Dr Mary Mitchell
Job Title
Senior Lecturer in Social Work
Room number
2.23Building (Address)
Chrystal Macmillan BuildingStreet (Address)
15a George SquareCity (Address)
EdinburghCountry (Address)
UKResearch interests
Research interests
Participation, childhood and youth studies, child welfare, social work interventions, families, looked after children, recognition theory in social work practice, reimagining outcomes, Qualitative Research Methods,Barnahus, Family Group Conferencing, socailwork education. Google Scholar
Current research projects:
Principal Investigator:
Bairns' Hoose is a transformational, whole-system approach to delivering child protection, justice, and health support and services to child victims and witnesses of abuse and harm.
Children First Bairns' Hoose Project (2021-2024)
A £1.5m project funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery. The North Strathclyde Bairns' Hoose is based on the Barnahus model, and is a partnership between Children First (the lead organisation), Victim Support Scotland and University of Edinburgh.
Scottish Bairns’ Hoose Pathfinder and Affiliate Partnerships
Aberdeen City Bairns’ Hoose Pathfinder ( 2024- 2026);
Aberdeenshire Bairns Hoose Pathfinder (2024- 2026);
Sycamore Bairns Hoose (Jan 2025- March 2026)
Bairns' Hoose is a transformational, whole-system approach to delivering child protection, justice, and health support and services to child victims and witnesses of abuse and harm. The Scottish Government is funding several (six) Bairns' Hoose ‘pathfinders’ (2024-2025) with the aim of trialling and understanding Bairns' Hoose in different contexts across a variety of regions in Scotland. There will be significant learning from these sites for example understanding multi-disciplinary working in complex child protection contexts, the experience of children and their families through complex systems within the Bairns' Hoose, understanding systems change in relation to children affected by violence and maltreatment in different contexts. This knowledge will help inform the develop the Bairns' Hoose model nationally.
In January 2024, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils were both awarded Bairns’ Hoose Pathfinder status and University of Edinburgh agreed to partner with both Bairns' Hoose Partnerships on their implementation journeys. Sycamore Bairns' Hoose is an Affiliate Partnerships and invited University of Edinburgh in 2024 to partner with them to provide a formative evaluation of the child's journey through the Sycamore. It is recognised that a collaborative approach to sharing knowledge across all these sites will add value to Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire and Sycamore Partnership learning.
Co-investigator:
Family Group Conferencing In Adult Social Care And Mental Health: Exploring How It Works And What Difference It Can Make In People’s Lives (2022-2025). NIHR funded PI - Prof Jerry Tew
Co-creating an inclusive self-care curriculum to enhance wellbeing and learning for social work students (2021-2023).A Participatory Action Research Project with students from the Social Work programme. PTAS funding
If you are interested in being supervised by Mary Mitchell, please see the links below (opening in new windows) for more information:
Background
A qualified social worker, I have over thirty years professional experience in social work and community work, with a particular emphasis on work with children, young people and families. I have worked extensively in the voluntary, non-government and government sectors in both Australia and Scotland. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teach across postgraduate and undergraduate courses. My teaching interests include child and family social work, community social work, social work skills and values, community based social work and qualitative research methodology.
My current research interests lie in investigating two specific child welfare models: Family Group Conferencing, an international child welfare decision making process which aims to safeguard children from harm; and Barnahus, which means ‘a house for children’ in Icelandic –a child-friendly, multidisciplinary, and interagency model responding to child victims and witnesses of violence.
I am interested in looking at issues, such as “who defines outcomes?”, the role of recognition in childcare and protection and young people’s participation in decision making. I have expertise in using qualitative methods, action research and case studies to explore the multi-dimensional nature of many practice problems.
I am currently the Principle Investigator on a number Bairns Hoose (Barnahus) formative evaluations in Scotland . Sites include Children First North Strathclyde Bairns' Hoose (2021-2024). Aberdeen City Bairns' Hoose Pathfinder (2024-2026) and Aberdeenshire Bairns' Hoose Pathfinder (2024-2026) and Sycamore Bairns' Hoose in Edinburgh and Lothians (2025-2026).
I am also a co-investigator on:
Family Group Conferencing In Adult Social Care And Mental Health: Exploring How It Works And What Difference It Can Make In People’s Lives (2022-2025). NIHR funded PI - Prof Jerry Tew
Co-creating an inclusive self-care curriculum to enhance wellbeing and learning for social work students - A Participatory Action Research project (2021-2024) (PTAS funding).
Winner – 2018 Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences Impact and Knowledge Exchange Award for “Reimagining Family Group Conferencing ‘outcomes’’.
