The award was presented at the recent annual conference of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), who own the journal, for the group's paper entitled 'If we know what works, why aren't we doing it?'.

The paper looked at the issue of a lack of support for parents with learning disabilities and asked: if we know parents with learning disabilities can be good parents with the right support when needed, and we know how to provide the support, why aren't local authorities providing it, and what can be done to address this?

The article was an international collaboration between Beth and two other UK academics - Emeritus Professor Danielle Turney (Queen's University Belfast) and Dr Gillian MacIntyre (University of Strathclyde) - with Australian academics Dr Susan Collings (Western Sydney University) and Dr Margaret Spencer (University of Sydney).

Beth said: "I am really proud to be one of the authors of this paper which we hope will encourage social workers to reflect on how they understand and support parents who have learning disabilities. We came together to write this paper as we have all worked in this area for many years and feel strongly that the situation for parents with learning disabilities needs to - and can - change."

The winning paper is awarded on the basis of its breadth of scholarship, sophistication of theory, rigour of research, relevance to practice, and international appeal.