Welcome to the section of the site dedicated to CC Inform's editorial board.
In here you can find out more about the editorial board, its members, its ethos and its role in helping CC Inform meet the information needs of professionals working with children, young people and their families.
The board was set up in the spring of 2008, and is a very important development underpinning CC Inform's commitment to involving the social care community in the development of the service and reflecting its values of integrity; accuracy and collaboration with stakeholders. It is chaired by Terry Philpot, the former editor of Community Care magazine, and meets three times a year.
The board works with the editorial team to support them in realising their vision of providing a new approach to knowledge-informed practice and ensuring that the service provides a tool that effectively helps practitioners in their practice and contributes to better outcomes.
The members are drawn from a wide range of roles across social care, and you will find the biographies of many of the board listed below (we will soon have all biographies on this page).
Terry Philpot (chair)
Sheena Adam, head of knowledge, learning and practice development, Cafcass
Patrick Ayre
Bob Broad, professor of children and families research and director of the children and families research unit, De Montfort University
Alex Chard, director of YCTCS Ltd
Judy Cooper, children's editor, Community Care magazine
Perdeep Gill
Jacqui Jensen, head of service, Integrated Disabled Children's Service, Derby County Council
Hilary Lawson
Bronagh Miskelly, editor of Community Care magazine
Ed Mitchell, general editor of Social Care Law Today and a practising solicitor specialising in social care law
Donna Shkalla, head of management information for children, families and education directorate within strategy, policy and performance division, Kent County Council
Lucy Titheridge
Flo Watson
Patrick AyrePatrick teaches social work and child safeguarding at the University of Bedfordshire where he has worked since 1994. He is a qualified social worker and before joining the university, worked in local authority child care and child protection services for some seventeen years, progressing from social worker to manager of child protection services. He has maintained his interest in child welfare, teaching, researching and writing primarily in this field, though he has a strong interest in social work theory and social work education more generally.
When not teaching at the university, he runs a consultancy business specialising in training, conducting Serious Case Reviews and giving expert evidence in negligence and breach of duty of care claims against local authorities. He is a member of the Society of Expert Witnesses and an Expert Member of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers. He is a regular contributor to Community Care magazine.
“For me, coherence and accessibility are two of the key features of what Community Care Inform offers. The content strategy and close liaison with users ensures that social workers have what they need. It is a well-developed and comprehensive product on the shelf.”
Bob BroadDr Bob Broad is professor of children and families research and director of the children and families research unit, De Montfort University, Leicester. He is also visiting professor at London South Bank University in the Social Policy and Urban Research Institute (SPUR).
Previously he was director of the National Children’s Bureau’s research and evaluation department. A qualified teacher and social worker, earlier he worked in several inner London boroughs as a teacher and probation officer before becoming a lecturer at the London School of Economics and then head of policy, research and training at Rainer. He has managed, undertaken and published a large number of research studies about children looked after, leaving care, foster care, kinship care and grandparenting. He is currently undertaking, or has recently undertaken, research studies and/or reviews for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (children in transition to adulthood), Save the Children Fund (international kinship care), the Fostering Network, The Adolescent and Children’s Trust (TACT) and the Grandparents Association (publication ‘Being a grandparent: research evidence, key themes and policy recommendations’).
Alex ChardAlex Chard is director of YCTCS Ltd, and has worked for the last 17 years as an organisational consultant within children’s services, youth justice and the voluntary sector. He has considerable knowledge and experience gained from working across a broad range of children’s services. He has previously managed youth justice services, fieldwork services for looked-after children, children on the child protection register and children in need.
An area of knowledge and interest is in partnership development, he has been commissioned by a number youth offending team boards to review their role, and he is currently assisting a children’s strategic partnership to review their strategic role. He is an experienced facilitator and also provides bespoke management development programmes and consultancy on team and organisational development.
His recent consultancy work has included assisting both children’s services and youth offending services with preparation for inspection, assisting services with the development of key strategic plans and the development of policies and procedures. He was also commissioned to develop a suite of pan-London protocols covering, YOTs, truancy, exclusion and antisocial behaviour. He is co-author of Defending Young People, a comprehensive guide to the law on young offenders.