Current PhD Supervision
Eilidh Lamb- Creating spaces for children who are victims and witnesses of violence to be heard and supported: Exploration of the multi-dimensional use of space in Scotland’s first Barnahus (Child’s House). SGSSS Collaborative PhD Studentship
Xiao Zhang - Learning from Comparison: Multidisciplinary cooperation in child protection in Scotland and China
Recent Publications: Google Scholar
Mitchell, M., Warrington, C., Devaney, J., Hill, L., Lavoie J. (2025) From Barnahus to Bairns Hoose: early enablers and barriers to implementation and systems transformation in Scotland. Propuestas para la protección jurídica y social de la infancia y de las víctimas de violencia de género, (Proposals for the legal and social protection of children and victims of gender violence) Dir. Cerrato-Guri, Torres-Rosell, Zafra-Aparici, ed. Tirant lo Blanch, Valencia, 2025. ISBN: 979-13-7010-059-9
Mahesh S, Tew J, Mitchell M et al. (2025) What is Family and Group Conferencing for adults? Part 1: Characterising the model and methods of enquiry [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review] NIHR Open Res 2025, 5:20 (https://doi.org/10.3310/nihropenres.13811.1)
Rose, S., McCusker, P., Mitchell, M., Roesch-Marsh, A., Jian, M., Petrova, L., (2025) Self-care in social work: An imperative or beyond reach?, The British Journal of Social Work, bcae204, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae204
J. Lavoie; M. Mitchell; C. Warrington; L. Hill; P. Yates (2024) Exploring Justice Tensions in the Barnahus Model, chapter 3 in in Justice and Recovery for Victimised Children edited by Susanna Johansson, Kari Stefansen, Elisiv Bakketeig and Anna Kaldal Palgrave Macmillan Cham DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-53233-7_3
J. Devaney; M. Mitchell; R. Alaggia; C. Gray (2024) Papering over the Cracks or Rebuilding the System: Opportunities and Challenges for the Barnahus Model in the United Kingdom, chapter 9 in in Justice and Recovery for Victimised Children Palgrave Macmillan Cham DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-53233-7_9
Hume,N., Mitchell,M., Warrington,C., (2024) Making Sense of Bairns Hoose: Conversations about systems and practice innovation. Briefing note of knowledge exchange event, 22 May 2024Mitchell, M., Warrington, C., Devaney, J., Lavoie J., Yates, P. (2023) North Strathclyde Bairns Hoose Evaluation: Phase One Report. Child Safety, Justice and Recovery Group, University of Edinburgh. Link can be found on the project website HERE
Mitchell, M., Lundy, L., Hill L (2023) Children’s Human Rights to ‘Participation’ and ‘Protection’: rethinking the relationship using Barnahus as a case example in Child Abuse Review http://doi.org/10.1002/car.2820
Mitchell, M., (2022) ‘Because I'm a kid …’: The struggle for recognition of children and young people involved in child and family social work in Child and Family Social Work – online https://doi-org.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/10.1111/cfs.12905
Mitchell, M., (2021) Chapter 7. A Retrospective Case Study Approach to Studying FGC Outcomes in Annie de Roo and Rob Jagtenberg (eds) Family Group Conferencing Research - Reflections and Ways Forward
Mitchell, M., (2020) The value of Recognition Theory to Family Group Conferencing and child-care and protection, bcaa207 British Journal of Social Work
Critchley, A. and Mitchell, M., (2020) Can knowledge exchange forge a collaborative pathway to policymaking? A case study example of the Recognition Matters knowledge exchange project. British Journal of Social Work bcaa220, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa220
Mitchell, M. and Ali, S., (2020) Adaptive Family Group Conferencing practice: keeping families at the heart of decision making during COVID19, Social Work 2020 under Covid-19 Magazine, edition 5
Mitchell. M., (2020) Reimagining child welfare outcomes: Learning from family group conferencing. Child & Family Social Work. vol 25 (2) pp 211-220 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cfs.12676
Cree, V., Morrison, F., Mitchell, M. and Gulland, J. (2020) Navigating the gendered academy: women in social work academia. Social Work Education https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2020.1715934
Mitchell, M., Tisdall , K., Riddell C., (2018) Learning from FGC: Reimagining approaches and outcomes to child care and protection FGC, Research Briefing Paper: CRFR and Children 1st https://www.children1st.org.uk/media/6738/fgcbriefingpaper.pdf
Mitchell (2018) Reimagining family group conferencing 'outcomes' . The University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2018. (thesis) 13831240. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/docview/2164133897?pq-origsite=primo
McMellon, C. and Mitchell, M. (2018) ‘Participatory Action Research and Young People’ in Building Research Design in Education: Theoretically informed Advanced Methods, John Ravenscroft and Lorna Hamilton (eds) , Bloomsbury publishing Ltd
