Professor Nigel Patrick ThomasProfessor Emeritus of Childhood and Youth, School of Social Work, Care and Community, University of Central Lancashire, United KingdomEmail: npthomas@uclan.ac.ukProfilePublicationsExpertiseProfileNigel Patrick Thomas is Professor Emeritus of Childhood and Youth at the University of Central Lancashire and founder of The Centre for Children and Young People’s Participation. He was previously a social work practitioner, manager and advisor, and later a social work educator. His research interests are principally in child welfare, children’s rights, children and young people’s participation, and theories of childhood and intergenerational relations. He is currently part of a study of ethical practice and the meaning of child safety in different institutional contexts, funded by the Australian Research Council. ResearchPublicationsChildren, Family and the State: Decision-Making and Child Participation (Macmillan 2000, Policy Press 2002); An Introduction to Early Childhood Studies (with Trisha Maynard, Sage 2004, 2009); Social Work with Young People in Care: Looking after children in theory and practice (Palgrave 2005); Children, Politics and Communication: Participation at the Margins (Policy Press 2009); A Handbook of Children and Young People’s Participation: perspectives from theory and practice (with Barry Percy-Smith, Routledge 2010); and Participation, Citizenship and Intergenerational Relations in Children and Young People’s Lives (with Joanne Westwood, Cath Larkins, Dan Moxon and Yasmin Perry, Palgrave Macmillan 2014). ExpertiseChildren's participation; children's rights; child welfare law and policy; theories of childhood.