WEBINAR

Attachment: Recent Seismic Developments in Theory, Research and Professional Practice

Date: Thursday, 14th May 2026

Time: 10-11.30am (London, UK)

Price: Free

Speakers: Professor David Shemmings, Emeritus Professor of Child Protection Research

Attachment theory has significantly shaped the way social care understands children, families and early relationships. From the early work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth to its widespread use in assessment, supervision and court reporting, it has become a key lens through which practitioners interpret children's experiences and relationships.

But theory does not stand still.

In recent years, important questions have been raised about how attachment theory is interpreted, applied and sometimes simplified in practice. The ongoing and recent work of Dr Sarah Foster and Professor Robbie Duschinsky highlights the need to ask what the evolving understanding of attachment means, in terms of the evidence base, the use of attachment classifications, and at the assumptions that sit beneath our everyday professional language.

• What happens when a theory becomes embedded in systems?
• Where does nuance get lost?
• And how do we use attachment thoughtfully without oversimplification or misplaced certainty?

At the same time, new research is expanding our understanding of early relational life, raising further questions about what shapes children’s emotional development and how we conceptualise risk and resilience.

This CareKnowledge Live webinar, in conversation with Professor David Shemmings, offers the space to reflect on how our understanding of attachment has shifted over time and how it should alter the lens we use to understand relationships.

Meet the speakers

Professor David Shemmings

Professor Shemmings is the author of more than 60 articles, books and chapters on relationally-based social work theory, research and practice. In 2010, he co-authored a government-funded, C4EO Knowledge Review on 'Working with Highly Resistant Families'. 

He is also visiting Professor of Child Protection Research at Royal Holloway College, University of London.

Professor Shemmings qualified as a teacher in 1974 at the University of Sussex and worked with traumatised children for a number of years before becoming a Senior Policy Adviser in services to children and families to the Director of Social Services in Essex. He then spent 17 years lecturing at the University of East Anglia before becoming Professor of Social Work Research at Middlesex University in 2005. He joined the University of Kent as Chair of Social Work Research in 2007. He was also Deputy Head of the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research from 2007-2010. 

Professor Shemmings has an advanced post-graduate qualification from Cambridge Institute of Education and a Master’s degree and PhD from the University of East Anglia.  He was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in June 2014 for 'Services to Child Protection'.