McMellon, C. and Mitchell, M. (2016) Reinvigorating young people’s participation in Edinburgh, CRFR Briefing Paper 85
Knowledge Exchange Activities:
Making Sense of Bairns Hoose (May 2024) Hume,N., Mitchell,M., Warrington,C., (2024) Making Sense of Bairns Hoose: Conversations about systems and practice innovation. Briefing note of knowledge exchange event, 22 May 2024
Trauma Informed Multiagency working in the Bairns'Hoose (2022) Trauma Informed Multi-disciplinary Working in the Bairns Hoose - Briefing Note FIN.pdf. Powers, L., Mitchell, M. and Allaggia, R. Note of Round Table Event, 22 November, 2022
2019-2020 Recognition Matters: the value of recognition in child care and protection. This is a collaborative Knowledge Exchange and Impact project with Dr Ariane Critchley, Edinburgh Napier University and Family Group Decision Making Service, City of Edinburgh Council.Recognition Matters Knowledge Exchange Materials released on 23.6.2020:
Recognition Matters Film - https://youtu.be/wydm54Gk9mI
Azaria's Story - https://youtu.be/NC68ZsmX86M
Briefing Note, June 2020
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O2mL4v8IozsbSz8dkbm6E9A8KDumsIfs/view?usp=sharing
Heather: - https://youtu.be/QfDcY16ib1M
Nicky: - https://youtu.be/N5Ls1riYksc
Julie: - https://youtu.be/j-6eTLXJI5Y
Young Edinburgh Action and CRFR Knowledge Exchange Project (2016) : A film exploring young people's experiences of being a young researcher 2016
Qualifications
PhD (Social Policy), 2018, The University of Edinburgh
Family Group Conferencing Certificate, 2013 (distinction), Robert Gordon University
MSc Childhood Studies, 2013 (distinction), The University of Edinburgh
MSc Integrated Service Improvement 2012, The University of Edinburgh
Master of Social Work and Diploma in Social Work/CQSW 1996-1998, The University of Edinburgh
Bachelor of Arts 1985 – 1990, Macquarie University
Works within
Staff Hours and Guidance
By appointment
Publications by user content
| Publication | Research Explorer link |
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Mitchell M, Warrington C, Devaney J, Hill L, Lavoie J. From Barnahus to Bairns Hoose: Early enablers and barriers to implementation and systems transformation in Scotland. In Cerrato Guri E, Torres Rosell N, Zafra Aparici E, editors, Propuestas para la protección jurídica y social de la infancia y de las víctimas de violencia de género. 1st ed. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch. 2025 |
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Tew J, Mahesh S, Mitchell M, Au KM, Nicholls V, Vincent TK et al. What is family and group conferencing for adults: Part 2: Developing programme theory. NIHR Open Research. 2025 Apr 15;1-26. doi: 10.3310/nihropenres.13830.1 |
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Rose S, Mccusker P, Mitchell M, Roesch-Marsh A, Jian M, Petrova L. Self-care in social work: An imperative or beyond reach? The British Journal of Social Work. 2025 Apr 1;55(3):1455-1473. bcae204. Epub 2025 Jan 15. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcae204 |
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Jian M, Mccusker P, Mitchell M, Roesch-Marsh A, Rose S, Petrova L. Social workers’ views and experiences of self-care practices: A qualitative interview study. Frontiers in public health. 2025 Mar 27;13:1-12. 1585900. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1585900 |
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Mahesh S, Tew J, Mitchell M, Au KM, Nicholls V, Aziz AQ et al. What is family and group conferencing for adults? Part 1: Characterising the model and methods of enquiry. NIHR Open Research. 2025;5(20). doi: 10.3310/nihropenres.13811.2 |
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Mitchell M, Warrington C, Devaney J, Lavoie J, Lamb E, Hill L et al. The Story So Far: North Strathclyde Bairns Hoose Phase Two Evaluation Report. University of Edinburgh, 2024. 65 p. |
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Lavoie J, Mitchell M, Warrington C, Hill L, Yates P. Exploring justice tensions in the Barnahus model. In Johansson S, Stefansen K, Bakketeig E, Kaldal A, editors, Justice and Recovery for Victimised Children: Institutional Tensions in Nordic and European Barnahus Models. 1 ed. Palgrave Macmillan. 2024. p. 63-84. (Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology). doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-53233-7_3 |
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Devaney J, Mitchell M, Alaggia R, Gray C. Papering the cracks or rebuilding the system: Opportunities and challenges for the Barnahus Model in the United Kingdom. In Johansson S, Stefansen K, Bakketeig E, Kaldal A, editors, Justice and Recovery for Victimised Children: Institutional Tensions in Nordic and European Barnahus Models. 1st ed. Palgrave Macmillan. 2024. p. 223–248. (Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology). doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-53233-7_9 |
