Laura Cook
Biographic Data
| ID | 5635522 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Laura Cook |
| GIVEN NAMES | Laura |
| FAMILY NAME | Cook |
| SIGNATURE | COOK L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of East Anglia |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4459-2592 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 50 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Emotional labour in child and family social work teams
Achieving good outcomes for children and families engaged in the social care system relies upon a healthy, confident, and stable workforce. However, child protection social work has been identified as an emotionally demanding area of practice, linked to staff burnout and poor retention. This article draws on a hybrid ethnography of two child and family social work teams in England during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings iden…
The role of teams in social worker wellbeing and retention
We are delighted introduce the second special issue on social work teams. The first special issue focused on how teams contribute to assessment and sense-making in social work. This special issue f
Practice education in social work
Practice learning is central to the pedagogy of social work education; it enables students to link theory and practice, and supports them to develop the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to enter the profession. In England, practice educators—experienced qualified social workers who have undertaken relevant training—are responsible for providing learning opportunities and assessing students’ practice learning. This article outlines a scop…
Reflective group interventions with social workers
Social work is a rewarding yet highly demanding profession, and supporting practitioners to manage the emotional and practical demands of the role is key to addressing ongoing challenges in the recruitment and retention of social workers. Reflective group interventions (RGIs)—such as group supervision and reflective case discussion groups—are commonly used to support social workers, however, comparatively little is known about the effectiveness o…
Social workers in schools
This study evaluated the feasibility of ‘Social Workers in Schools’, an intervention that involved social workers being based within schools across three local authorities in England (SWIS). Schools make a large number of referrals to Children's Social Care and play an important role in recognizing risks to children and protecting them from harm, but it is unusual for social workers to be based in schools in the U.K. and to do statutory work. We …
Special issue on social work teams
We are delighted to introduce two inter-linked special issues on social work teams. Teams play a vital role in supporting social work practice. Social work evokes powerful emotions for practitioner
Involved but not included
Children growing up with a parent with mental ill-health are a hidden and vulnerable group. Positioned at the intersection between adult and children services, and health and social care, these children fall between the gaps, rarely acknowledged in policy or practice. This is exacerbated when the young person is excluded under the auspices of patient confidentiality and age appropriateness. This article reports findings from research which captur…
‘Being a Social Worker … It's in My DNA’ Retaining Experienced Child and Family Social Workers
The retention of experienced child and family social workers is a significant issue in the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe. Failure to retain experienced practitioners has serious implications for the protection and support of vulnerable children. Existing research and workforce interventions have focused on the support of early‐career social workers to prevent exit. Relatively few studies have examined what can be learned from exper…
The multiple and competing functions of local reviews of serious child abuse cases in England
When children are killed or seriously harmed from abuse or neglect, there is pressure to ‘learn the lessons’ to prevent similar events. England has a long-established system of locally-based multi-agency reviews for this, but the recurrence of tragedies and repetitive findings raise questions about its effectiveness. Reflecting and building on our research into reviews completed between 2017 and 2021, we analyse the complexity that routine critic…
Re-envisaging professional curiosity and challenge
The team as a secure base revisited
Purpose Social work teams can provide a secure base for social workers, supporting them to manage the emotional demands of child and family social work (Biggart et al., 2017). As the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated increased remote working, social workers have needed to maximise their use of virtual networks and navigate new ways of connecting with colleagues. This study aims to examine the extent to which social work teams can function as a s…
Virtual Home Visits during the Covid-19 Pandemic
The home visit is a key aspect of child and family social work. Following the announcement of lockdown in England, all but the most urgent of home visits ‘went virtual’ overnight. During lockdown, we spoke to 31 child and family social workers across nine local authorities in England as they began to undertake virtual home visits. Here, we focus on social workers’ reflections on virtual practice and consider the possibilities, limitations and fut…
The home visit in child protection social work
This article conceptualises the role of emotion in social work home visits. It draws on findings from a qualitative study of initial child protection home visits in the United Kingdom. The research used narrative interviews and focus groups to examine how emotions arising from visits were registered in social workers' narratives. These visits were often challenging; social workers needed to manage their own emotions and those of the family, while…
The team as a secure base
The team as a secure base revisited
Purpose Social work teams can provide a secure base for social workers, supporting them to manage the emotional demands of child and family social work (Biggart et al., 2017). As the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated increased remote working, social workers have needed to maximise their use of virtual networks and navigate new ways of connecting with colleagues. This study aims to examine the extent to which social work teams can function as a s…
The home visit in child protection social work
This article conceptualises the role of emotion in social work home visits. It draws on findings from a qualitative study of initial child protection home visits in the United Kingdom. The research used narrative interviews and focus groups to examine how emotions arising from visits were registered in social workers' narratives. These visits were often challenging; social workers needed to manage their own emotions and those of the family, while…
