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Work contributing to influencing professional practice, specifically multi-disciplinary working and improving outcomes for vulnerable children and young people.
Positive outcomes in child welfare have been difficult to achieve and are often subject to public concern. Multi-disciplinary working – and barriers to this working well – have often been highlighted following child death inquiries.
This body of work attempts to address these issues by building on research findings through active involvement in leadership and policy formation.
The Approach
Professor Frost has a research, policy and practice interest in child welfare in general, and in particular in relation to multi-disciplinary work with vulnerable children and young people. This has involved work funded by the ESRC [the MATCh project, 2004-5 and EASI project, 2013-15] and various projects funded by Leeds City Council 2010 – 2016.
The work explores multi-disciplinary work in order to promote improved outcomes for disadvantaged children and young people.
The key research findings are that:
These points were also addressed by the ERSC EASI project which produced practical policies and protocols for frontline professionals. Professor Frost pursued these themes in relation to multi-professional teams and sexually exploited children and young people.
It is suffice to say that without his expertise, our advanced policies now implemented and services now in place, would have remained aspirational rather than actual. We are indebted to Professor Frost for this sharing of his expertise, which has impacted very positively indeed in real ways on the lives of young people and families.
The impact
As a result of Professor Frost’s role as the of Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) for the North Yorkshire area, there has been a significant direct impact on policy and practice with children and young people through monitoring service delivery, enhancing multi-disciplinary work and addressing any inter-professional conflicts that arise between professional and/or organisations. The outcomes in the field are assessed and have been positively by Ofsted.
This research has produced new developments in multi-disciplinary working which range from local to national levels within the UK and Ireland.
Key note speaking - Professor Frost is regularly invited to give keynote addresses on topics relating to multi-disciplinary work with children – during the last two years over 20 such addresses at international (Denmark, Spain, Holland, Italy and Eire), national and regional conferences.
European Family Support Network - Professor Frost was a founding member of the European Family Support Network. Together with Professor Pat Dolan, NUI, Galway, he convened the inaugural meeting at the UNESCO headquarters, Paris. The network now includes representatives from over 20 European countries – the aim is to have an impact on family support policy and practice across the continent drawing on research findings.
Professor Frost is the leading UK academic in the field of Family Support. Working with colleagues across the British Isles, he established the five nations Family Support conference series which culminated in an event held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. A direct consequence of the conference series was the creation of the European Family Support Network (EFSN) whose aim is to further theory, policy and practice in the field. With his support, the EFSN successfully applied for COST Action funding, the first explicitly Family Support funded research related action under Horizon. The Action, CA18123 Eurofamnet, now has members in 34 countries and is working actively to encourage the adoption Family Support as a social policy paradigm in EU and national state Social Policy.
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