Lucille Allain is Professor of Social Work (Practice) and Head of Department of the Department of Mental Health and Social Work. She is academic lead for a range of partnership projects including Think Ahead, Step Up to Social Work and the North London Social Work Teaching Partnership. She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate social work students and experienced practitioners undertaking CPD programmes.
Lucille is a qualified social worker with a postgraduate social work award and is registered with Social Work England. Her first degree was in history and politics; she has a MSc Social Research Methods and a Professional Doctorate focused on social work practice with care experienced young people. She holds PG Certificates in Higher Education and in Health and Social Services Management and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Lucille has over 20 years' experience working in London local authorities. She worked as a social worker, team manager and strategic commissioning manager before moving to a joint appointment role with Middlesex University and Barnet Council. There she successfully developed a postgraduate social work trainee scheme for a number of London boroughs. Lucille has also led social work at the University of East London as Associate Dean.
Her doctoral research focused on young people leaving care and service user involvement in social work education. One of her recent, jointly-led research projects involves researching Special Guardianship Orders and connected persons placements for looked after children and their carers. She has completed research and published in the area of interprofessional learning including in adult social care where she was led a project evaluating interprofessional working relationships between social workers in adult social care and trainee GPs across London.
Lucille has published social work texts focused on social work with looked after children, advanced social work practice with children and families and more recently, an edited book on observation in health and social care. Lucille has also written a number of journal articles and presented her work at national and international conferences. She is currently an independent panel member and Vice-Chair of a local authority Fostering and Permanency Panel.
Lucille has taught on social work programmes from undergraduate to postgraduate level since 2002. She has expertise and an interest in child and family social work, including looked after children and fostering and adoption. She also has expertise in skills teaching and preparing students to meet readiness for direct practice requirements.
She teaches social workers and managers practice education, supervision skills and leadership and management. She is experienced in curriculum design for professional social work education programmes and recently developed a new programme in partnership with the Business School- MA/MBA Leadership and Management (Social Work). Lucille has extensive experience of successfully building and enhancing employer stakeholder engagement within the curriculum and involving service users and carers.
Lucille's research is rooted in her interest in professional social work practice and education, in particular in the field of looked after children, fostering and adoption and leaving care. Lucille has also published in the area of interprofessional practice and education. She has presented her work at a number of conferences, including at the Joint Social Work Education Conference and at European Social Work Research Conferences. Recently, Lucille has been researching practice relating to the experiences of looked after children, their carers and professionals in relation to connected persons placements and Special Guardianship Orders. She has also recently completed evaluative research with colleagues focused on interprofessional working in adult social care involving trainee GPs and social workers.
Publications
Hingley-Jones, H, Parkinson, C, Allain, L. (2016) ‘A foot in the door?’ Getting ready for social work practice through baby and young child observation’. Journal of Social Work Practice 30, 3, pp249-265
Villadsen, A, Allain, L, Hingley-Jones, H and Bell, L (2012) ‘The use of role-play and drama in interprofessional education: An evaluation of a workshop with social work, midwifery, early years and medical students. Social Work Education Journal, 31(1) pp75-78
Bell, L. and Allain, L. (2010) ‘Exploring Professional Stereotypes and Learning for Inter-professional Practice: An Example from UK Qualifying Level Social Work Education’. Social Work Education, The International Journal, pp1470-1227
Hingley-Jones, H & Allain, L, (2008) ‘Integrating Services for Disabled Children and their Families in two English Local Authorities’. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 22 (5)
Allain, L. (2007) ‘An Investigation of how a group of social workers respond to the cultural needs of black, minority ethnic looked after children’. Practice, Vol. 19, pp127-141
Allain, L. Cosis-Brown, H. Danso, C. Dillon, J. Finnegan, P. Gadhoke, S. Shamash, M. & Whittaker F. (2006) ‘User and Carer Involvement in Social Work Education- A University Case Study: Manipulation or Citizen Control?’ Social Work Education, Vol. 25, 4, pp 403-413
Authored Books:
Cocker, C. and Allain, L. (2018) (forthcoming) Social Work with Looked After Children (3rd edition) Exeter, Learning Matters
Edited Books
Hingley-Jones, H, Parkinson C & Allain, L, (eds) (2017) Therapeutic Observation in Health & Social Care: New Discoveries for Learning, Practice and Research, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Cocker C and Allain L (eds) (2011) Advanced Social Work with Children and Families (Post Qualifying Social Work Practice) Exeter, Learning Matters
Book Chapters
Allain, L (2017) ‘To know’, ‘to do’ and ‘to be’: ‘Learning through observation in medical training, teaching, midwifery and social work’ in Hingley-Jones, H; Parkinson, C; Allain, L (2017) (eds) Therapeutic observation in health and social care: New discoveries for learning, practice, and research. London: Jessica Kingsley
Allain, L; Parkinson, C and Hingley-Jones, H. (2017) ‘Conclusion: Observation looking forward’ in Hingley-Jones, H; Parkinson, C; Allain, L (2017) (eds) Therapeutic observation in health and social care: New discoveries for learning, practice, and research. London: Jessica Kingsley
Parkinson, C, Allain, L and Hingley-Jones, H. (2017) ‘Introduction: Observation for our Times' in Hingley-Jones, H; Parkinson, C; Allain, L (2017) (eds) Therapeutic observation in health and social care: New discoveries for learning, practice, and research. London: Jessica Kingsley
Allain L, Cocker C with Hinds O, Naluwaga E and Babondock A (2011) 'What's Important for Looked After Children? The Views of Young People Leaving Care' in C Cocker and L Allain (eds) Advanced Social Work Practice with Children and Families Exeter, Learning Matters
Allain, L and Hingley-Jones, H (2011) 'Policy and Legislative Frameworks in Contemporary Child and Family Social Work 'in C Cocker and L Allain (eds) Advanced Social Work Practice with Children and Families Exeter, Learning Matters
Allain, L and Hingley-Jones, H (2011) 'Safeguarding children: the complexities of contemporary practice and the importance of working with emotions' in C Cocker and L Allain (eds) Advanced Social Work Practice with Children and Families Exeter, Learning Matters.
View more publications2018- Think Ahead programme- knowledge exchange
2016-2019 -North London Social Work Teaching Partnership (NLSWTP) knowledge exchange
2016-2019 -Step Up to Social Work- (north London partnership) knowledge exchange
2015-2018: Principal investigator- funding obtained from HENCEL project to teach and evaluate interprofessional learning involving GP trainees and adult social workers- £60,000
2015-2017- Grant obtained (Middlesex University Small Grants) for research project 'Exploring the use of connected person's placements and Special Guardianship Orders across three local authorities', with Helen Hingley-Jones- £4,000
2013- 'Step Up to Social Work' programme- UEL delivered in partnership with three local authorities
2013- Project grant of £10,000 to develop e-learning materials UEL
2010-11: London Borough of Haringey training for overseas social workers-knowledge exchange
2008-2012 - Children's 'common core' workforce training -Barnet Council- knowledge exchange
Lucille is social work academic lead for a number of external partnership projects including Think Ahead, Step Up to Social Work and the North London Social Work Teaching Partnership. Lucille chairs the Social Work Stakeholder Group at Middlesex University and has extensive professional links with local authorities and a range of employers across the social care sector. She has experience of developing partnership networks and designing and delivering innovative programmes in health and social care.
