Lunchtime webinar – Seeing the whole system: Data, evidence and trust in family justice
Export to calendarAbstract
Family justice research has often lagged behind areas such as health and education, leaving important questions about policy, practice, effectiveness, and impact only partly understood. This matters because decisions made in the family justice system can have profound, lasting consequences for children and families. This talk will show how access to larger datasets, and especially the linking of data across justice, health, education, and welfare, is beginning to change that. These advances allow researchers to see the system more clearly, identify patterns and variation, and assess outcomes more robustly, helping to strengthen evidence, improve accountability, and build greater public confidence.
Bio
Karen Broadhurst is a Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Lancaster University. Karen was awarded an OBE in 2026 for services to child and family justice research, and conferred to the Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2020. Karen is recognised nationally and internationally for high quality, high impact research that has catalysed measurable change in policy and practice, with a specific focus on women and children involved with children’s social care and the family courts. Karen’s team produced the first estimate of women’s repeat appearances in the family courts catalysing major improvements in preventative services for mothers living apart from their children. She designed the Born into Care series for the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, uncovering the scale of infant removals at birth and drawing attention to glaring breaches of women’s rights in the immediate post-partum period. Karen collaborates with colleagues in the US, Australia and in Europe to improve justice for families, with her most recent ESRC funded project focusing on women caught between systems of family and criminal justice, and outcomes for children. Karen has held numerous expert advisory roles, including for the Commission on Justice in Wales, The President of the Family Division’s Public Law Working Group and the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.
Event Details
Event Speakers
