I am a PhD researcher in Socio-Legal Studies at Lancaster University, currently in the third year of my doctoral research.

My thesis project, titled “Finding Family Across Borders: Challenges and Insights from International Kinship Placements” examines the challenges involved in placing looked-after children with family members in other countries.

In England, when children require out-of-home care, local authorities are required to prioritise placement within the family network. However, identifying and assessing relatives becomes significantly more complex when families and potential caregivers are located abroad. A number of legal instruments are in place both to protect children’s rights, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989), and to regulate the cross-border placement of children, including the 1996 Hague Convention. Despite these frameworks, such cases involve a range of challenges, including cooperation between countries, the assessment of relatives in different jurisdictions, access to reliable information about the child’s potential living conditions, and language barriers. In some cases, additional legal complexities arise, such as the need to secure equivalent or “mirror” orders in the receiving country to ensure that protective measures are recognised and enforceable. These processes require careful consideration by all actors involved to determine what is in the best interests of the child.

Although England and Wales have a highly international population, with 37% of recent births having at least one parent born overseas (ONS, 2024), kinship placements abroad for looked-after children remain rare, making up only around 1% of all children in care (CFAB, 2024), and underscoring the untapped potential of transnational family networks. The topic of international placement of children is also overlooked in the academic literature, with most studies focusing on the legal aspects of the placement process.

With my research, I wanted to bring the focus on the rights of children that are involved in international placements and in particular explore how family justice practitioners involved operate to guarantee the child’s best interest in cases with an international element.

The following research questions reflect the need to explore the under-researched topic of cross-border placement of children while keeping a perspective that focus on the child’s best interest.

1. How does the child protection and care system in England operate in practice when considering cross-border placements for children with potential caregivers overseas, particularly in relation to children’s rights? 

2. What does the available data reveal about the numbers, socio-demographic profiles and outcomes for children placed by local authorities abroad? 

3. What challenges do practitioners in England describe when making placement decisions involving children with extended family in Europe and beyond, and how are children’s rights (including their best interests, participation, and right to family life) considered in court processes and during and after placement? 

4. How can insights from the CFAB dataset and expert interviews inform judicial decision-making in a way that better upholds children’s rights in cross-border placements? What policy and practice recommendations can be developed to strengthen the protection of children’s rights throughout the placement process?  

5. Why are relatively few children placed with family members abroad, despite the ethnic diversity of the population in England and Wales and the over-representation of minority children in the care system, and what are the implications of this for the realisation of children’s rights, including their right to family life, identity, and cultural continuity? 

This project employs a mixed-methods approach, divided into two stages: 

1. The first stage consisted the quantitative analysis of aggregated case data provided by Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB). a London-based organisation providing case management services in cross-border child protection cases;

2. The second stage of this project involves conducting interviews with family justice practitioners with relevant expertise in cross-border placements of children. These experts include children’s guardians, CFAB caseworkers, lawyers representing both children and parents in international placement cases and social workers based both in England and abroad.

By combining quantitative and qualitative data, the study integrates empirical evidence with practitioner insights with the aim of informing policy and practice, ultimately strengthening protection for children with transnational family connections.