He has also developed his practice academically. His MSc in systemic leadership and organisational studies was completed on the impact of inspection on a management team. He is currently studying on the professional doctorate programme at the KCC Foundation, his research and consultancy interest being change and development within the public sector.
“When social workers are making critical conditions that will affect the lives of children and their families it is vital that they have access to up-to-date information on law, best practice and relevant research. Community Care Inform puts that information at their fingertips, just a mouse click away!”
Jucy CooperJudy started her career on a daily newspaper in Australia. Since arriving in the UK in 2000 she has worked on “Doctor” a weekly magazine for GPs, “Independent Nurse” a magazine for advanced primary care nurses and is now children’s editor on Community Care. She has also freelanced for The Independent, The Nursing Times, GP magazine and NHS Careers.
Hilary LawsonHilary is a qualified social worker, counsellor and lecturer of students in higher education.
She worked for 12 years in local authority social work before joining the University of Sussex to teach social work theory and practice, and child and adolescent development, on qualifying social work programmes. She is currently involved in the development of students’ practice learning and convenes post qualifying courses for those social workers, and others in the social care sector, who want to develop skills in facilitating the learning of social work students.
She is involved in the development of the new post-qualification framework in supervision and management for social workers. She has worked as a counsellor and advisor of students. The student experience and systems of student support and welfare at higher education remain an interest and informed her current doctoral research on transition to higher education.
Finally, Hilary has worked with non-traditional learners through the Open University as she enjoys working with adult learners who are new to Higher Education. She has also been very involved in the development and moderating of access courses at local sixth form colleges, again to ensure people who left school early without the requisite means of gaining entry to university have another opportunity later on in their lives.
Publications include “Practice Teaching-Changing Social Work” (2001) and “Learning, Identity and Learning about Identity: the role of connectedness” (2008)
Bronagh MiskellyBronagh Miskelly is the group editor of Community Care. She has previously edited GP newspaper for several years as well as Medeconomics and Enterprise magazines. Bronagh, who started her working life as a community relations youth worker in Belfast, has also worked on both sides of the camera in television production.
Ed MitchellEd is a solicitor specialising in social care law. He is the General Editor of Social Care Law Today (Arden Davies Publishing) and a Consultant Editor to the Mental Health Law Review and the Journal of Social Housing Law. Ed also writes a regular column for New Law Journal on community care and disability law and is a contributor on social care legal matters to various other publications including the Child and Family Law Quarterly and the Journal of Social Welfare Law.
Terry PhilpotTerry Philpot is a journalist and writer and a contributor to a wide range of publications and was formerly editor of Community Care and writes a column for YoungMinds Magazine. He has written and edited more than a dozen books, the most recent of which are (with Anthony Douglas) Adoption: Changing Families, Changing Times (Routledge, 2002); (with Julia Feast) Searching Questions. Identity, Origins and Adoption (BAAF, 2003); (with Clive Sellick and June Thoburn) What Works in Foster Care and Adoption? (Barnardo’s, 2004); and he has co-authored five volumes on work with traumatised children, the latest of which appeared this year. He edited Residential Care: A Positive Future published in 2008. In 2001 BAAF published his report into private fostering, A Very Private Practice. He has also published a report on kinship care and two reports on residential care for older people run by the Catholic Church, the latest of which, The Length of Days: How Can the Church Meet the Challenges of an Ageing Society?, was published in 2007. He is a trustee of the Social Care Institute or Excellence, Circles UK and the Michael Sieff Foundation, having previously been a member of the boards of Rainer and the Centre for Policy on Ageing. He is also a member of the Residential Forum. He has won several awards for journalism. His latest book, Understanding Sexual Abuse: Female Partners of Sex Offenders Tell Their Stories was published by Routledge this year.
