
Dr Verity Bennett
Research Associate
- bennettcv@cardiff.ac.uk
- Neuadd Meirionnydd, University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4YS
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am a Research Associate in the Children's Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE). I am currently working on a project funded by the Department for Education which places Social Workers in schools (SWIS) to improve how education and Children’s Social Care (CSC) respond to safeguarding concerns. An increasing number of children in the UK receive services from social care, and about 18% of all referrals to CSC come from schools. It has been suggested that by placing social workers within the school environment, there is a greater scope for improvement in multi-agency communication, cooperation and preventative work, however very little research has been conducted in this area. The project is a cluster randomised controlled trial across 21 local authorities in England, and the primary outcome measure is a reduction in child protection (Section 47) enquiries. My role focuses on working with the SWIS team to conduct an integrated process evaluation within this trial. This process evaluation will elucidate the underlying mechanisms of the intervention, or ‘how’ the intervention works in different contexts across the schools receiving the intervention.
I am also currently leading a study funded by a Welcome Trust ISSF Cross-Disciplinary Award investigating the feasibility of using cutting edge, unsupervised, big-data, text mining methods to investigate parents’ use of social media to discuss burns first aid. Children’s burns are a leading cause of injury in the under 5s, and can be life changing. However only 1 in 4 children attending the Emergency Department with a burn have received appropriate first aid at home. Potentially harmful ‘traditional’ and often bizarre remedies spread via social circles and parents of young children are increasingly using social media to seek and share parenting advice. This study aims to understand the potential utility of this, as yet, un-tapped data source to inform and improve online interventions to improve parents first aid for burns. This work is being conducted in collaboration with researchers in the School of Computer Science and Informatics.
Previously, I have worked on a wide range of research projects in child health including: community and online behaviour change interventions, identifying child maltreatment in health settings and the use of routine data in understanding healthcare service use by children and young people with cerebral palsy. I have a background in analysing complex quantitative datasets, and enjoy cross-disciplinary and mixed methods working.
Biography
Education
University College London (2009-2014), PhD Evolutionary Biology
The University of Machester (2007-2008), MSc Biomechanics: Distinction
The Unviersity of Manchester (2004-2007), BSc(Hons) Geography and Geology: First class
Academic positions
2017-present: Research Associate, Cardiff University
2016-2017: Research Assistant, Cardiff University
Publications
2023
- Bennett, C. V., Hollen, L., Wilkins, D., Emond, A. and Kemp, A. 2023. The impact of a clinical prediction tool (BuRN-Tool) for child maltreatment on social care outcomes for children attending hospital with a burn or scald injury. Burns 49(4), pp. 941-950. (10.1016/j.burns.2022.07.014)
- Maxwell, N., Ablitt, J., Bennett, C., Bezeczky, Z. and Nightingale, M. 2023. Serious Organised Crime Early Intervention Service Evaluation. Project Report. [Online]. Cardiff: CASCADE. Available at: https://cascadewales.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/06/SOCEIS-Evaluation-2023.pdf
- Adara, L. et al. 2023. The Social Workers in Schools Trial: An evaluation of school based social work.. Project Report. Early Intervention Foundation.
2022
- Westlake, D. et al. 2022. The SWIS trial: protocol of a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of school based social work. PLoS ONE 17(6), article number: e0265354. (10.1371/journal.pone.0265354)
2021
- Wilkins, D., Thompson, S., Bezeczky, Z., Daher, S., Bennett, V., Jones, R. and Clayton, V. 2021. A randomised controlled trial of Schwartz Rounds: an intervention to reduce psychological distress for staff in Children's Services. Project Report. [Online]. What Work's for Children's Social Care. Available at: https://whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/a-randomised-controlled-trial-of-schwartz-rounds/
- Wilkins, D., Thompson, S., Bezeczky, Z., Daher, S., Bennett, V., Jones, R. and Clayton, V. 2021. A randomised controlled trial of Schwartz Rounds: An intervention to reduce psychological distress for staff in children's services. Available at: https://whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/a-randomised-controlled-trial-of-schwartz-rounds/
- Cowley, L. E., Bennett, C., Brown, I., Emond, A. and Kemp, A. M. 2021. A mixed-methods process evaluation of SafeTea: A multimedia campaign to prevent hot drink scalds in young children and promote burn first aid. Injury Prevention 27, pp. 419-427. (10.1136/injuryprev-2020-043909)
- Hollen, L., Bennett, V., Nuttall, D., Emond, A. M. and Kemp, A. 2021. Evaluation of the efficacy and impact of a clinical prediction tool to identify maltreatment associated with children’s burns. BMJ Paediatrics Open 5(1), article number: e000796. (10.1136/bmjpo-2020-000796)
- Carter, B., Bennett, C. V., Jones, H., Bethel, J., Perra, O., Wang, T. and Kemp, A. 2021. Healthcare use by children and young adults with cerebral palsy. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 63(1), pp. 75-80. (10.1111/dmcn.14536)
- Glenn, K. et al. 2021. Head computed tomography in suspected physical abuse: time to rethink?. Archives of Disease in Childhood 106(5), pp. 461-466. (10.1136/archdischild-2020-320192)
2020
- Nuttall, D. et al. 2020. Would shared health visitor and emergency department records improve recognition of child maltreatment within the emergency department? A prospective multicentre study. Child Abuse Review 29(6), pp. 518-528. (10.1002/car.2641)
- Hepburn, K. et al. 2020. Burns and Scalds Assessment Template: standardising clinical assessment of childhood burns in the emergency department. Emergency Medicine Journal 37(6), pp. 351-354. (10.1136/emermed-2019-208595)
- Javaid, A. A., Bennett, V., Hollén, L. and Kemp, A. M. 2020. Contact burns: the influence of agents and mechanisms of injury on anatomical burn locations in children <5 years old and associations with child protection referrals. Archives of Disease in Childhood 105, pp. 580-586. (10.1136/archdischild-2019-318140)
- McNulty, C. A. M., Brown, C. L., Syeda, R. B., Bennett, C. V., Schofield, B., Allison, D. G. and Francis, N. 2020. Teacher and student views on the feasibility of peer to peer education as a model to educate 16-18 year olds on prudent antibiotic use-a qualitative study. Antibiotics 9(4), article number: 194. (10.3390/antibiotics9040194)
- McNulty, C. A. M. et al. 2020. Peer-education as a tool to educate on antibiotics, resistance and use in 16-18-year-olds: a feasibility study. Antibiotics 9(4), article number: 146. (10.3390/antibiotics9040146)
- Bennett, C. V., Hollen, L., Quinn-Scoggins, H. D., Emond, A. and Kemp, A. M. 2020. Feasibility of Safe-Tea: A parent targeted intervention to prevent hot drink scalds in pre-school children. Injury Prevention 26(1), pp. 31-41. (10.1136/injuryprev-2018-042921)
2019
- Carter, B., Bennett, C. V., Bethel, J., Jones, H., Wang, T. and Kemp, A. 2019. Identifying cerebral palsy from routinely-collected data in England and Wales. Clinical Epidemiology 2019(11), pp. 457-468. (10.2147/CLEP.S200748)
- Bennett, C. V. et al. 2019. First aid for children's burns in the US and UK: An urgent call to establish and promote international standards. Burns 45(2), pp. 440-449. (10.1016/j.burns.2018.09.003)
2018
- Bennett, C. V., Upchurch, P., Goin, F. J. and Goswami, A. 2018. Deep time diversity of metatherian mammals: implications for evolutionary history and fossil-record quality. Paleobiology 44(2), pp. 171-198. (10.1017/pab.2017.34)