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Cate Thomas |
| Postgraduate degree you are enrolled for |
Doctor of Philosophy (Government & International Relations) |
| Supervisor |
Dr Ariadne Vromen |
| When started |
2008 |
| Full time or part time |
Part-time |
| Profile of yoursel |
Cate has worked predominantly in government (NSW and ACT) for over 20 years in a range of management, policy and planning, funding, and operational positions in the fields of disability, child and family welfare, and children and young people.
Cate has also worked in the non-government disability sector and was integral in establishing not for profit disability advocacy services. Cate has worked (and is published) in the area of the rights of people with intellectual disability coming into contact with the legal system, and was previously an academic staff member at Charles Sturt University in Humanities and Social Sciences.
Cate completed a Master of Public Administration (Economics & Business, Sydney University) in 2007 and received a NSW Premier’s Silver Award in 2008 for her work in the research to practice area.
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| Thesis topic or title |
The Research Utilisation Nexus: Putting Research into Practice.
An examination of research to practice utilisation in a child welfare context in New South Wales
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| Information about your thesis |
Evidence-based practice and policy is a relatively new concept in a human service perspective. It has been adapted from the medical field, however, even though there is literature on the broad concept of translating such an approach to a human service or social work setting – there is little literature of an evidence-based approach in a child welfare context. The aim of the research is to establish whether managers, practitioners and policy-makers in a child welfare context in NSW use research to inform practice and policy-making.
Undertaking the study will address an absence of academic literature both nationally and internationally on the topic; add to the understanding of the influences on the uptake of evidence-based practice and policy-making; and add to the understanding of barriers and enablers of evidence-based practice and policy-making.
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