Dr. Trevor Spratt

Dr. Trevor Spratt was appointed AIB Professor in Childhood Research and Director of the Children’s Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin, in 2015. The Children’s Research Centre  undertakes multi-disciplinary policy and practice-relevant research into the lives of children and young people and forges strong links both nationally and internationally with researchers, service providers and policy makers in the field of child and youth research, including the ‘Growing Up in Ireland’ longitudinal study.

Dr. Spratt’s research interests focus across five main strands, which are:

• How organisations translate policy objectives into practice; how social workers make sense of such changes in direction in their work with families, and how families themselves experience the product of such changes.
• How theoretical propositions can be developed and tested in an attempt to help address some of the relational and ethical dilemmas faced by social workers in their everyday practice.
• The impact of Multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences (MACE) into adulthood, involving international research
• International comparisons of child protection systems
• Combining of data sets to identify populations with characteristics associated with poor child and adult health and social outcomes to inform the work of service providers and policy makers.  

In addition to these areas of interest, Dr. Spratt has undertaken a number of evaluative research projects within both the voluntary and statutory sectors providing health and social care in Northern Ireland.  He has chaired an internal Trust review following the death of a child and chaired and authored a Case Management Review Report following the death of a child in care.

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