Empowering voices: Parental advocacy and experts-by-experience in child protection and child welfare
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This session brings together two presentations exploring how lived experience can shape child welfare and child protection practice. The first presentation, by Dr Clive Diaz, Rees Centre, University of Oxford, examines parental advocacy services across England, Wales and Ireland, drawing on research with parents, social workers, parent advocates and senior leaders. It considers how advocacy can support parents to participate more effectively in child protection meetings, challenge information they disagree with and navigate complex systems. The presentation compares professional advocacy models in Wales and Ireland with peer advocacy approaches in England, highlighting the strengths, challenges and organisational conditions needed for effective implementation.
The second presentation, by Tanja Koskinen, social worker and PhD student, University of Helsinki, Finland, focuses on experts-by-experience activities in Finnish child welfare. Drawing on preliminary findings from doctoral research, it explores how lived experience is recognised as credible knowledge within service development, and professional practice. It considers how these activities can both challenge and reproduce epistemic injustice, and reflects on what is needed to ensure meaningful participation and the legitimate involvement of experts-by-experience.
Parental Advocacy in the UK and Ireland: Empowering Voices in Child Protection Social Work
Speaker: Dr Clive Diaz
Abstract: This session presents findings from research on parental advocacy services across England, Wales, and Ireland. Drawing on observations of practice , interviews, focus groups and workshops with parents, social workers, parent advocates and senior leaders, the research explores how parental advocacy is implemented and the impact it has on child protection practice.
The findings highlight how parental advocacy can help parents participate more effectively in meetings, challenge information they disagree with and navigate complex child protection processes and meetings. The session compares professional advocacy models in Wales and Ireland with peer advocacy approaches in England, examining the strengths and challenges of each. It also considers the conditions needed for effective advocacy, including role clarity, supervision, training and organisational support.
Key takeaways:
- A deeper understanding of how parental advocacy can improve parents’ opportunities to participate in child protection processes.
- Insights into the advantages and challenges of professional and peer advocacy models.
- Practical lessons for implementing and sustaining effective parental advocacy services within children’s social care.
Epistemic Injustice Challenged and Reproduced in Experts-by-Experience Activities in Social Work and Child Welfare
Speaker: Tanja Koskinen
Abstract: Experts-by-experience (EBE) activities have become an increasingly important part of social work and child welfare. EBE expertise is grounded in lived experience and contributes to service development, decision-making, and professional practice. In Finland, EBE activities involving young people and parents in child welfare have developed significantly over the past two decades, yet there is still limited research on how experiential knowledge is recognised as credible and legitimate within these activities. This matters because EBE activities are often expected to strengthen participation and ensure that lived experience informs services, policy, and practice.
Drawing on preliminary findings from an ongoing doctoral study, this presentation explores how EBE activities can both challenge and reproduce epistemic injustice. While these activities may create opportunities for recognising and amplifying lived experience, they can also reinforce epistemic hierarchies. The presentation highlights the conditions under which lived experience is recognised as legitimate knowledge in social work and child welfare EBE activities and discusses what this means for epistemic justice, participation, and the meaningful involvement of EBEs.
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Bio
Dr Clive Diaz is a Senior Academic Leader at the Rees Centre for Research in Fostering and Education. His research focuses on children’s social care, particularly children and young people’s participation, parental advocacy, and the implementation of national policy in frontline practice. He has led studies on children’s participation in care reviews, parental advocacy and family experiences of children’s services across the UK and Ireland. Clive has published widely and brings together academic, practice and therapeutic perspectives, drawing on his background in social work leadership and psychotherapy.
Tanja Koskinen (M.Soc.Sc.) is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and a licensed social worker. Her research examines experts-by-experience in social work and child welfare, with a particular focus on epistemic justice and the ethical tensions that emerge in participation practices. Alongside her academic work, she has extensive professional experience in child welfare practice and the development of child and family services.
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