Dr. Louise Caffrey

• Caffrey, L., Wyatt, D., Fudge, N., Mattingley, H., Williamson, C. & McKevitt, C. , Gender Equity Programmes in Academic Medicine: a realist evaluation approach to Athena SWAN processes, BMJ OPEN, 6, (9), 2016Journal Article, 2016, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
• Caffrey, L., McKevitt, C., & Wolfe, C. , Embedding Research in Health Systems: lessons from complexity theory, Health Research Policy and Systems, 14, (54), 2016Journal Article, 2016, URL , TARA - Full Text
• Caffrey, L. (2016) , The BMJ's stance on qualitative research is epistemologically naïve, BMJ, 352, 2016Journal Article, 2016, URL
• Caffrey, L. , The Importance of Perceived Organisational Goals: A Systems Thinking Approach to Understanding Child Safeguarding in the Context of Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse Review, 2015Journal Article, 2015, URL , TARA - Full Text
• Adams, M., Caffrey. L. & McKevitt, C. , Barriers and opportunities for enhancing patient recruitment and retention in clinical research: findings from an interview study in an NHS academic health science centre, Health Research Policy and Systems, 13, (8), 2015Journal Article, 2015, URL
• Caffrey, L. , Hearing the 'Voice' of the Child? The role of child contact centres in the family justice system, Child and Family Law Quarterly , 25, (4), 2013Journal Article, 2013, URL , TARA - Full Text
• Murphy, C & Caffrey, L. , Supporting Child Contact: the need for child contact centres in Ireland, Dublin, One Family/Family Support Agency, 2009Report, 2009, URL
• Murphy, C., Keilthy, P. & Murphy, C. , Lone parents and employment: what are the real issues?, Dublin, One Family/Combat Poverty Agency, 2008Report, 2008, URL
• Caffrey, L & Munro, E, A Systems Approach to Policy Evaluation, Evaluation, 23, (4), 2017Journal Article, 2017, URL , TARA - Full Text
• Love, S., Brown, S., Weir ,C., Harbron, C., Yap, C., Gaschler-Markefski, B., Matcham, J., Caffrey, L., McKevitt, C., Clive, S., Craddock, C., Spicer, J., & Cornelius, V., Embracing model-based designs for dose-finding trials, British Journal of Cancer, 2017, p332 - 339Journal Article, 2017, URL
• Weinrot, M., Caffrey, L., McKevitt, C., Patient-initiated recruitment for clinical research: evaluation of an out-patient letter research statement, Health Expectations, 2017Journal Article, 2017, URL
• Caffrey, Louise, Ferlie, Ewan, McKevitt, Christopher, The strange resilience of new public management: the case of medical research in the UK's national health service, Public Management Review, 2018, p1-22Journal Article, 2018, DOI , TARA - Full Text
• Caffrey, Louise, How everyone's business can become no one's business: a systems study of interprofessional referral to child contact centres , Journal of Children & Youth Services Review , 109, 2020Journal Article, 2020, URL , TARA - Full Text
• Louise Caffrey, We're dragging our heels but there is enough evidence to support making facemasks mandatory, 2020, -Miscellaneous, 2020, URL , TARA - Full Text
• How do we Know if Signs of Safety is Improving Children's Safety and Well Being? in, editor(s)Andrew Turnell, Terry Murphy , Signs of Safety: Comprehensive Briefing Paper , East Perth, Elia , 2021, pp10 - 22, [Louise Caffrey, Mike Caslor, Eileen Munro]Book Chapter, 2021, TARA - Full Text
• Elaine McKimmons, Louise Caffrey, Discourse and Power in Ireland's Repeal the 8th Movement , Interface, 2021Journal Article, 2021, URL
• Padraic Fleming, Louise Caffrey, David Mockler, Steve Thomas, 'A realist review to determine how health system austerity responses to the 2008 financial crisis impacted health system resilience for subsequent shocks - why, when, for whom and under what circumstances', 2021, -Protocol or guideline, 2021, URL
• Louise Caffrey, Evaluating Signs of Safety in Ireland: How to best evaluate a whole-systems, nationwide, complex intervention in a complex system? , Evidence Amalgamation, University College Cork, 10/05/2019, 2019Oral Presentation, 2019
• O'Reilly, C., Caffrey, L. & Jagoe, C., Disability data collection in a complex humanitarian organisation: Lessons from a realist evaluation, International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health, 2021Journal Article, 2021
• Caffrey, Louise, Book Review: Errors and Mistakes in Child Protection: International Discourses, Approaches and Strategies by Kay Biesel, Judith Masson, Nigel Parton and Tarja Poso, Critical Social Policy , 42, (2), 2021Journal Article, 2021, URL
