Andy Bilson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3559453 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andy Bilson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andy |
| FAMILY NAME | Bilson |
| SIGNATURE | BILSON A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Lancashire |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1243-2663 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 61 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Patterns of Service for Disabled Children in English Social Care
This study examined national trends in how children with disabilities and mental health concerns are treated within children's social care in England. Using a 100% sample of data from the Annual Children in Need Census (2015–2023), obtained through Freedom of Information requests, the analysis was guided by an evidence-based policy framework. The focus was on assessments, child protection investigations, and the categorization of children's prima…
Fabricated or induced illness in England
The term Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) has been used in England since 2002 to cover a situation in which a parent or carer exaggerates the child’s symptoms, or deliberately causes illness in their child, to convince medical professionals that their child is ill. There is an absence of published evidence on its incidence, prevalence, and on the alerting signs used to identify it. This study examined mortality and morbidity in England due to …
Social Work Interventions with Children under 5 in Scotland
This article uses information from freedom of information requests to find the rate of children who were subject to social work interventions in Scotland before the age of 5. It finds that more than one in every four children were referred to social work and provides the rates for other types of interventions including children investigated for child protection, becoming looked after and being adopted. Despite differences in legislation and the j…
Bruises in Premobile Infants
This paper provides an analysis of the procedures adopted by statutory safeguarding partners throughout England in response to finding bruising in premobile infants. Against the backdrop of empirical research, we begin by challenging the view that bruising in premobile infants can be considered rare and thus suggestive of physical abuse. Then, within the procedure themselves, we point to differences in the definitions of what constitutes a premob…
Parental Partnership, Advocacy and Engagement
This article, written with parents as co-authors, has two aims: (1) to provide a critical view of the English child protection system based on parents' views and to locate these views within contemporary child protection studies and (2) to present the transformative value of co-production in the context of child protection studies both as a form of critical scholarship and as a means to influence policy and practice. The current children's social…
The ‘toxic trio’ (domestic violence, substance misuse and mental ill-health)
Born into care
Rethinking child protection and adoption
This article presents contributions made at the ‘Rethinking Fostering and Adoption: Achieving Social Justice in Practice’ plenary at the 2019 Social Work Action Network conference. The contributors write from a variety of vantage points but share the view that the current child protection and adoption system in England requires radical transformation in order to become more humane, supportive and socially just. The article begins with an outline …
Adoption and child protection trends for children aged under five in England
Referrals and Child Protection in England
Based on a Freedom of Information request with data from 75 per cent of all English children’s services departments covering over half a million children, this paper shows that 22.5 per cent of children born in the 2009–10 financial year were referred to children’s social care before their fifth birthday. Three-quarters of them were at some point assessed, almost two-thirds found to be in need and a quarter formally investigated. These findings s…
A Longitudinal Study of Children Reported to the Child Protection Department in Western Australia
This study of management information provides data on all reports, investigations and findings of maltreatment of children in Western Australia from their birth in 1990 or 1991 until their eighteenth birthday. It provides prevalence rates of children being reported, investigated and found to have been maltreated. A study of more recent cohorts shows trends in recent years. A key finding is that over 13 per cent of all children born in 1990 and 19…
Children's, Young People's and Parents' Perspectives on Contact
This paper reports children's, young people's and parents' perspectives on birth family contact from interviews conducted across eleven local authorities in England between 2009 and 2012 as part of the national evaluation of Social Work Practice (SWP) pilots: independent organisations providing social work support for looked after children and care leavers. The matched control evaluation, reported fully elsewhere ( Stanley et al., 2013), showed m…
Establishing Social Work Practices in England
Social Work Practices (SWPs) were established in England in 2009 to deliver social work services to looked after children and care leavers. The introduction of independent social work-led organisations generated controversy focused on issues such as the privatisation of children's services and social workers' conditions of employment. This paper reports early findings from the evaluation of four of these pilots, drawing on interviews with childre…
Independent Children’s Social Work Practice Pilots
