Research and writing

Alongside the consultancy, training and facilitation work, James Anderson writes and researches on the statutory children's social care complaints procedure, safeguarding in charities, and what the records these processes produce can tell us about practice.

Media enquiries

Available for comment on the statutory children's social care complaints procedure, safeguarding in charities and voluntary organisations, and what complaints and ombudsman records show about how services work with children and families.

James Anderson
Email james@resolutionready.org.uk
Mobile 07923 465645

For anything on deadline, call rather than email. Calls are answered outside office hours and at weekends.

Published articles

Complaints Are Just a Waste of Everyone's Time: What the Statutory Children's Social Care Complaints Investigation Framework Can Tell Us About Practice
Child Abuse Review, Wiley, 2026, 35:e70156. Peer reviewed CPD article.
Read the article

Children won this safeguard the hard way. Twenty years on, it needs renewing
Children and Young People Now, 8 September 2026.
Read the article

Learning from repeating themes in social care complaint investigations
Children and Young People Now, 2 June 2026.
Read the article

What happens when a family complains about you?
Professional Social Work, British Association of Social Workers, 29 May 2026.
Read the article

Speaking

James speaks at conferences, seminars, team away days and in house sessions on the complaints procedure, safeguarding in charities, and what services learn when they listen properly to children and families. Sessions are built around the audience rather than delivered off the shelf.

Recent and forthcoming:

The state already knows where it fails children
Children's Rights European Academic Network conference, Centre for Children's Rights Studies, University of Geneva, 3 and 4 December 2026. Forthcoming.
About the conference

When Things Go Wrong: How Learning From Family Experience Builds Safer, More Humane Systems
Oral presentation, ISPCAN International Congress on Child Abuse and Neglect, Melbourne, 24 August 2026.
About the congress

To discuss a session or a conference contribution, email james@resolutionready.org.uk.

Research in progress

Two pieces of research run alongside the practice work. Both are ongoing and updates will be posted on this page as they develop.

Freedom of information work on complaints data
Responses from English local authorities, alongside fifteen published annual complaints reports.

This work sits behind the Child Abuse Review article. It looked at how much information the procedure generates about practice, and at how little of it is brought together once individual cases are closed.

A reading across ombudsman decisions
Early stage.

A structured reading of Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman decisions in children's social care, looking at what can be learned from reading decisions together rather than one at a time. The Geneva contribution is its first public outing.

The book

A practice handbook on the Children Act complaints procedure is in progress, written for investigating officers, complaints managers and adjudicating officers. It covers the framework, the stages, and what good practice looks like at each point.

Using this material

Please use anything on this page. Quote it, cite it or build on it, with credit to James Anderson at Resolution Ready and a link back where you can. The articles listed above belong to their publishers, so for those follow the publisher's own terms.