School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work (SSESW) and CESI colleague Dominic McSherry has guest edited a special issue of ‘Children Australia’, an international journal which links policy, research and practice in relation to children, young people, wellbeing and families.  

The theme for this issue is ‘Understanding outcomes for care experienced children’, an area in which Dominic is an internationally recognised expert.  The special issue builds on our strong international relationships in this field and features contributions from colleagues from Northern Ireland, USA, South Africa, England and Holland.  For example, an article by Adrian Van Breda (University of Johannesburg), a former visiting scholar with us at SSESW, focusses on leaving care outcomes research in South Africa.  Bruce Perry, a world-renowned psychologist and neuro-scientist whose chapter examines the impact of early childhood adversity on longer-term outcomes, is an advisor to our longitudinal ‘Care Pathways and Outcomes Study’ (https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/pathways/), led by Dominic McSherry since 2003. 

Other issues addressed in the journal include: the ecology of foster care; developmental adversity and connectedness in child welfare involved children; variability in developmental outcomes of foster children; and poor educational outcomes for Looked After Children.

In addition to his guest editorial, entitled ‘Remembering what the big friendly giants said:  To understand outcomes, you first need to understand context’, Dominic contributed a chapter to the journal with fellow SSESW colleague Montse Fargas Malet looking at the extent of stability and relational permanence achieved for young children in care in Northern Ireland.

Dominic’s editorial role in leading international dialogue on state intervention in the lives of vulnerable children to enhance their long term wellbeing and development is just one example of the SSESW aim of making a social difference.

This special issue of ‘Children Australia’ will be of particular interest to social care and welfare practitioners, legal practitioners and academics in social work, psychology and child development.  The journal is available here and you can read more about Dominic’s research areas at https://bit.ly/2x7oqBr