‘Social workers need to understand their power’: June Thoburn on her research career

Since qualifying in the 1960s and then moving into academia, Professor June Thoburn has carried out extensive research, in the UK and overseas, about child protection, family support, adoption and services for children placed away from home. Crucially, she contributed to reforms that allowed parents to attend child protection conferences. She was also part of the advisory groups on both the Children Act 1989 and the Adoption and Children Act 2002, conducting government-commissioned research that informed the latter.