Draft:Margaret Woodbridge (social worker)

Margaret Anne Woodbridge (née Yelloly, b. 1934) is a British academic and retired professor of social work with an active career as a social worker, teacher of social policy and social work practice, and researcher. Her writing and research has made a significant contribution to the development of British social work education, particularly that of an interprofessional nature. Through her work on child protection, including as chair of the independent panel into the death of Heidi Koseda, Woodbridge has had a notable impact on child protection policy and practice in the UK.

Education
Woodbridge was educated at Queen Margaret's School, Yorkshire and St Andrew's University, where she gained an MA in Logic, Metaphysics and English in 1956 and played lacrosse for Scottish Universities, earning a Blue. After training in social work and taking a Postgraduate Certificate in Social Science (1959) and an MA (1964) from the University of Liverpool, she worked for an adoption society, and later for a short time as a Principal Social Services Officer in Hertfordshire. She took the Advanced Casework course at the Tavistock Clinic from 1964–65, which provided training in clinical social work, and was awarded her PhD at the University of Leicester in 1975.

Career
Woodbridge's first academic job was as Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Social Science at Liverpool University under Professor Thomas Simey, where her research into adoption decisions by single mothers gained her an MA. From 1966–72 she was Lecturer in the School of Social Work at the University of Leicester, where she taught social policy and social work practice. Subsequently she held posts as Lecturer, London School of Economics (1973–76); Head of Department of Applied Social Studies, Goldsmiths' College (1976–86); Professor of Social Work and Director of Social Work Education, University of Stirlin g (1986–91), where she was actively involved in developing training relating to child abuse in Forth Valley and assisting with the production of training materials for the Open University; and as the first Professor of Social Work at the Tavistock Clinic, jointly with Brunel University (1991–93). Her main research interests have been in social work education and its knowledge base, interprofessional education and child protection.

Woodbridge was Editor of the British Journal of Social Work from 1985 to 1987 and sat on the editorial board for Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry from 1996–97. She chaired the Social Work Education Committee of the Joint University Council from 1988–91 and was a member of the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work from 1989–92.

In 1985, Woodbridge was appointed by Hillingdon Borough Council to chair the independent panel into the death of Heidi Koseda, a case that garnered national attention and was raised several times during a full day's debate on child abuse in the UK parliament. The panel's 1986 report was highly critical of the NSPCC and made 35 recommendations, including the creation of a national register of children at risk, special training for social workers and changes in legislation. The Koseda inquiry and other investigations into child deaths around that time contributed to changes in legislation and improved inter-agency co-operation on child protection. Guidance on inter-agency co-operation was published in 1998, while the Koseda inquiry's recommendation that the courts be empowered to compel an individual to divulge the whereabouts of a child was enacted by the UK parliament in 1989.

Between 1988 and 1991 Woodbridge chaired the Area Review Committee on Child Protection for the Forth Valley.