• Caffrey, Louise, Browne, Freda , Understanding the social worker-family relationship through Self Determination Theory: A Realist Synthesis of Signs of Safety, Child & Family Social Work, 27, 2022, p513 - 525Journal Article, 2022, URL
• Fleming, P., Caffrey, L., Van Belle, S., Barry, S., Conway, J., Sierbaek, R., Mockler, D., & Thomas, S., How International Health System Austerity Responses to the 2008 Financial Crisis Impacted Health System and Workforce Resilience: A Realist Review, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2022Journal Article, 2022, URL
• Gregory, S., Caffrey, L., Daly, D., "It could not have been more different." Comparing experiences of hospital-based birth and homebirth in Ireland: A mixed-methods survey, Women and Birth, 2023Journal Article, 2023, URL
• Caffrey, L., Brady, E., Keegan, O., Dunne, S., Sheaf, G., Holt, S., & Gilligan, R., Children's Experiences of Signs of Safety: A Scoping Review, Children and Youth Services Review, 2024Journal Article, 2024, DOI , TARA - Full Text
• Stephanie Holt, Robbie Gilligan, Louise Caffrey & Eavan Brady, Through the Eyes of the Child: A Study of Tusla Child Protection and Welfare Intervention, 2023Report, 2023, DOI , TARA - Full Text
• Caffrey, L, Browne, F. , The Challenge of Implementation in Complex, Adaptive Child Welfare Systems: A Realist Synthesis of Signs of Safety, Children and Youth Services Review, 2023Journal Article, 2023, URL
• Flynn, S.,Caffrey, L.,Antosik-Parsons, K.,Whiting, S., Byrne, J. and Conlon, C., New-Materialist Bricolage: Presenting an Ontological Position for Qualitative Internet-Based Research, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 28, (2), 2025, p179 - 192Journal Article, 2025, URL , TARA - Full Text
• Flynn, S., Lakkshme Sundaresan, S., Caffrey, L.,Spratt, T. and Holt, S., Towards Better Outcomes for Children and Families: Evaluation of the Implementation of an Outcomes Framework, 2024, p1 - 64, https://doi.org/10.25546/11021Report, 2024, DOI , TARA - Full Text
• Flynn, S., Lakkshme Sundaresan, S., Caffrey, L., Putting Outcomes into Practice: The Implementation of a Framework of Outcome Measures within a Child and Family Service, The British Journal of Social Work, 2024, p1 - 18Journal Article, 2024, URL
• Gilligan, R., Holt, S., Brady, E., Caffrey, L., Safety and Beyond: What are children's priorities for their participation in the child protection and welfare process?, Child Abuse and Neglect, 2025, p11Journal Article, 2025, DOI
• Flynn, S.,Lakkshme Sundaresan, S., and Caffrey, L., Outcomes Measurement in Social Care: Insights from Current Evidence, Journal of Social Care, 4, 2024, pArticle 2-Journal Article, 2024, TARA - Full Text
• De Clercq, L., Meulewaeter, F., Rowaert, S., Decoene, S., Caffrey, L., Caslor, M., Vandevelde, S., & Vanderplasschen, W., Families' perspectives on the impact of signs of safety in child protection services through the lens of self-determination theory, Children and Youth Services Review, 2025Journal Article, 2025, URL
• Liz Farsaci, Padraic Fleming, Louise Caffrey, Sara Van Belle, Catherine O'Donoghue, Arianna Almirall Sanchez, David Mockler, Steve Thomas, Barriers and facilitators to international Universal Health Coverage reforms: A realist review, International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 2025Journal Article, 2025, DOI , URL
• Gregory S, Caffrey L, Daly D, Sheaf G., How woman-centred care is experienced and understood in maternity services by women and professionals: A rapid review, Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 2025Journal Article, 2025, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
• Caffrey, L., Flynn, S., Quinn, N., Tobin, S. & Holt, S., The Focus and Methodology of Inspection in Ireland: a documentary analysis of Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) child protection and welfare services inspection reports, November, 2025Report, 2025, DOI , TARA - Full Text
• Caffrey, L., Tobin, S., Flynn, S., Holt, S., Houston, S., Petautschnig Arancibia, C. & Sheaf, G., The Intended and Unintended Effects of Inspection on Child and Family Social Work Services: A Rapid Evidence Review of the International Literature, Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 2025Journal Article, 2025, URL , TARA - Full Text

