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
Perdeep Gill
Cath Holmstrom, lecturer in social work and social care, Sussex University
Jacqui Jensen, head of service, Integrated Disabled Children's Service, Derby County Council
Michelle LeFevre, lecturer in social work and social care and director of post-qualifying programmes for social work practice in children's services settings at the University of Sussex
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
Jane Wiffin
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.
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.
Michelle LefevreMichelle Lefevre is a lecturer in social work and social care at the University of Sussex where she is the Director of Post-Qualifying Programmes for social work practice in children's services settings. She is also a qualified and registered social worker and arts psychotherapist, carrying out individual therapy with children and adults and undertaking expert witness assessments for the family courts. Her recent research has focused on social workers' communication with children and young people.
This has included a Knowledge Review for SCIE on how communication skills with children should best be taught to social workers, two related journal articles for Child and Family Social Work and a SWAP-funded dissemination project. She has recently co-edited an anthology for BAAF on direct work with children and young people in care and is currently writing a book for the Policy Press on Communicating with Children and Young People.
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 on subjects from adoption to learning disability. He has also published reports on private fostering and 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 last year.
He is a trustee of the Social Care Institute or Excellence and of the Michael Sieff Foundation, having previously been a member of the boards of Rainer and the Centre for Policy on Ageing. He has won several awards for journalism. His latest book, Understanding Sexual Abuse: Female Partners of Sex Offenders Tell Their Stories, is due to be published by Routledge later 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.
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.
Jane WiffinJane Wiffin is a qualified social worker and a Freelance Trainer and Consultant who provides training and project management support to agencies across the UK. She has a particular interest in “knowledge informed practice” as part of providing effective services to Children, young people and their families. She is also the independent author of a number of Serious Case Reviews and these have particularly focused on parental earning disability, domestic violence and the impact of substance misuse on parenting capacity.
Her project management experience includes reviewing the safeguarding of disabled children, the provision of kinship care and several evaluations of family Support provision.
She has been involved nationally in the development of Family Group Conferences and the development of inclusive service user led practice and has undertaken a number of evaluations of Family Group Conference services. She is the co-author of a the national FGC training manual and toolkit .
She was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bedfordshire where she managed a project to disseminate research to social work agencies and to help develop capacity across management structures for knowledge based practice. She is also a course leader for the Post Qualification advanced course for practitioners.
Jane also has extensive experience of presenting at conferences both nationally and internationally on subjects such as User Involvement, Evidence based Practice, Working with families, Family Support and Family Group Conferences