Practice
We work with children’s services professionals at all levels and across all agencies, helping them to change and improve the way they respond to vulnerable children and their families.
We work with children’s services professionals at all levels and across all agencies, helping them to change and improve the way they respond to vulnerable children and their families.
We work at local and national level, developing strategies for new ways of working and project managing initiatives that translate policies into practice.
We conduct small-scale service reviews, work with university partners on quantitative and qualitative research studies, and advise agencies conducting their own audits and evaluations.
29 June 1951 – 23 November 2017
It is now a year since the death of Liz, our beloved friend and work colleague with whom we worked closely for over 15 years. We continue to be inspired by her passionate commitment to supporting vulnerable children and families, and doing so in ways that were all about ‘working with’ rather than ‘doing to’ families. We have been comforted during the year by the many expressions of high praise for Liz’s work. Only last week an eminent academic told us: “I know what an important force for good she was in our field.”
Click here for our full obituary about Liz’s life and work.
Mary Ryan and Jo Tunnard
December 2018
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Working together as RyanTunnardBrown for over 15 years, we bring to our work a unique combination of skills and experience in social work, law, education, policy and research.
Our aim is to help organisations make a tangible difference to children’s lives and life chances, drawing on what we have learnt over the years about the essential ingredients of work with children and families.
Scroll through the website pages to read about our work and publications.
Working with FRG who facilitated this England and Wales Review, prompted by the rise in care proceedings and number of children in care, and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. The Review findings were launched in London and Cardiff in July 2018. Social care and family justice stakeholders are now engaged in pursuing the Review’s 20 suggestions about possible changes to local authority and court systems, and national and local policies and practice, to help manage demand in ways that are consistent with achieving the best outcomes for children.
For all the documents about the Review’s activities and findings, including our report about Options for Change, the academic review of evidence about factors contributing to the crisis, and analysis of survey responses from practitioners and family members, click here.
Research in Practice Change Project on Recurrent Care
Project management of this RiP change project, run together with Lancaster and Essex Universities, working with representatives from 12 local authorities on setting up, or further developing, services for women who have had children removed more than once through care proceedings. The project runs from November 2017 to Autumn 2018.
Commissioned by RiP
As members of the Brunel/Lancaster University research team, we have completed 2 further studies about FDAC.
One is about outcomes 5 years on. It finds that FDAC continues to do better than ordinary care proceedings in terms of substance misuse cessation and family reunification.
The other study is about FDAC court practice across England. It finds that all FDAC judges observed are implementing the problem-solving model and wish to extend it to other types of care cases.
Commissioned by the Department for Education
The 20 ideas, arising from the Review, for changes to local authority and court systems, and national and local policies and practice, that will help reduce the number of care applications and of children in the care system.