Objectives: To investigate whether a new model that delegates some out-of-home care services from the public to the private and not-for-profit sectors in England enhances practitioners’ job control and stress levels. Methods: A 3-year longitudinal matched-control evaluation examined changes in Karasek demand-control model and Maslach burnout levels of 2,050 staff working in five social work practice (SWP) pilots, their host local authorities and …
Providing alternatives to infant institutionalisation in Bulgaria
Turning away from the public sector in children's out-of-home care
Developing Employment Opportunities for Care Leavers
This article describes an action research project carried out in North West England that aimed to assist Children’s Services Departments and Care Trusts in developing their strategies for supporting care leavers into employment and training. The study found a range of models and approaches that can be utilised to develop local and regional partnerships offering employment and training opportunities designed to meet the needs of care leavers. Rele…
Use of Residential Care in Europe for Children Aged Under Three
This critical commentary reviews the research into the use of residential care for children aged under three years and looks at some of the explanations that can be found for this in neurobiology. There continue to be high numbers and rates of these vulnerable children in institutions not only in the former Soviet states, but also in Western Europe. The new research provides strong evidence on the negative consequences for these children, particu…
Promoting Compassionate Concern in Social Work
This paper challenges proceduralized, rule-bound approaches to ethics and considers how social workers and teams can develop an attitude of compassionate concern and become more effective in dealing with ethical problems in their day-to-day practice. It introduces the work of Humberto Maturana, a widely respected theorist, whose work has received little attention in social work. The paper argues that Maturana’s biology of cognition provides an ap…
Escaping from Intrinsically Unstable and Untrustful Relations
From protection to concern
This article provides evidence from a study of the careers of children in an English local authority from the point of the child protection investigation with a follow up of one year. The study demonstrates the way that for the vast majority welfare needs are ignored in the process of investigation and identifies the need to refocus investigations. The authors suggests criteria that can be used to provide a clearer focus on whether to investigate…
From protection to concern
This article provides evidence from a study of the careers of children in an English local authority from the point of the child protection investigation with a follow up of one year. The study demonstrates the way that for the vast majority welfare needs are ignored in the process of investigation and identifies the need to refocus investigations. The authors suggests criteria that can be used to provide a clearer focus on whether to investigate…
From protection to concern
Siblings of children in care or accommodation
The Parental Contact Research Project provides evidence from a census of 1068 children that, despite the 1989 Children Act's focus on contact, work with sibling groups remains a neglected area of practice. Children in care or accommodation frequently had complex family arrangements with siblings looked after, adopted and in the community. Three quarters of the children with siblings in care or accommodation were separated from some or all of them…
Born into care
A Longitudinal Study of Children Reported to the Child Protection Department in Western Australia
This study of management information provides data on all reports, investigations and findings of maltreatment of children in Western Australia from their birth in 1990 or 1991 until their eighteenth birthday. It provides prevalence rates of children being reported, investigated and found to have been maltreated. A study of more recent cohorts shows trends in recent years. A key finding is that over 13 per cent of all children born in 1990 and 19…
Parental Partnership, Advocacy and Engagement
This article, written with parents as co-authors, has two aims: (1) to provide a critical view of the English child protection system based on parents' views and to locate these views within contemporary child protection studies and (2) to present the transformative value of co-production in the context of child protection studies both as a form of critical scholarship and as a means to influence policy and practice. The current children's social…
The ‘toxic trio’ (domestic violence, substance misuse and mental ill-health)
Adoption and child protection trends for children aged under five in England
Children's, Young People's and Parents' Perspectives on Contact
This paper reports children's, young people's and parents' perspectives on birth family contact from interviews conducted across eleven local authorities in England between 2009 and 2012 as part of the national evaluation of Social Work Practice (SWP) pilots: independent organisations providing social work support for looked after children and care leavers. The matched control evaluation, reported fully elsewhere ( Stanley et al., 2013), showed m…
Turning away from the public sector in children's out-of-home care
Referrals and Child Protection in England
Based on a Freedom of Information request with data from 75 per cent of all English children’s services departments covering over half a million children, this paper shows that 22.5 per cent of children born in the 2009–10 financial year were referred to children’s social care before their fifth birthday. Three-quarters of them were at some point assessed, almost two-thirds found to be in need and a quarter formally investigated. These findings s…
Providing alternatives to infant institutionalisation in Bulgaria
