Skip to main content
 Lorna Stabler

Lorna Stabler

Research Associate, CASCADE

Email
stablerl@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 (0)29 2251 0937
Campuses
12 Museum Place, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3BG

Overview

I am currently working within CASCADE as a Research Associate. I am Chief Investigator on an NIHR study focused on understanding how Family Group Conferences can be embedded in statuory child and family social work.

I began my work with CASCADE on a programme of work for the What Work's Centre for Children's Social Care. I previously worked for the Tilda Goldberg Centre for Social Work and Social Care as an embedded researcher within an inner London Local Authority. Prior to working in social work rsearch, I was a researcher at Cambridge University's exam board, and much of my experience to date has involved conceptualisation, measurement and development of complex skills and interventions within education and social work.

I am particularly motivated by understanding what can make a difference for families and young people involved in children's social care, and links between what social worker do and wider family outcomes. With that aim in mind, I have worked on a number of realist informed projects exploring what works well, for whom, under what circumstances in reducing the need for children to be in care. 

I engage widely with the academic community. For example, I am member of a Health and Social Care Wales Research Ethics Committee.

Biography

  • Ongoing - October 2020, PhD researcher, DECIPHER
  • Ongoing - June 2018, Research Associate, CASCADE
  • November 2016 - June 2018, Research Assistant, Tilda Goldberg Centre
  • September 2015 - November 2016, Research Assistant, Cambridge Internation Examinations

Honours and awards

Winston Churchill Memorial Fellow (2019).

Professional memberships

Member of European Social Work Research Association

Speaking engagements

Committees and reviewing

  • Journal reviewer, Qualitative Social Work
  • Journal reviewer, Social Work Education
  • Project reviewer, NSPCC

Publications

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

Teaching

Support lecturing on MA Social Work (years 1 and 2)

Student dissertation supervision (undergraduate and masters)

I strive to work in partnership with staff across different diciplines. I lead a collaborative NIHR funded project drawing on children's social care expertise in CASCADE, Implementation Science expertise in University of Exeter Medical School and social work practice experience with partner local authorities. I have recently worked on a TRIUMPH (Transdisciplinary Research for the Improvement of Youth Mental Public Health) funded project with DECIPHER on adapting online tools to support young people's mental health. In addition, I have worked on a number of bids and projects with researchers across the UK and in Canada.

I am keen to develop a programme of work related to kinship care. I am currently working on an ESRC funded PhD programme exploring sibling kinship carers' experiences and support needs. In addition, I have been awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship in 2019 to travel to countries in Asia (Cambodia, India and Japan) to explore approaches to foster and kinship care.

Supervision

Past projects