Award Winners 2019

Professor Elizabeth Fernandez

Elizabeth Fernandez (external link)  is a Professor of Social Work at the School of Social Sciences, at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales.

Her teaching and research for over two decades are in the areas of child abuse, trauma, family violence, care and protection and field-based learning and supervision. Her areas of specialisation include research into practice with children and families, child and youth wellbeing, vulnerable families, early intervention, care and protection, risk assessment, children and legal intervention, foster care and adoption, social inclusion and minority groups, child and adolescent mental health, life course theory and research.

Dr. Fernandez has conducted research in collaboration with Government departments and non-government organisations to inform social policies and program development.

She has also collaborated with Barnardos Australia in the research and implementation of the Looking After Children (LAC) framework in Australian child welfare through the LAC Project and the implementation of the UK Framework for The Assessment of Families of Children in Need.

As a founding member of the International Association for Outcome-Based Evaluation in Family and Children’s Services, she shares an interest in cross-national outcome research.

Dr. Fernandez has published widely in national and international journals on child abuse, prevention and family support, out of home care, child wellbeing and field-based learning in social work education.

Partnership between the Children’s Society and the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York, United Kingdom

This partnership, which spans 15 years, is built around the annual publication of the Good Childhood Report, which provides detailed knowledge and information about how children and young people in the UK feel about their lives, the events and circumstances affecting their lives and how children’s overall well-being and quality of life can be improved. The essence of these reports is to highlight children’s perspectives through rigorous child-centred research. It generates substantial public interest and dialogue around children’s lives, and through on-going lobbying and advocacy campaigns has made a significant impact on social policy in the UK.

The Children’s Society (external link)  has been supporting young people in poverty and neglect in the UK since the late 1800s by providing frontline services, lobbying and influencing policy changes, and carrying out research about the issues affecting children, often with the active participation of children and young people. The Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York (external link)  is a leading UK centre for applied health and social care research. Since 1973, they conduct high impact policy and practice research across the lifecourse.