Dr Claire McLoone-Richards

Claire McLoone

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Violence Prevention, Trauma and Criminology

School of Psychology

Department of Violence Prevention, Trauma and Criminology

Contact Details

email: c.richards@worc.ac.uk
tel: 01905 542487

Claire has an ongoing commitment to her personal and professional development; the benefits of which she hopes should be evident in her dealings and contacts with students and colleagues on a personal and professional basis. Claire has enjoyed her career within academia and relish the opportunity of teaching and inspiring students in their journeys of development and education. She has a lively interest in human rights issues, particularly regarding the rights of children. Claire attended the 60th Session on the Commission of Human Rights at the United Nations in Geneva when she campaigned for a world moratorium on the death penalty, which also affects children in other countries who could be executed for crimes through an adult court system.

As a qualified barrister she has an acute appreciation of the relevant statutory frameworks for protecting children and young people and vulnerable adults, specifically in the contexts of experiences of violence and abuse. Claire is committed to highlighting the obligation of agencies and professionals to work more effectively together to promote the interests of children and to improve service delivery for them and their families. She consistently promotes the importance of the voice of the child with an emphasis on the rights of the child, and vulnerable adults to the students she teaches and within other for an outside the University.

In her previous roles before working in academia, she developed and implemented a multi-agency strategy for dealing with domestic abuse concerns in Worcestershire; this enabled the development of a co-ordinated agency response to addressing domestic abuse. Claire also formulated a comprehensive programme of training for statutory and voluntary sector agencies in promoting an awareness of domestic abuse and related issues of the law in the context of human rights and child protection. Claire was a key representative for the Worcestershire Forum in public awareness campaigns and she has had considerable positive contact with local media as part of campaign and public awareness-raising.

Her previous experience of partnership working evolved a legacy of useful connecting links with the West Mercia Criminal Justice Board; Worcestershire Crime and Disorder Partnership and particularly as a contributor to the Multi-Agency Public Protection Panel, offering expert opinion in the context of risk assessment of vulnerable children and adults living with domestic abuse, substance misuse and other issues which can impact on parenting and caring for children. Claire was Chair of the Association for England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (BASPCAN), now known as the AoCPP.

Qualifications

  • Registered Mental Nurse RMN
  • Certificate Management Studies CMS
  • Certificate in Individual and Family Counselling CIFC
  • Diploma in Humanistic Counselling Dip. Couns.
  • Bachelor of Laws, LL.B (Hons) Law
  • Masters International Human Rights LL.M, Bar Vocational Course - Barrister
  • Post-graduate Certificate in Higher Education PGCE
  • PhD Education

Teaching Interests

  • Children’s rights and promoting the voice of the child and meaningful participation of children in issues affecting their lives and welfare.
  • Child protection and safeguarding children and young people.
  • Sociological perspectives on childhood, with particular interest on the influences of religion and cultural norms and traditions.
  • Professional values and professional practice.
  • Developing reflective dispositions in students in preparation for professional practice
  • Professional advocacy in practice

Research Interests

  • Professional advocacy and professional practice.
  • Domestic and Sexual Violence
  • Violence prevention and public health responses
  • Historical and Cultural perspectives and the experiences of childhood
  • The culture of organisations in promoting the rights of the child
  • Institutional child abuse.
  • Familicide
  • Sibling Violence

Membership of Professional Bodies

  • Membership of the Association of Child Protection Professionals (AoCPP) 

Recent Publications

Richards, C. (2009) Safeguarding Children: Every Child Matters so Everybody Matters! In, Reed, M. & Canning, N. (eds.) Reflective Practice in the Early Years. London, Sage.

Richards, C. (2011) Quality Matters because Quality Protects. In, Reed, M. & Canning, N. (eds.) Quality Improvement in the Early Years. London, Sage.

Richards, C. (2011) FIT FOR PARENTING. An evaluation study of the Parenting Assessment Manual (P.A.M.) in Worcestershire in assessing the Parenting Capacity of Adults with Learning Disabilities.

McLoone- Richards, C. (2012) ‘Say Nothing! How Pathology within Catholicism created and sustained the Institutional Abuse of Children in 20th century Ireland’, in Child Abuse Review 21: 394-404. DOI:10.1002/car.2209.

Richards, C. (2012) ‘Children Who Are Seen But Not Heard; Early Childhood perspectives on meaningful listening to and engaging with young children’, British

Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (BASCPAN) Congress 2012, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland (April)

Richards, C. (2013) Journal of Beliefs and Values: Studies in Religion and Education. Book Review- Keenan, M. (2012) CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE & THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Gender, Power and Organizational Culture. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Richards, C. (2014) Safeguarding Children. In, Dryden, L. & Mukherji, P. (eds.) Foundations of Early Childhood. London, Sage.