• Conlon, C., Antosik-Parsons, K., Flynn, S., Caffrey, L., Byrne, J. and Whiting, S., Lessons from Pivoting to Online Interviewing: Ethical and Technical Considerations for Qualitative Researchers following the COVID-19 Pandemic, Social Sciences Research Network, 2023Report
• Stephanie Holt, Robbie Gilligan, Louise Caffrey & Eavan Brady, Through the Eyes of the Child: A Study of Tusla Child Protection and Welfare Intervention - A Research Briefing, Children and Youth Services Review, 2023, -Miscellaneous, DOI , TARA - Full Text

Dr Caffrey's research focuses on implementation science and workforce issues in human service organisations, specifically, child protection systems and health systems. Louise's research spans several strands: 1) Regulation of services - particularly audit, inspection and performance measurement and management of services. This theme explores overarching issues of system safety, inter-professional working and intended and unintended effects of regulation. 2) Service users' perspectives and experiences of services - particularly children and patients. 3) The challenges of implementing public policy. Louise's research has sought to better understand, firstly why implementing policy/practice change is so challenging and, secondly, how we can better evaluate public initiatives and so that evaluation findings are more useful for policy makers. Louise specialises in understanding public sector organisations as Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) and using Systems and Realist Evaluation approaches. For example, Louise's research studies the implementation of practice frameworks like Signs of Safety (Ireland's national practice framework for child protection social work), change initiatives like Athena SWAN (a gender equity initiative for universities) and policy goals, for example, accountability and improvement of services via inspection, creation of Health Research Systems, safety in child contact centres and welfare-to-work policy for lone parents. Louise welcomes applications from PhD students in the following areas: 1) Regulation - inspection, audit and performance measurement/management of services; 2) Hearing children's perspectives and experiences of practice initiatives, change initiatives and public policy that aim to protect them; 3) Implementation of practice frameworks, change initiatives and public policy in child protection and health systems. 4) Research on Signs of Safety, Athena SWAN and HIQA inspection. 5) Use of complexity theory, systems approaches or Realist Evaluation/Synthesis

• Title

  United Nations Module Design: Evaluation methods
  Summary

  We successfully bid to be rostered to design and teach evaluation methods to Untied Nations Secretariat Staff. Designed a module for teaching evaluation methods to UN Secretariat Staff. Role: Co-PI with Dr. Edurne Garcia Iriarte.
  Funding Agency

  United Nations Secretariat
• Title

  Towards Better Outcomes for Children and Families: Evaluation of the Implementation of an Outcomes Framework
  Summary
  Funding Agency

  Irish Research Council
• Title

  Knowledge for Use (K4U)
  Summary

  Knowledge for Use (K4U) is an innovative, interdisciplinary and multi-institutional ERC-funded research project that aims to show how to put scientific research and common knowledge together to build more decent societies. It is an international collaborative project led by Prof. Nancy Cartwright in Durham University. Louise is contributing to the child welfare case study on Signs of Safety
  Funding Agency

  ERC Horizon 2020
  Date From

  2015
  Date To

  2021
• Title

  Children's Experiences of Signs of Safety: a scoping review
  Summary

  A systematic scoping review to identify and synthesise the international literature on children's self-reported experiences of the popular child protection social work practice framework, Signs of Safety. Role: PI
• Title

  RESTORE (Towards Dynamic Resilience in Health System Performance and Reform )
  Summary

  The goal of the research is to support the effective and thorough implementation of the Sláintecare reform programme. The research will examine key challenges facing the progress of the reform in the light of health system shocks and burdens on staff. It will highlight strategies to facilitate success. The award is a HRB Senior Leader Award, led by Prof. Steve Thomas, the Edward Kennedy Chair of Health Policy and Management at TCD. Louise is contributing expertise on complex adaptive systems and Realist methodologies. Role: collaborator
  Funding Agency

  Health Research Board
• Title

  The Focus and Methodology of Inspection in Ireland: a documentary analysis of Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) child protection and welfare services inspection reports
  Summary

  Role: PI
  Funding Agency

  Department of Children Equality Disability Integration and Youth
  Date From

  2024
  Date To

  2025
• Title

  Realist Synthesis of Signs of Safety
  Summary

  Signs of Safety is a complex, integrated framework for doing children's services work. It has been implemented in more than 100 jurisdictions worldwide and in 2017 was introduced in Ireland as the national child protection framework. Realist Synthesis complements more established approaches to systematic review, which have been developed and used mainly for simpler interventions like clinical treatments or therapies. Using pre-existing literature, the study aims to provide an explanatory analysis of how and why Signs of Safety might work (or not) in particular contexts or settings. To do so it will use a broad array of literature and wider evidence to identify and test Signs of Safety's underlying causal mechanisms and to explore how those mechanisms might operate under varying conditions. Role: PI
  Funding Agency

  Resolutions Consultancy
  Date From

  2019
  Date To

  2021
• Title

  Children's experiences of child protection and welfare services in Tusla Child and Family Agency
  Summary

  A qualitive study exploring children's experiences of the child protection and welfare services in Ireland. A collaboration in the School of Social Work & Social Policy, led by Prof. Stephanie Holt. Role: funded co-investigator
  Funding Agency

  Tusla Child & Family Agency
  Date From

  2022
  Date To

  2023
• Title

  A rapid review of the international evidence on the focus and effects of inspection of child and family services
  Summary

  Role: PI
  Funding Agency

  Department of Children Equality Disability Integration and Youth
  Date From

  2023
  Date To

  2024

• UCD Entrance Scholarship 2002
• LSE PhD Scholarship 2010-2014

• Louise is an Associate on the K4U Horizon 2020 Study, led by Prof. Nancy Cartwright at Durham University. K4U's aim is to construct a radically new picture of how to use social science to build better policies. Further information: https://www.dur.ac.uk/k4u/ . March 2016 to present
• UNICEF Reference Group for Review of Child Protection Systems in Four Countries in South Asia. I am providing guidance to the project on the use of a systems approach. February 2017 to November 2017
• Louise is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Authority. Further information at: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/individuals/fellowship Since 2013