All our projects concern children, youth and families, justice and care. We foster a culture of support for early career researchers through to more senior members of staff, working in partnership with policy and practice colleagues.
The Centre serves to incubate new ideas as well as progress major programmes of externally funded work. We have enabled multiple doctoral students to successfully complete their doctoral studies and progress to careers in academia, policy and practice.
This project set out to identify opportunities and challenges in involving kinship carers as co-producers of research into kinship care.
September 2022- December 2025
Co-producing research into kinship care: opportunities and challenges
This project will investigate the circumstances, experiences, and perspectives of children, families, and professionals in private law cases involving non-parents.
March 2025 - February 2027
The forgotten 10 percent: private family law cases involving non-parents
By focusing on female defendants in the Magistrates' and Crown Court, who also appear in the family justice system, the COMFT study will link data to advance knowledge about caregiver outcomes for children, when mothers face trial.
January 2025 - December 2026
Child Outcomes for Mothers Facing Trial (COMFT)
The overarching aim of this study is to generate new substantive knowledge about farming families in England and Wales, identify distinct sub-groups regarding farmers, farm households and farm business characteristics, and subsequently identify patterns in policy engagement and health vulnerabilities.
October 2024 - March 2026
Who are our farming families?
This study complements our ESRC-funded data linkage study conducted in partnership with the Centre for Justice Innovation (CJI) investigating whether the impact of FDACs on parental offending differs from non-FDAC care proceedings. This has never been done before in England or internationally.
June 2024 - September 2025
Parental substance misuse, domestic abuse and offending
Building on the work undertaken by the Family Justice Data Partnership, this project will investigate the dynamics of private law cases, including how long they last and how many return to court. It will also consider whether pathways vary by the demographic characteristics of families or where they live.
May 2024 - July 2025
Routes through court: understanding the different journeys of families
We aim to find out how we can improve mental health care for women who have had more than one child removed from their care through the Family Courts. More timely and tailored support will enable more women to manage their mental distress and will reduce the risk of further child removals.
July 2023 - December 2024
Keeping Mothers in Mind
Family drug and alcohol courts (FDACs) are an innovative holistic problem-solving approach to care proceedings. Research has found that by treating the parental problems that led to the care proceedings during the court case, family reunification rates and parental substance misuse cessation rates are higher than in ordinary care proceedings.
October 2022 - September 2025
Investigating the impact of family drug and alcohol courts
The Giving HOPE project aims to minimise the trauma experienced by mothers and babies who are separated close to birth due to safeguarding concerns.
September 2021 -
Giving HOPE Project
During Phase 2 (2020-24) the research team have revisited the cohort children in middle childhood (age 7+) to find out where they are living, their legal status, wellbeing, and what services bolster resilience.
December 2020 - September 2024
Permanently Progressing? Phase Two: Middle Childhood
This project, launched 21st October, 2020, will explore how lives in the Global South are shaped by undernourishment and hunger.
October 2020 - October 2024
Food Security for Equitable Futures