Independent Children’s Social Work Practice Pilots
Objectives: To investigate whether a new model that delegates some out-of-home care services from the public to the private and not-for-profit sectors in England enhances practitioners’ job control and stress levels. Methods: A 3-year longitudinal matched-control evaluation examined changes in Karasek demand-control model and Maslach burnout levels of 2,050 staff working in five social work practice (SWP) pilots, their host local authorities and …
Use of Residential Care in Europe for Children Aged Under Three
This critical commentary reviews the research into the use of residential care for children aged under three years and looks at some of the explanations that can be found for this in neurobiology. There continue to be high numbers and rates of these vulnerable children in institutions not only in the former Soviet states, but also in Western Europe. The new research provides strong evidence on the negative consequences for these children, particu…
Siblings of children in care or accommodation
The Parental Contact Research Project provides evidence from a census of 1068 children that, despite the 1989 Children Act's focus on contact, work with sibling groups remains a neglected area of practice. Children in care or accommodation frequently had complex family arrangements with siblings looked after, adopted and in the community. Three quarters of the children with siblings in care or accommodation were separated from some or all of them…
Establishing Social Work Practices in England
Social Work Practices (SWPs) were established in England in 2009 to deliver social work services to looked after children and care leavers. The introduction of independent social work-led organisations generated controversy focused on issues such as the privatisation of children's services and social workers' conditions of employment. This paper reports early findings from the evaluation of four of these pilots, drawing on interviews with childre…
Promoting Compassionate Concern in Social Work
This paper challenges proceduralized, rule-bound approaches to ethics and considers how social workers and teams can develop an attitude of compassionate concern and become more effective in dealing with ethical problems in their day-to-day practice. It introduces the work of Humberto Maturana, a widely respected theorist, whose work has received little attention in social work. The paper argues that Maturana’s biology of cognition provides an ap…
Siblings of children in care or accommodation
The Parental Contact Research Project provides evidence from a census of 1068 children that, despite the 1989 Children Act's focus on contact, work with sibling groups remains a neglected area of practice. Children in care or accommodation frequently had complex family arrangements with siblings looked after, adopted and in the community. Three quarters of the children with siblings in care or accommodation were separated from some or all of them…
From protection to concern
This article provides evidence from a study of the careers of children in an English local authority from the point of the child protection investigation with a follow up of one year. The study demonstrates the way that for the vast majority welfare needs are ignored in the process of investigation and identifies the need to refocus investigations. The authors suggests criteria that can be used to provide a clearer focus on whether to investigate…
From protection to concern
This article provides evidence from a study of the careers of children in an English local authority from the point of the child protection investigation with a follow up of one year. The study demonstrates the way that for the vast majority welfare needs are ignored in the process of investigation and identifies the need to refocus investigations. The authors suggests criteria that can be used to provide a clearer focus on whether to investigate…
From protection to concern
Escaping from Intrinsically Unstable and Untrustful Relations
Promoting Compassionate Concern in Social Work
This paper challenges proceduralized, rule-bound approaches to ethics and considers how social workers and teams can develop an attitude of compassionate concern and become more effective in dealing with ethical problems in their day-to-day practice. It introduces the work of Humberto Maturana, a widely respected theorist, whose work has received little attention in social work. The paper argues that Maturana’s biology of cognition provides an ap…
Use of Residential Care in Europe for Children Aged Under Three
This critical commentary reviews the research into the use of residential care for children aged under three years and looks at some of the explanations that can be found for this in neurobiology. There continue to be high numbers and rates of these vulnerable children in institutions not only in the former Soviet states, but also in Western Europe. The new research provides strong evidence on the negative consequences for these children, particu…
Developing Employment Opportunities for Care Leavers
This article describes an action research project carried out in North West England that aimed to assist Children’s Services Departments and Care Trusts in developing their strategies for supporting care leavers into employment and training. The study found a range of models and approaches that can be utilised to develop local and regional partnerships offering employment and training opportunities designed to meet the needs of care leavers. Rele…
Independent Children’s Social Work Practice Pilots
Objectives: To investigate whether a new model that delegates some out-of-home care services from the public to the private and not-for-profit sectors in England enhances practitioners’ job control and stress levels. Methods: A 3-year longitudinal matched-control evaluation examined changes in Karasek demand-control model and Maslach burnout levels of 2,050 staff working in five social work practice (SWP) pilots, their host local authorities and …
