Education in Out-of-Home Care

Patricia McNamara is an Australian academic, qualified in education, social work and family therapy. Her extensive practice career encompassed secondary teaching as well as early childhood, primary and secondary school social work. Patricia also worked as a university student counsellor and in child and family mental health. She then undertook doctoral and post-doctoral studies, completing a longitudinal study of adolescent residential treatment. That research had a strong focus on the education experience outcomes of young people living with mental health issues. Patricia has since worked for almost twenty years as a teaching and research academic in social work. Her current research interests include education in out-of-home care and therapeutic approaches to residential and foster care. Together with colleagues from La Trobe University she recently completed a funded scoping of education outcomes of care leavers across Australia. She is currently a Senior Fellow (Hon) in the Department of Social Work at the University of Melbourne where she is engaged in research and postgraduate education.  Carme Montserrat is an academic qualified in education and social psychology. She has worked in the education and welfare systems in Barcelona (Spain) and as a consultant with the Council of Europe. From 2006 she has been teaching in the degrees of Psychology and Social Education at the University of Girona (Spain) and in Masters and Doctoral programs. She is member of the Research Team on Childhood, Adolescence, Children's rights and their Quality of Life within the Research Institute on Quality of Life (IRQV) at the University. Her main areas of research are related to vulnerable children and young people and their well-being. Carme is focused on several domains including education of children in out-of-home care. She participated in the European project known as YIPPEE, which had a strong impact on sector awareness and knowledge about the education outcomes of care leavers. Her current research projects, both at national and cross-national levels, include education and wellbeing approaches to children in foster families (kinship and stranger) and residential homes.  Sarah Wise is an Australian developmental researcher with many years of research, policy and service innovation experience covering a wide range of issues relating to children, parents and families. Her special interest areas are early childhood development, out-of-home care, local area responses and the development of social policy and practice with evidence. Sarah completed her PhD through the Departments of Psychology and Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne on the topic of attachment and wellbeing among foster care children. Sarah has held senior research positions within a Commonwealth Government Statutory Authority and in the not-for-profit child and family welfare sector. Sarah's research has influenced policy and practice decision-making within the child and family service system. It has been directly linked to program innovation and new resources to improve the educational outcomes of children and young people in foster care and residential care. Sarah is currently employed as a Senior Researcher at the University of Melbourne, Department of Social Work.