Browse our collection of recent CASCADE updates and news items, providing a variety of materials for researchers, practitioners, and the public.

  • Parents’ Group Publishes Groundbreaking Article in British Journal of Social Work

    We’re excited to share that an article co-written by members of CASCADE’s parents’ group has been published in the British Journal of Social Work. Titled “Critical Reflections on Public Involvement in Research: Involving Involuntary Recipients of Social Services to Improve Research Quality”, the article explores what meaningful involvement looks like when working with parents who have… Read More
  • Health and Care Research funding awards

    Cardiff University researchers have been successful in the latest round of Health and Care Research Wales funding awards. The recipients of Health and Care Research Wales’ personal and project funding awards were announced on 1 April 2025. Personal award funding has been conferred to researchers from across Wales, including five Advancing Researcher awards, two Personal… Read More
  • Hot Chicks review – a powerful tale of exploitation and lost innocence 

    This is a hard hitting play about child criminal exploitation, in which writer Rebecca Jade Hammond has cleverly demonstrated the chilling charms of the groomer and the trap that the children fall into.  The audience is helpless and harrowed as the story unfolds and Ruby and Kyla become pawns under Sadie’s compelling and often brutal rule.
  • Health Care Research Wales fund new Centre to study and improve the use of AI in adult and child social work.

    Stuart Allen, Professor of Informatics and Director of SCALE says: “I am really excited to be able to apply the expertise of the School of Computer Science to improving social care for adults and children. Our initial Welsh Summit on the topic generated many ideas for projects that could make a positive difference and I… Read More
  • Senedd committee cites CASCADE’s Complex Safeguarding Wales Resources

    In a significant move to bolster the fight against child criminal exploitation, a Senedd committee has recommended the use of resources developed by CASCADE, this comes as part of the government’s broader strategy to enhance the safeguarding of vulnerable children across Wales. The recommendation is detailed in the recent report by the Senedd’s Children, Young… Read More
  • Congratulations to our new Professors – Clive Diaz and David Wilkins

    David Wilkins has been with CASCADE and the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University since 2018, where he joined as a Senior Lecturer and progressed to Reader. He has been promoted to Professor of Social Work and we are delighted he is staying with us here in Cardiff. In David’s early years with CASCADE,… Read More
  • CASCADE Researcher Verity Bennett presents at EUROCRIM 2024 on SOCEIS Evaluation

    EUROCRIM 2024 this year is being held at Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest and brings together researchers across Europe to share findings from research projects that contribute to the development of criminology across the globe. The conference is an excellent opportunity for researchers to meet, network and discuss their mutual research interests. Verity Bennett… Read More
  • Stockholm's skyline
    Lorna Stabler Delivers Keynote at Prestigious ISPCAN Social Work Conference in Sweden

    Lorna Stabler, a distinguished researcher at CASCADE, the Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre at Cardiff University, delivered a keynote address at the prestigious International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) Social Work Conference in Uppsala, Sweden today. Her invitation to speak at this global forum underscored her significant contributions… Read More
  • Cardiff University to help set up major new research centre to ensure children in Denmark have the best start in life

    Three Foundations (Novo Nordisk, LEGO and TrygFonden) are investing c. £38 million over 10 years establishing the new interdisciplinary Best Childhoods Centre based at University College Copenhagen with a special focus on younger children. In the centre’s work, research and practice will go hand in hand to strengthen professional efforts to ensure the well-being of… Read More
  • Modern building against the skyline
    Children’s Social Care Research Through the Eyes of Work Experience

    After three years of studying theoretical academic concepts from journal articles and hefty textbooks throughout an undergraduate degree in psychology and sociology, the question of what’s next became apparent. With a passion for the constant accumulation of knowledge, I turned to the world of research. Before committing at least another four years of my life… Read More