Providing alternatives to infant institutionalisation in Bulgaria
Turning away from the public sector in children's out-of-home care
Establishing Social Work Practices in England
Social Work Practices (SWPs) were established in England in 2009 to deliver social work services to looked after children and care leavers. The introduction of independent social work-led organisations generated controversy focused on issues such as the privatisation of children's services and social workers' conditions of employment. This paper reports early findings from the evaluation of four of these pilots, drawing on interviews with childre…
A Longitudinal Study of Children Reported to the Child Protection Department in Western Australia
This study of management information provides data on all reports, investigations and findings of maltreatment of children in Western Australia from their birth in 1990 or 1991 until their eighteenth birthday. It provides prevalence rates of children being reported, investigated and found to have been maltreated. A study of more recent cohorts shows trends in recent years. A key finding is that over 13 per cent of all children born in 1990 and 19…
Children's, Young People's and Parents' Perspectives on Contact
This paper reports children's, young people's and parents' perspectives on birth family contact from interviews conducted across eleven local authorities in England between 2009 and 2012 as part of the national evaluation of Social Work Practice (SWP) pilots: independent organisations providing social work support for looked after children and care leavers. The matched control evaluation, reported fully elsewhere ( Stanley et al., 2013), showed m…
Referrals and Child Protection in England
Based on a Freedom of Information request with data from 75 per cent of all English children’s services departments covering over half a million children, this paper shows that 22.5 per cent of children born in the 2009–10 financial year were referred to children’s social care before their fifth birthday. Three-quarters of them were at some point assessed, almost two-thirds found to be in need and a quarter formally investigated. These findings s…
Rethinking child protection and adoption
This article presents contributions made at the ‘Rethinking Fostering and Adoption: Achieving Social Justice in Practice’ plenary at the 2019 Social Work Action Network conference. The contributors write from a variety of vantage points but share the view that the current child protection and adoption system in England requires radical transformation in order to become more humane, supportive and socially just. The article begins with an outline …
Adoption and child protection trends for children aged under five in England
Born into care
The ‘toxic trio’ (domestic violence, substance misuse and mental ill-health)
Bruises in Premobile Infants
This paper provides an analysis of the procedures adopted by statutory safeguarding partners throughout England in response to finding bruising in premobile infants. Against the backdrop of empirical research, we begin by challenging the view that bruising in premobile infants can be considered rare and thus suggestive of physical abuse. Then, within the procedure themselves, we point to differences in the definitions of what constitutes a premob…
Parental Partnership, Advocacy and Engagement
This article, written with parents as co-authors, has two aims: (1) to provide a critical view of the English child protection system based on parents' views and to locate these views within contemporary child protection studies and (2) to present the transformative value of co-production in the context of child protection studies both as a form of critical scholarship and as a means to influence policy and practice. The current children's social…
Social Work Interventions with Children under 5 in Scotland
This article uses information from freedom of information requests to find the rate of children who were subject to social work interventions in Scotland before the age of 5. It finds that more than one in every four children were referred to social work and provides the rates for other types of interventions including children investigated for child protection, becoming looked after and being adopted. Despite differences in legislation and the j…
Patterns of Service for Disabled Children in English Social Care
This study examined national trends in how children with disabilities and mental health concerns are treated within children's social care in England. Using a 100% sample of data from the Annual Children in Need Census (2015–2023), obtained through Freedom of Information requests, the analysis was guided by an evidence-based policy framework. The focus was on assessments, child protection investigations, and the categorization of children's prima…
Fabricated or induced illness in England
The term Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) has been used in England since 2002 to cover a situation in which a parent or carer exaggerates the child’s symptoms, or deliberately causes illness in their child, to convince medical professionals that their child is ill. There is an absence of published evidence on its incidence, prevalence, and on the alerting signs used to identify it. This study examined mortality and morbidity in England due to …
Political science (18 works) · Psychology (18 works) · Child Welfare and Adoption (14 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Medicine (12 works) · Child Abuse and Trauma (11 works) · Child protection (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Nursing (10 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (9 works)