Proactive Child Protection and Social Work

Liz Davies is an Emeritus Reader in Child Protection at London Metropolitan University and a registered social worker. She began her academic post in 2002, and gained her PhD, entitled Protecting children - a critical contribution to policy and practice development. Following her work, in the 1970s, as a mental health social worker, she was team manager in the London Borough of Islington where she exposed widescale abuse of children within the care system. In the 1990s, as child protection manager and trainer in the London Borough of Harrow, she developed a specialism in conducting serious case reviews as well as in the investigation of organised crime and abuse networks. Liz co-authored Proactive child protection and social work (2008) and Communicating with children and their families (2013) both widely used as academic texts. She trained police and social workers for over 15 years in Achieving Best Evidence skills and published training manuals in joint investigation and investigative interviewing. As an academic for 13 years, she designed and delivered social work courses on communication in social work, protecting children and children's social policy and also supervised PhDs. As a regular contributor to television, radio and print media, she has long campaigned to achieve justice for survivors of abuse, most recently working with the WhiteFlowers survivor and whistleblower network. In 2015, she supported the re-launch of the BASW London Forum and contributes to the BASW Children and Families Committee. Her website is www.lizdavies.net

Nora Duckett is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, Essex and a registered social worker. She began her academic career in 2003 and in 2008 co-authored with Liz Davies, Proactive Child Protection and Social Work. Between 2008 and 2011 she contributed to a 3-year youth homelessness research project, commissioned by the EU, and she is currently undertaking doctorate level study looking at improving understandings of professional dangerousness in child protection social work education and practice. Prior to her academic role, in the mid-1980s, Nora worked in an inner London borough as an unqualified family aide, which led her to complete an access course and obtain a degree and a social work qualification. As well as spending several years working as a social worker in the community and in a hospital setting, she helped pioneer a young women's sexual exploitation service in central London and managed a young runways strategy project, raising awareness of the risks of running away, and coordinating services across London. The experience of social work with children, young people and families is at the heart of her work as an academic.