Sarah Collins

Profile

Thesis supervisors

• Dr. Jennifer Threlfall
• Dr. Jo Dixon

Thesis Title

Enhancing trauma-informed practice in the assessment of parenting capacity: ACEs and integrating the evolutionary insights of adverse pre-parental life experiences (APPLEs) within social work practice

Biography

Biography

Sarah is undertaking the PhD Social Policy and Social Work programme. Her interest in her field of research is based on reflections on her own experiences of practice as a social worker and a recognition of the lack of trauma-informed practice in child and family assessments of parenting capacity.

Whilst there is recognised uptake and embedding of the principles of 'adverse childhood experiences' (ACEs) in a range of disciplines within the United Kingdom, this is more limited within the field of social work and is potential linked with discordance with social work values. Sarah’s research will seek to redress this by seeking to develop a research-informed, holistic assessment framework that can be utilised within practice to apprise effective, trauma-informed assessments of parenting capacity. This framework will seek to provide nuance and to consider contextual factors such as temporal sequencing, perceived severity, duration, and current circumstances. Combined with a strengths-based perspective that also considers positive factors and resilience, it is anticipated that a holistic assessment tool will enable analysis and evaluation of the impact of the lived experience of trauma on parenting.

The intention is to employ a mixed methods approach to identify factors that can be considered to be 'adverse pre-parental life experiences' (APPLEs) through the examination of existing research and content analysis of child safeguarding practice reviews and local authority case recordings. Supplementary, and fundamental to this will be the incorporation of new qualitative data on the adverse life experiences that can negatively impact upon parenting capacity and practices from the perspectives of social work practitioners and parents with lived experience, as this research will seek to platform underrepresented voices in social work research.

The overarching objective of undertaking this research is twofold: to contribute purposeful academic research and to influence effective real-world safeguarding practices.
The working title for her research is:

Enhancing trauma-informed practice in the assessment of parenting capacity: ACEs and integrating the evolutionary insights of adverse pre-parental life experiences (APPLEs) within social work practice.

Alongside her research studies, Sarah is a Senior Fellow of the HEA and the Lead Professional for Social Work at another higher education institution, overseeing their social work degree programmes.

Research

Research Topic

The impact of trauma and adverse experiences on parenting capacity, in the context of social work.

Research interests

• Trauma
• Adverse experiences
• Child protection
• Parenting
• Child and family social work