This talk facilitated by Dr Sadie King was co-produced by all the researchers who worked on the evaluation of the adoption support fund 2015-2017 (Matt Gieve, Anna Hahne, Giorgia Iacopini, Heather Stradling, David Lawlor and the audience. It was presented as a live team reflection on the data and findings from different research subjectivities.
The official evaluation and executive summary can be found here. This reflective space was to explore the topic of looked after children through the lens of the evaluator’s experiences and relationship with the Department for Education and other professionals who supported the evaluation, the parents (596 online survey responses, 792 postal survey, wave 1: 481 wave 2: 20 depth face to face interviews), and professionals in social work and providers of therapeutic services, (175 online survey response, 86 face to face interviews and 43 telephone interviews). This was followed by a discussion to produce more food for thought which will be used to develop a thought piece on research and consultancy in children’s social care services.
The talk is part of a series of three exploring our current work in the looked after children system and speaks back to our 70th Anniversary reflection and our history of research in this field.
