PhD success for Dr Sue Jones, Dr Gillian Macdonald and Dr Shailen Nandy

12 August 2010

The School congratulates its three most recent successful PhD graduates, Dr Sue Jones, Dr Gillian Macdonald and Dr Shailen Nandy.

Dr Jones' PhD thesis, "Swimmers, Strugglers and Surfers. The acceptability and use of groups for parents and their young children from a Sure Start area" looked at the government-funded Sure Start projects to tackle childhood deprivation. These projects were started in 2000 and were based on evidence that early intervention can help prevent many later difficulties. These projects offered largely group-based activities to parents and young children, but many high-need parents did not attend. Although a lot of research existed about group users, little was known about these non-users. This study explored which factors attracted parents to such groups, which repelled them and whether Sure Start groups attracted different parents to other groups.  This was a CASE studentship and was funded by the ESRC, Barnardo’s and the School for Policy Studies.

Prior to her PhD studies, Sue worked in a range of voluntary and public sector roles as a Citizen's Advice Bureau manager, Council Policy Officer and voluntary sector Training Officer. Also a qualified Independent Domestic Violence Advocate, Sue worked for six years in the field of domestic abuse, both refuge and outreach. She is now working as a Research Associate on the project "PROVIDE - Programme of Research On Violence in Diverse domestic Environments".

Dr Gillian Macdonald's thesis "Domestic Violence, Children's Voices and Child  Contact: Exploring Cafcass Section 7 Reports"  was funded by the ESRC. It examined how and to what extent domestic violence and the representation of children's voices were included in a sample of Cafcass court welfare reports featuring allegations of domestic violence.  Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) work with children and their families in cases of contested contact and residence, and assign Children and Family Reporters to prepare welfare reports in private family law cases.  The research explored how issues of domestic violence and children's perspectives were represented in a sample of reports involving domestic violence allegations and how they appeared to impact on Cafcass recommendations to the court.

Gillian is a qualified children and families social worker and lectured on the Social Policy and Early Childhood Studies undergraduate courses at the School during her studies. As a member of the Violence Against Women Research Group (now Centre for Gender and Violence Research), she co-convened and restarted the British Sociological Association’s Violence Against Women Study Group with Dr Melanie McCarry in 2006. She now works as a seminar tutor/lecturer on School's BSc Childhood Studies and MSc Social Work programmes and am currently working on a Daphne Research Project entitled 'Women, Safety and Justice' ('WOSAFEJUS') with Marianne Hester examining women's uses of the criminal justice system in domestic violence cases in several European countries.

Dr Shailen Nandy's thesis, funded by the ESRC,  looked at changes in the extent and nature of child poverty in the developing world at the end of the twentieth century. Using data from the demographic and health surveys, he produced national, regional and developing world level estimates of child poverty and examined what trends were apparent for several different types of deprivation of basic human need for water, shelter, sanitation, food, health, education and information. His study also looked at whether gender differences and differences between urban and rural areas persisted, and whether progress in meeting children’s basic needs was being achieved equitably.

Before and during his PhD studies, Shailen worked as a consultant to UNICEF on its Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities (http://unicefglobalstudy.blogspot.com) and acted as a consultant to various international organisations, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), Christian Children’s Fund and the UK Department for International Development. He also lectured on poverty on the Masters programmes in Public Policy and Policy Research, and assisted on courses teaching secondary data analysis and quantitative analysis. Shailen now works as a Research Associate on the Big Lottery-funded project, "Your family, your voice: Growing up with relatives or friends".

The School wishes all three every success on their future paths.