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Mitchell M, Lundy L, Hill L. Children's human rights to ‘participation’ and ‘protection’: Rethinking the relationship using Barnahus as a case example. Child Abuse Review. 2023 Nov 1;32(6):e2820. Epub 2023 Mar 26. doi: 10.1002/car.2820 |
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Mitchell M, Warrington C, Devaney J, Lavoie J, Yates P. North Strathclyde Bairns Hoose Evaluation. The University of Edinburgh, 2023. 70 p. |
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Lavoie J, Devaney J, Mitchell M, Millar A, Hill L, Bunting L. Putting the Child at the Centre Barnahus (Children's house) - A One Door Approach to Supporting Children who Have Been Sexually Abused in Northern Ireland. University of Edinburgh, 2022. 77 p. |
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Mitchell M. ‘Because I'm a kid …’: The struggle for recognition of children and young people involved in child and family social work. Child & Family Social Work. 2022 Aug;27(3):526-534. Epub 2022 Feb 7. doi: 10.1111/cfs.12905 |
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Lavoie J, Devaney J, Mitchell M, Bunting L, Millar A, Hill L. Putting the Child at the Centre: Barnahus (Children’s House) - a one door approach to supporting children who have been sexually abused in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, 2022. 77 p. |
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Mitchell M. The value of recognition theory to Family Group Conferencing and child-care and protection. The British Journal of Social Work. 2021 Sept;51(6):2191-2209. Epub 2020 Dec 6. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcaa207 |
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Mitchell M. A retrospective case study approach to studying FGC outcomes. In de Roo A, Jagtenberg R, editors, Family Group Conference Research: Reflections and Ways Forward. 1 ed. eleven international publishing. 2021. p. 113-128 |
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Critchley A, Mitchell M. Can knowledge exchange forge a collaborative pathway to policymaking? A case study example of the Recognition Matters knowledge exchange project. The British Journal of Social Work. 2020 Dec 13;50(8):2298-2318. Epub 2020 Dec 13. doi: 10.1093/bjsw/bcaa220 |
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Mitchell M, Ali S. Adaptive family group conferencing practice: Keeping families at the heart of decision making during COVID-19. 2020. |
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Cree VE, Morrison F, Mitchell M, Gulland J. Navigating the gendered academy: Women in social work academia. Social Work Education. 2020 Jul 3;39(5):650-664. Epub 2020 Jan 23. doi: 10.1080/02615479.2020.1715934 |
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Mitchell M. Reimagining child welfare outcomes: Learning from Family Group Conferencing. Child & Family Social Work. 2020 May;25(2):211-220. Epub 2019 Jul 26. doi: 10.1111/cfs.12676 |
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Mitchell M. Taking a fresh look at ‘outcomes’ in child care and protection: Learning from family group conferencing. 2019. Paper presented at National Child Protection and Welfare Social Work Conference, Cork, Ireland. |
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Mitchell M, Tisdall EKM, Riddell C. Learning From Family Group Conferencing: Reimagining approaches and outcomes to child care and protection. Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, 2018. 1 p. |
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Mcmellon C, Mitchell M. Participatory action research and young people. In Hamilton L, Ravenscroft J, editors, Building Research Design in Education: Theoretically informed Advanced Methods. 1 ed. Bloomsbury . 2018 |
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Mcmellon C, Mitchell M. Participatory action research with young people. In Hamilton L, Ravenscroft J, editors, Building Research Design in Education: Theoretically Informed Advanced Methods. London: Bloomsbury . 2018. p. 173-196 |
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Mitchell M, Tisdall EKM, McCluskey G, Riddell S. Keeping Youth Away from Crime: Searching for Best European Practices. Edinburgh: Centre for Research in Education Inclusion and Diversity (CREID), University of Edinburgh, 2014. 45 p. |
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McCluskey G, Tisdall EKM, Riddell S, Mitchell M. Keeping Youth Away from Crime: Searching for Best European Practices: Report to the Providus team. University of Edinburgh, 2014. 41 p. |
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