• 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.
  • A mixed-methods evaluation of parental advocacy in Wales

    Child protection processes can be overwhelming for many families, often leaving parents feeling like they have no say in decisions about their children. Achieving the outcome that children’s social care services were designed for – keeping children safe – is easiest when parents and social workers collaborate in a spirit of mutual trust and understanding.… Read More
  • PROUD – Blog

    After an early start to make our way over to Swansea City Stadium (and some tense moments waiting for the go-ahead to start helping ourselves to the tea and coffee…) the team set up our CASCADE stand and got chatting to faces both new and familiar.  We said hello to lots of the young people… Read More
  • Teaching future Social Workers with the CASCADE Parents Group

    The aim was to provide students with insights into the lived experience of parents working with social services. The session sought to develop their future professional practice through building their empathy. “The parents’ involvement has been invaluable. Their stories and insights offer students a perspective they can’t get from textbooks. It’s a privilege to have… Read More
  • group picture of parent's with lived-experience
    CASCADE 10 Year celebration – Parents Group

    The event featured rounds of short talks on past, current and future research and a specially created video documenting the history and aims of CASCADE. Which included members of our Public Involvement Board and Parents Group speaking about their impact. Dawn Boden from Health Care Research Wales, Wendy Larner the Vice Chancellor of Cardiff University,… Read More
  • 10 Years of CASCADE Voices

    Written by Rachael Vaughan This year is not only the 10-year anniversary of CASCADE the research center, but it is also the 10 year anniversary of the CASCADE Voices Care Experienced Young People’s Research Advisory Group. In fact, I am reliably informed (by those who were there) that the young people’s group was set up… Read More
  • CASCADE – 10 years of Public Involvement

    Written by Rachael Vaughan  The involvement of those with lived experience has always been at the core of CASCADE’s values. Even before its inception in 2014, CASCADE worked in partnership with the care experienced young people at Voices From Care Cymru. As such they are part of the center’s foundations. However, since then, both CASCADE… Read More
  • Learning from parents about ethnic and religious inequality in social services

    Written by Elaine Speyer  As part of a research project looking at ethnic and religious inequality within child and family social services, we have been working with a group of parents, supported by EYST.  The group has been set up to advise on the research project, so that it is relevant, and brings real benefits… Read More
  • Building CASCADE: from concept to impact 

    Written by Professor Sally Holland  It feels like the blink of an eye since we launched CASCADE in May 2014 and quite a few people have asked me how on earth CASCADE got started. Do you just declare a research centre exists? Is there an application process? Did someone ask you to do it?  The… Read More
  • Advice, support and challenge: Co-production in the Evaluation of the Welsh Basic Income Pilot for Care Leavers 

    Written by Professor Sally Holland  CASCADE is leading a large and complex evaluation of an exciting pilot in Wales. This pilot involves over 600 care leavers aged 18 in Wales. They are being paid a basic income that is the equivalent to the living wage for two years between the ages of 18 and 20.… Read More