Donna Shkalla
Although born in the United Kingdom, Donna spent her former years living and completing her education in Australia. Donna graduated with a bachelor degree in arts (humanities – major in history and gender studies) from Griffith University, Queensland Australia in 1991.
She began working in residential children’s homes in and around Brisbane for four years whilst obtaining her bachelor degree in social work from the University of Queensland in Australia. Post graduation, Donna worked for a community-based organisation which had a primary agenda of empowering women in the community.
In late 1995 Donna moved to London and continued her social work career working for local authorities in London as a social work practitioner and a senior practitioner. In 1999, following extensive work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in London, Donna moved to live and work in Kosovo and the Balkan region as an independent social development consultant.
During this time Donna worked for a variety of organisations including: UNICEF, Save the Children, UMCOR, Hope and Homes for Children, the Kosovon national government, World Bank and CARE International delivering social work training, writing and publishing social work material in local languages, writing policy, legislation and guidance, undertaking project and assessment work, providing social work case consultancy and establishing monitoring and evaluation processes for services and projects.
In late 2003 she returned to the United Kingdom settling in Kent. Donna started working for Kent County Council as a child protection co-ordinator in Kent. From here, Donna moved to be the Project and Social Work Change Manager for the Integrated Children’s System. She is currently Head of Management Information for Children, Families and Education Directorate within Strategy, Policy and Performance Division within Kent County Council.
Lucy TitheridgeI have been working in social care all my adult life in one form or another. I began working as a care assistant in a residential home for older people and I also worked at the local youth club as an assistant youth worker.
I qualified as a social worker in 1996, and worked in a statutory children and families team for a London borough. I later moved to the NSPCC where, alongside a colleague, I developed a project for young women under 18 who were at risk of sexual exploitation in London’s West End. In November 2003, I moved to a small private organisation as practice manager, working with young people who were involved with children’s social services and needed additional support.
In 2004 I moved to the London Borough of Sutton as a locum social worker in the referral and assessment service. In May 2004 I became assistant team manager for the referral and assessment service and in September 2007 I began as acting team manager for the referral and assessment service; this is my current position.
“I would like to see all social workers have access to Community Care inform as it is a valuable resource that enables social workers to acquire knowledge and practice information at a touch of a button. This will raise the confidence of the social workers and enable them to practice more effectively. Social workers acquire knowledge at university about child abuse, social work theories, psychology theories, counselling and understanding how humans and society works etc.
When they come into practice they are often faced with issues that they feel ill prepared to deal with, i.e. their first case of a parent who is fabricating or inducing the illness in their child. University is not able to prepare you for this and it might not be something that you came across on placement. It is essential for a social worker to be able to read something that helps them feel on top of the issues they are dealing with and provides them with insight into how to deal with the case. It gives them confidence when working with the family and helps them reflect on their practice.
In an era where people have got used to being able to look up information at a touch of a button social worker needs to keep up to date and provide this same tool for the workforce, hence Community Care Inform; a website that evolves with the profession and provides essential information to social workers to help them safeguard children.”
Flo Watson
Dr FA Watson has degrees in Sociology, Criminology, Social Work and Social Policy. Her doctoral research examined decision-making about boundaries of information-sharing and risk assessment in social work. She is currently employed as Cafcass’ Research Officer.
Previously she has worked as a Probation Officer in Canada, Children and Families Social Worker in Leeds, and Child Protection Coordinator in Bracknell. From 1999 to 2004 she was Lecturer in Social Work for Norwich City College where she completed research about effective teaching practice for social work ethics and values.
“This website contains extremely useful information relevant to practice. I like the way it combines law, policy, current research and practice wisdom in an accessible way. The site managers have been responsive to practice needs, so the knowledge base has developed to keep pace with new initiatives in children and families social work. Materials included on the site are easy to read and understand; the précis are informative without being overwhelming, and there are recommendations for further reading to help people access more information when they need to read further about a subject. The service provided by Community Care Inform does not come cheap, and that always has to be a consideration. However it is of high quality and the adage ‘you get what you pay for’ comes to mind when considering this provider.”