Policy Institute, King’s College London). Published in October 2025, this timely and insightful volume brings together leading… Read More
We’re thrilled to share that the CASCADE Parents Research Advisory Group has won the Public Involvement Award at the 2025 Health and Care Research Wales Awards. The awards were announced at the tenth annual Health and Care Research Wales conference, held on 16 October at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. The event brought together researchers, practitioners,… Read More
All of these examples, and many more, exist because of kinship families being an ordinary part of family life, particularly in times of difficulty. Kinship care is much more prevalent than foster care or adoption, but we know less about these families. For example, we don’t really know how many children are in kinship care… Read More
It has been an exciting summer of international collaborations for CASCADE, with trips to China, Italy, Germany and Denmark. Most recently, Professor Donald Forrester and Dr Lorna Stabler travelled to Copenhagen to deliver a summer school for the Centre for Better Childhoods at University College Copenhagen. Centre for Better Childhoods The Centre for Better Childhoods… Read More
When families interact with children’s social services, what separates a good experience from a poor one? And how does the way social workers communicate with families affect their experience? These are questions that matters deeply to thousands of children and families across Wales and beyond – and now, for the first time, those who’ve lived… Read More
When we were invited to Melbourne to share the Best Practice Charter to Support Parents in Leaving Care, we never imagined we’d actually be able to go, let alone receive such a warm welcome once we arrived. Thanks to successful funding from Cardiff University’s H-IAA Follow-on Fund*, our trip became a reality. We were invited and… Read More
