Staff profiles
Dr Anne Hollows
PhD, Graduate Diploma in Social Work, CQSW
Phone 0114 225 2369
E-mail a.e.hollows@shu.ac.uk
Dr Anne Hollows is a principal lecturer and research coordinator for social work in the Centre for Health and Social Care Research. She was appointed in September 1998. She graduated from Nottingham University (Law) in 1972 and qualified as a social worker at the University of Kent, Canterbury in 1974. She was awarded her PhD from Reading University in 2000.
Prior to her appointment at Sheffield Hallam University, Anne taught at the University of East London. She previously headed the Child Abuse Training Unit at the National Children's Bureau for seven years, where she developed training materials for child protection practice under the Children Act 1989, under contract from the Department of Health. Her social work career, in both England and Scotland, included work as a probation officer and as a hospital social worker, as well as a period in research and planning. She has served on and chaired adoption panels, participated in reviews of practice, and has also worked closely with NCH, the Children's Charity, for many years.
Her research focuses on aspects of social work, and inter-professional practice with children and families. In particular she has developed work with an international team on judgement and decision-making, as it operates in the child protection arena. She also works extensively in policy and practice development and evaluation in the field of family support. Much of her current work centres on inter-professional practice, in each of the above areas. Two years ago she completed a Lottery funded project investigating the experiences of professional support of women in the South Asian community who were victims of domestic violence. For some years she has engaged with the work of faith communities in combating child abuse, sexual harassment and domestic violence.
Current research includes evaluation of Sure Start projects in South and West Yorkshire, including a detailed study of the mainstreaming of a trailblazer project. She is involved in a study mapping the qualifications and training in the children's services workforce for the DfES, and evaluation of a complex inter-professional programme of work with children. She currently supervises PhD students working on studies of recruitment and retention in the children's services workforce and on adoption of sibling groups. She continues to work with colleagues in Australia and the USA in a series of studies investigating the ecology of decision making in child protection and is currently developing an international study of the impact on decision making of supervision, in different professional groups.
Dr Hollows has published widely in her field. Russell House Publishers will publish a detailed book written jointly with Dr Len Dalgleish of the University of Queensland, on judgement and decision-making about risk in child protection, in spring 2005. This will be followed by a workbook designed to enable professionals in different disciplines who work with children to develop skills and insights into the work in this area. She is currently editing a book discussing the way forward for child protection in the new configuration of children's services.
