PRiCe (Practice Research in Child Welfare) lab
Practice Research in Child Welfare (PRiCe) lab is a research group at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust led by Dr Philip Archard and is closely connected to two of our doctoral programmes in social work and social care, and child, community, and educational psychology.
PRiCe focusses on research in child and adolescent mental health and child welfare, with an emphasis on qualitative research methods, particularly those informed by ideas from psychoanalysis, and practitioner-initiated and service-initiated research.
The lab’s work also involves researching the research itself, examining the conceptualisation of research that is close to professional practice in health and social care service settings. This process fosters a critical learning environment for doctoral researchers and supports building research capacity by equipping future graduates to lead research and knowledge exchange activity in the field.
What we do
Current and recently completed doctoral projects linked to PRiCe include studies on social worker experiences in child and adolescent mental health services and child protection social work, the needs and experiences of foster carers, and trauma-informed practice and suicide postvention in secondary school settings.
Dr Archard is also engaged in research focussing on child welfare inequalities and mental health, and assessment practices in child and adolescent mental health service settings.
Who we work with
We work with researchers across disciplines, based at different institutions nationally and internationally (e.g., at the Centre for Forensic and Family Psychology, University of Nottingham, the Dynamic Psychology Laboratory, University of Naples Federico II, and the School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley).
We’re keen to hear from frontline professionals and services, as well as other researchers who are interested in the use of qualitative psychosocial research methods in child and adolescent mental health.
Contact us
If you would like to collaborate with us or find out more about our work, please get in touch.