Projects per year
Personal profile
Areas of Expertise
Long-term foster care and attachment.
Teaching Interests
Qualifying and CPD programmes - Child development and child placement.
Research Supervision
Professor Schofield has supervised a series of successful PhD students with topics including: parenting disabled adults; life pathways of sex workers; siblings separated through adoption; digital life-story work; refugee and asylum seeking mothers; restorative justice and young female offenders.
If you are interested in PhD supervision on topics relating to fostering, children in care and family relationships please contact Professor Schofield on g.schofield@uea.ac.uk
Biography
Gillian Schofield OBE is Emeritus Professor of Child and Family Social Work. She was an experienced Social Worker and Guardian ad Litem before joining UEA in 1990. Her research has been in long-term foster care; attachment; looked after children and offending; care planning and the role of the Independent Reviewing Officer; LGBTQ young people in care; transitions from foster care to adoption. With Dr Mary Beek, she developed the Secure Base model, an attachment and resilience-based framework relevant to foster care, adoption, residential care, schools, professional teams and a range of other settings. The Secure Base model has been implemented widely in the UK and internationally. In 2020 she was appointed Emeritus Professor at UEA and awarded an OBE for services to children and families.
Key Research Interests
Gillian Schofield has had a continuous series of funded research projects since 1997, all of which have contributed to policy and practice affecting children in care and their birth, foster and adoptive families. Key themes have been around planning systems and the nature of foster and adoptive family relationships, in particular the use of attachment theory to promote security and resilience. Research topics have included looked after children and offending and care planning the role of the IRO – both of which include issues concerning risk and protective factors for children’s development and the role of professional systems and practice. Her recent research with children in care includes projects concerning LGBT young people in care, supporting long-term foster care and transitions from foster care to adoption.
Current and Recently Completed Research Projects:
Transitions from foster care to adoption (2016-18)
Supporting long-term foster care- Match Inovations project funded by DfE (2015-16)
Evaluation of the Norfolk Edge of Care Team (2014-2015)
Mentalisation and social work education, with the Anne Freud Centre (2013-2015)
Evaluation of the transitions and mentoring service at Break (2013-15)
Investigation of care planning and the role of the IRO (2012-14)
Looked after children and offending (2010-12)
Evaluation of Fosternets (2009-10)
Care Planning for permanence in foster care (2008-10)
Understanding and working with birth parents in long-term foster care (2007-08)
Permanence in foster care (2006-07)
Promoting Security: Attachment for foster care and adoption (2004-06)
Looked after children partnership project (2000-03)
Foster carers' perspectives on permanence (2001)
Growing up in foster care (Three phases 1997-1999, 2001-03, 2005-07)
Part of the Family: experiences of growing up in foster care (1999-2002)
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 22 Finished
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Providing a secure base in schools: proposal for Norfolk County Council
1/09/19 → 31/05/21
Project: Research
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Moving to Adoption Practice Model Project
Neil, B., Beek, M. & Schofield, G.
1/04/19 → 31/07/20
Project: Research
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Providing a Secure Base in Schools: practice development proposal to the Alex Timpson Trust
Schofield, G., Beek, M. & Beek, M.
1/10/18 → 31/03/20
Project: Research
-
DfE Children's Social Care Innovation Programme
Schofield, G., Walsh, J., Beek, M. & Young, J.
13/04/15 → 31/03/16
Project: Research
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The right decisions for children in long-term foster care
Larsson, B., Schofield, G., Neil, E., Young, J., Morciano, M. & Lau, Y-S., 1 Feb 2022, Children and Young People Now, February , 2022, p. 31-32 2 p.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
Open AccessFile39 Downloads (Pure) -
Moving to Adoption: Using the UEA model to help children move from foster care to adoption
Beek, M., Neil, E. & Schofield, G., 24 Sep 2021, Coram BAAF. 155 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Planning and supporting permanence in long-term foster care: An investigation of the implementation in England of the first regulations and guidance for long-term foster care as a permanence option (Department for Education 2015)
Larsson, B., Schofield, G., Neil, E., Morciano, M. & Lau, Y-S., 10 Dec 2021, Nuffield Foundation. 187 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
Open AccessFile57 Downloads (Pure) -
Key principles for foster carers and adopters who are helping a child to move to adoption
Neil, E., Beek, M. & Schofield, G., 27 Mar 2020, 2 p. Centre for Research on Children and Families, UEA.Research output: Other contribution
Open AccessFile2825 Downloads (Pure) -
Providing a secure base for LGBTQ young people in foster care: the role of foster carers
Schofield, G., Cossar, J., Ward, E., Larsson, B. & Belderson, P., Aug 2019, In: Child & Family Social Work. 24, 3, p. 372-381 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile10 Citations (Scopus)65 Downloads (Pure)