Dr Alice Loving

Alice is the curriculum lead for the parenting curriculum delivered by Frontline. She also works independently completing assessment and intervention work for local authority child protection teams and has ten years’ experience working in this field. She completed her PhD within the social work department at Royal Holloway University. Alice’s PhD focussed on exploring influencing factors on the outcomes of parent-child intervention in social work, with a particular interest in the impact of childhood trauma on parenting capacity. Alice is an honorary lecturer for the Centre for Child Protection at Kent University. Alice is also an associate for Research in Practice.

Research interests

Attachment, trauma, mentalization, parent and social worker relationships

Selected publications

Loving, A., & Shemmings, D. (in press). Working with cases of neglect and emotional abuse. Child Welfare. Australia: The University of New South Wales.

Loving, A. (2018) Attachment, trauma and parenting in social work. Doctoral Dissertation. Royal Holloway, Egham, England.

Cook, A.( 2014) Exploring mechanisms of maltreatment in a family, in D. Shemmings & Y. Shemmings, (eds) Assessing Disorganized Attachment Behaviour in Children: An Evidenced Based Model for understanding and Supporting Families. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, pp. 67-76.

Cook A. (2012) Combating neglect using the principles of attachment theory. Children England Quarterly Journal, 51, 8-9.

Shemmings, D., Shemmings, Y. & COOK, A. (2012) Gaining the trust of highly resistant families: insights from attachment theory and research. Child & Family Social Work, 17(2), pp. 130-137.

Additional Articles available online from Community Care Inform:

Cook, A. (2015) Case study: Concerns about a child who is significantly developmentally delayed.

Cook, A. (2015) Quick guide: Using attachment theory in evidence for court.

Cook, A. (2015) Assessing attachment in parents and carers

Cook, A. (2015) Attachment and social work interventions

Conference Presentations

Community Care Live

TACT (The Adolescent and Children’s Trust) Annual Conference

The Children England Annual conference

The NHS Health Safeguarding Child Protection Update

The NHS Safeguarding Looked After Children Conference

The 10^th Annual NHS Lothian Child Protection Conference

Thurrock Councils Annual Safeguarding Conference

Teaching

Honorary lecturer for the Centre for Child Protection at Kent University.

Alice delivers training independently on attachment and relationship based practice to local authority social workers, contact supervisors, CAFCASS and foster carers.