Experiences of childhood and family for children involved with children's social care in England

This research will examine how children in England involved with social care feel about their own identity and how this has been impacted by the involvement of social workers. It will also examine how the political constructions of children and childhood that the state holds inform with whom and how children's social care intervenes in children's lives, including along class and race lines.

In England, children's social care departments are locally administered through local authorities legally responsible for keeping children safe. They employ a range of practices including removing them from their families and placing them in care outside of the home. These practices were established in the UK in the mid-nineteenth century and, though reformed, have been broadly consistent since then.

Contemporary practice has been shaped by a renewed focus on child removal even while budgets have faced significant cuts. There are consistent issues with the current system including that children who are taken into care disproportionately come from families in poverty and from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and people with experiences of the care face markedly worse outcomes across a range of criteria including mental health and educational attainment.

This research will involve long-term, ethnographic field work with children and young people with experience of the care system in England. It will be based in community settings, outside of statutory institutions such as social care settings and schools. It will look to understand how children's social care's involvement in their life affects their identities and identification with their families.

It will also examine how the politics of childhood and family, which reproduce dichotomous representations through normative legal models. It will also explore children and young people's experiences in the context of critical sociology which examines social care a punitive institution and social theory which denaturalises the institution of the family.