Mike Stein Editor & Author

Mike Stein is a Research Professor in the Social Policy Research Unit at York University, UK. He is also a qualified social worker and has worked as a probation officer, a senior child care officer and an area manager in a social services department. He has spent the last thirty years researching the problems and challenges faced by young people leaving care. He is also a co-ordinator of the Transitions from Care to Adulthood International Research Group (INTRAC). Jim Wade is Senior Research Fellow, Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of York, UK. Emily R. Munro is Research Fellow at the Centre for Child and Family Research (CCfR), Loughborough University. Her research interests include the interaction between different professional groups in the decision-making process influencing life pathways and outcomes for vulnerable children and innovative methodologies to ensure that services users' views inform policy and practice. John Pinkerton is an established academic known for his research and writing in the area of family support. His work is heavily influenced by an international perspective. For the last 15 years he has been an international advisor to the Children's Institute, University of Cape Town. In preparation for legislative change in the 1990s he led a research team from Queen's University Belfast in producing a base line study of family support in Northern Ireland. He has advised government on family support in both the North and South of Ireland. His teaching covers both qualifying and post qualifying training in social work. He is Co-Editor of the British Journal of Social Work, leading on its family and child care content. Robbie Gilligan is Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin and associate director of the Children's Research Centre. He has written extensively on child care and foster care.