Virtual Home Visits during the Covid-19 Pandemic
The home visit is a key aspect of child and family social work. Following the announcement of lockdown in England, all but the most urgent of home visits ‘went virtual’ overnight. During lockdown, we spoke to 31 child and family social workers across nine local authorities in England as they began to undertake virtual home visits. Here, we focus on social workers’ reflections on virtual practice and consider the possibilities, limitations and fut…
The team as a secure base
The multiple and competing functions of local reviews of serious child abuse cases in England
When children are killed or seriously harmed from abuse or neglect, there is pressure to ‘learn the lessons’ to prevent similar events. England has a long-established system of locally-based multi-agency reviews for this, but the recurrence of tragedies and repetitive findings raise questions about its effectiveness. Reflecting and building on our research into reviews completed between 2017 and 2021, we analyse the complexity that routine critic…
Re-envisaging professional curiosity and challenge
The team as a secure base
The home visit in child protection social work
This article conceptualises the role of emotion in social work home visits. It draws on findings from a qualitative study of initial child protection home visits in the United Kingdom. The research used narrative interviews and focus groups to examine how emotions arising from visits were registered in social workers' narratives. These visits were often challenging; social workers needed to manage their own emotions and those of the family, while…
The team as a secure base revisited
Purpose Social work teams can provide a secure base for social workers, supporting them to manage the emotional demands of child and family social work (Biggart et al., 2017). As the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated increased remote working, social workers have needed to maximise their use of virtual networks and navigate new ways of connecting with colleagues. This study aims to examine the extent to which social work teams can function as a s…
Virtual Home Visits during the Covid-19 Pandemic
The home visit is a key aspect of child and family social work. Following the announcement of lockdown in England, all but the most urgent of home visits ‘went virtual’ overnight. During lockdown, we spoke to 31 child and family social workers across nine local authorities in England as they began to undertake virtual home visits. Here, we focus on social workers’ reflections on virtual practice and consider the possibilities, limitations and fut…
The multiple and competing functions of local reviews of serious child abuse cases in England
When children are killed or seriously harmed from abuse or neglect, there is pressure to ‘learn the lessons’ to prevent similar events. England has a long-established system of locally-based multi-agency reviews for this, but the recurrence of tragedies and repetitive findings raise questions about its effectiveness. Reflecting and building on our research into reviews completed between 2017 and 2021, we analyse the complexity that routine critic…
Re-envisaging professional curiosity and challenge
Social workers in schools
This study evaluated the feasibility of ‘Social Workers in Schools’, an intervention that involved social workers being based within schools across three local authorities in England (SWIS). Schools make a large number of referrals to Children's Social Care and play an important role in recognizing risks to children and protecting them from harm, but it is unusual for social workers to be based in schools in the U.K. and to do statutory work. We …
Special issue on social work teams
We are delighted to introduce two inter-linked special issues on social work teams. Teams play a vital role in supporting social work practice. Social work evokes powerful emotions for practitioner
Involved but not included
Children growing up with a parent with mental ill-health are a hidden and vulnerable group. Positioned at the intersection between adult and children services, and health and social care, these children fall between the gaps, rarely acknowledged in policy or practice. This is exacerbated when the young person is excluded under the auspices of patient confidentiality and age appropriateness. This article reports findings from research which captur…
‘Being a Social Worker … It's in My DNA’ Retaining Experienced Child and Family Social Workers
The retention of experienced child and family social workers is a significant issue in the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe. Failure to retain experienced practitioners has serious implications for the protection and support of vulnerable children. Existing research and workforce interventions have focused on the support of early‐career social workers to prevent exit. Relatively few studies have examined what can be learned from exper…
Emotional labour in child and family social work teams
Achieving good outcomes for children and families engaged in the social care system relies upon a healthy, confident, and stable workforce. However, child protection social work has been identified as an emotionally demanding area of practice, linked to staff burnout and poor retention. This article draws on a hybrid ethnography of two child and family social work teams in England during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings iden…
The role of teams in social worker wellbeing and retention
We are delighted introduce the second special issue on social work teams. The first special issue focused on how teams contribute to assessment and sense-making in social work. This special issue f
Practice education in social work
Practice learning is central to the pedagogy of social work education; it enables students to link theory and practice, and supports them to develop the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to enter the profession. In England, practice educators—experienced qualified social workers who have undertaken relevant training—are responsible for providing learning opportunities and assessing students’ practice learning. This article outlines a scop…
Reflective group interventions with social workers
Social work is a rewarding yet highly demanding profession, and supporting practitioners to manage the emotional and practical demands of the role is key to addressing ongoing challenges in the recruitment and retention of social workers. Reflective group interventions (RGIs)—such as group supervision and reflective case discussion groups—are commonly used to support social workers, however, comparatively little is known about the effectiveness o…
Psychology (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Social Work Education and Practice (11 works) · Social Work (10 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Child Abuse and Trauma (7 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Engineering (6 works)