When Aidan Browne took the role of Chief Executive for the newly established Children Acts Advisory Board in 2007, Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs described it as ‘an enhanced enabling body’. CAAB function has developed over the last three years primarily to provide advice to the Minister and the sector. Additionally, it has a particular focus on supporting interagency work and improving the body of knowledge of the children’s services sector.

Aidan’s day to day work is to ensure that the agency is on target to meet the plans they have set together with their Board comprised of national managers and senior practititioners, policy makers and child care experts from the education, justice and welfare sectors.  This usually entails a busy day: internal meetings with staff and engagement at different levels with a variety of stakeholders.  His previous experience as the first National Director for primary, community and continuing care in the Health Service Executive with overall operational responsibility for all Children's Services in Ireland is a great asset.

Among other things, CAAB is currently working on a very exciting project called PREW - Putting Research Evidence to Work. PREW is primarily concerned with identifying and supporting ways to make evidence available to practitioners, managers and policy makers to improve their decision making. ‘The gap between academic research and social work is too big and this is particularly true with regard to social policy,' Aidan explains.  Projects like PREW, he believes, will ensure that knowledge on good practice and outcomes is disseminated in a way that is really helpful to managers, practitioners and policy makers.

Such initiatives Aidan believes will contribute towards integration of Child Protection and Family Protection policies with social workers trained to find solutions for children rather than focusing on problems only. What inspires me most is trying to find ways that our work can help and add value to the work of practitioners in their dealings with children and their families, he says. A nurse by training, Aidan spent the first 20 years of his career in a wide range of clinical and nursing service management before moving into general management in 1997. When proposing improvement of services, Aidan is often wearing two hats. ‘It is a lot harder to make decisions when you have a broader spectrum of the implementation process,' - he explains. Nevertheless when proposing change he believes it is invaluable for managers and policy makers to have had previous experience in service provision.

Despite all the hard work awaiting and the discomfort of the financial crisis, Aidan remains optimistic about children’s services in Ireland. Service providers will have to ‘work smarter’ and be less precious about their resources, he says. Indeed, it is a great satisfaction for him to work with such people who despite the odds always want to improve what they find. Europe, he says, has been very helpful to Ireland to set the bar high by continuing to expect better services, hence his interest in European initiatives. A member of the ESN working group on children and families, Aidan sees the role of ESN in keeping service providers in touch with one another and with best practices.

'Start with high expectations and don’t be afraid to challenge when you find that those expectations are not being met,’ - is his advice to young professionals pursuing a career in social care. Ultimately, he says, it is important to value relationships above the professional position, because when all else fails the relationships you have developed will help you through.