Child and family social work; child abuse and inter-agency working.

Continuing Professional Development programmes

MA in Advanced Social Work

Protecting Children, Supporting Families

Applied Dissertation

MA Social Work

Child Protection

Research Supervision

Professor Marian Brandon supervises doctoral students interested in child protection and family support. She is currently primary supervisor for three PhD students: one researching in the area of teenage intimate partner violence, the second examining young disabled people’s views about child protection and the third studying young adults' experiences of growing up with a parent with a serious mental illness.

Marian has supervised many Masters level students across a wide spectrum of practice topics.

Marian Brandon is Professor of Social Work and Director of the Centre for Research on Children and Families at the University of East Anglia. Her research activity focuses on child protection, children’s views of child protection, family support and inter-agency working. For over a decade she has directed national analyses of Serious Case Reviews for the English and Welsh Governments. In 2013 she led an analysis of Neglect in Serious Case Reviews for the NSPCC and has recently been part of a Department for Education Expert Advisory Group constructing guidance for practitioners about indicators of neglect.   Marian has also worked on two studies for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) about children and young people’s views of child abuse and child protection and how to improve children’s access to early help, and is a member of the OCC Advisory Board.  She has recently completed two evaluations of family support as part of the Troubled Families initiative for London Boroughs. She has just begun directing a two year study of men’s perspectives on the child protection process funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Research

Professor Marian Brandon's research activity focuses on serious child maltreatment, family support and interagency working.  Professor Brandon is particularly interested in children living at home who are on the threshold of out of home care, and on the impact of parent child interaction in these circumstances. Her work considers implications for both policy and practice.  

Current and recently completed research projects

Fathers perspectives on the child protection process (2014-2017)

Missed Opportunities

National Evaluation of DfE funded training for serious case review authors and commissioners (2013-2014)

Evaluation of the Tri-Borough Family Coaching Service (2013-2014)

Review of RBKC Families First Service (2013-2014)

Recognition and telling: Developing earlier routes to safety for Children and Young People (2011–2013)

Neglect in Serious Case Reviews (2012-13)

Children's and Young People's views of the child protection process (2010–2011)

New Learning from Serious Case Reviews -2009-2011 (2010-2011)

A study of family involvement in Case Reviews: messages for Policy and Practice (2009-2012)

Building on the learning from serious case reviews: a two year analysis of child protection database notification 2007-09 (2009-2010)

Learning from serious case reviews: report of a research study on the methods of learning lessons nationally from serious case reviews (2009-2010)

Understanding Serious Case Reviews and their Impact: A Biennial Analysis of Serious Case Reviews 2005-7 (2007-2009)

2006-8 Biennial Analysis of Serious Case Reviews 2003-5 (funded by the Department of Children Schools and Families)

2005-2006 Evaluating the Common Assessment Framework and Lead Professional Guidance and Implementation in 2005-6 (funded by the Department for Education and Skills).

2004-2006 Exploring sensitive outcomes and a theory of change in international social work.

2000-2005 Children Living with Significant Harm 

1999- 2001 Study of a an Intensive Family Preservation Service in England (funded by two local authorities and a voluntary agency).