Young people’s involvement with domestic homicide reviews

Applications are invited for a full time PhD scholarship at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling. The scholarship is available to support a 3-year research degree. We are committed to creating a workplace that promotes and values diversity. We strongly encourage applications from people from diverse backgrounds including gender identity, race, age, class, and ethnicity.
This studentship is part of ‘Children and families affected by domestic abuse: Enhancing innovation in social care’ (CAFADA). The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, as part of their Innovations in Social Care Programme. The project has 8 other Co-investigators and is led from the University of Stirling, by Professor Jane Callaghan at the Centre for Child Wellbeing and Protection.
This studentship will focus on young people’s involvement with domestic homicide reviews
Domestic Homicide Reviews are conducted in England and Wales, to review the circumstances under which a person whose death is as a result of domestic violence. This is achieved through the production of a multi-agency account of the circumstances surrounding the death. It is intended that such reviews will contribute to learning for all agencies involved to help prevent future similar deaths and to the recovery of surviving family members. Although DHRs were established in the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, there is no guidance or process for the involvement of children in these. Recent statutory guidance has emphasised the importance of such involvement. A systematic search of the literature in 2018 suggested a lack of good practice guidelines for organisations supporting children affected by domestic homicide. Stanley et al (2018) found that, although some children had been directly exposed DA, and some had witnessed the homicide itself, few were directly involved in the review process.
The studentship will involve using action research and co-production methods, to work with young people, other family members and advocates to reflect on and refine a model of good practice for professionals supporting children through DHRs. The student will work closely with our partner AAFDA, who supports families and other involved persons through the DHR process and have begun to offer support for children to be involved.

Hosted in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Stirling, the PhD student will be ideally positioned to develop advanced skills in qualitative research and research with vulnerable groups during the project, whilst concurrently engaging with experts in gender-based violence, social policy and social work. The research will be supervised by Professor Jane Callaghan and Dr Fiona Morrison at the Centre for Child Wellbeing and Protection. The student will be encouraged to develop and disseminate research outputs and will have opportunities to develop their professional skills such as with advanced training opportunities and chances to gain experience of academic activities including teaching opportunities. The project’s research is a priority area of social policy and social work and on completion the PhD programme the student should be extremely well placed to secure further academic and research positions.