Richards, C. (2014) Professional discussions and challenges in safeguarding and protecting children. In, Reed, M. & Walker, R. (eds.) A Critical Companion on Early Childhood Studies. London, Sage.

Richards, C. (2014) ‘I know I am just the student but’….an education provider’s perspective in supporting students to raise concerns about professional practice in the context of safeguarding concerns about children.’ A Child’s World Conference, Aberyswyth University, Wales, (June ).

Richards, C. (2015) ‘Domestic Violence is a Public health Issue: a perspective from Early Childhood.’ National Centre for the Study and Prevention of Violence and Abuse (NCSPVA) Conference, 51视频, (February).

Richards, C. (2015) ‘Wicked Ideas in Research’ Early Childhood Conference, 51视频, (February).

Buckler, S., Coupe, T., Eason, A., Richards, C.M. & Woolley, R. (2015) Breaking the Silence. (Paper Presentation). 9th BASPCAN International Congress. Edinburgh, Scotland. 12 - 15 April.

Richards, C.M. & Gallagher, S. (2017) Common Vigilance: a perspective on the role of the community in safeguarding children. In, Brown, Z. & Ward, S. (eds.) Contemporary Issues in Childhood: an ecological approach. Abingdon, Routledge.

McGregor, K., Stephens-Lewis, D., Richards, C.M., Gilchrist, E., Taylor-Dunn, H. & Jones, R. (2016) An Exploration of Healthcare Professionals’ Personal and Professional Experience of Domestic Violence and Abuse. NCSPVA, 51视频.

Richards, C. (2017) An Exploration of Healthcare Professionals’ Personal and Professional Experience of Domestic Violence and Abuse. (Paper Presentation based on study by McGregor (2016) et al.) International Congress on Law and Mental Health (IALMH) Congress, Prague. 10-14 July.

Richards, C. (2017) ‘Hurt Healers as a Medical Emergency’: An Exploration of Healthcare Professionals’ Personal and Professional Experience of Domestic Violence and Abuse. (Paper Presentation based on study by McGregor (2016) et al.) Institute of Violence and Trauma (IVAT) International Summit, San Diego. 24-28 September.

Richards, C (2017) ‘A Private Matter?’ Addressing Domestic Abuse in the Healthcare Sector. (Presentation based on study by McGregor (2016) et al.) Institute of Violence and Trauma (IVAT) International Summit, San Diego. 24-28 September.

Richards, C.M. (2019) “Is it safe?”…Creating safe reflective spaces and places for practitioners in mentoring and supervision of safeguarding children. In, Gasper, M.& Walker, R. (eds) Mentoring, Coaching and Supervision in the Early Years: theory and practice. London, Bloomsbury.

Richards, C.M. (2018) “The boys won’t leave the girls alone!”:The importance of advocacy and educational leadership in addressing School-Related-Gender-Based-Violence (SRGBV). International Conference on Education Quality, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir. 14 to 16 March 2018. (accepted for publication as part of conference proceedings).

Richards, C.M. (2019) ‘Looking Back in Anger’ the impact of mother and child trauma experiences in the context of Domestic Violence and Abuse. In, Fleet, A. & Reed, M. (eds.) Thinking about Pedagogy in Early Education: Multiple Early Childhood Identities. London, Routledge (December 2018).

McLoone-Richards, C.M. (2019) “Speak Up and Speak Out!” Your Role in Promoting Child Advocacy , Personal and Professional Implications. International Conference International Conference on Education Quality, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir. 13 to 15 March 2019.

McLoone-Richards, C.M. (2019) “We should all be Feminists!”: the Significance of a Feminist Informed Pedagogy in Preventing Children’s Experience of Violence in Educational Contexts and Beyond. International Conference International Conference on Education Quality, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir. 13 to 15 March 2019.

Richards, C.M. (2020) “The boys won’t leave the girls alone!”:The importance of advocacy and educational leadership in addressing School-Related-Gender-Based-Violence (SRGBV). In, Bendou, A., Jones, C., Thornburgh, D. & Bracken, S. (eds.) Issues in Education Quality: Teaching, Volume 1. Agadir, Ibn Zohr University.

McLoone-Richards, C. & Robinson, C. (2020) ‘I know I am just a student but…’: the challenges for educators in students to develop their advocacy skills in protecting children. Early Years: An International Research Journal, DOI:1080/09575146.2020.17409036

McLoone-Richards, C. (2021) A critical examination of “Doing Advocacy” and “Negotiating Power” in Child Protection Practice in Early Childhood Care and Education. (Doctoral Dissertation, 51视频, UK).