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keddellBA MCApSc PGDipSocSc PhD (Otago)

Professor in Social Work

Contact details

Room 2.C25, Richardson Building
Tel +64 3 479 5867
Email emily.keddell@otago.ac.nz

My research focusses on child welfare inequalities, child protection decision-making, the politics of child protection and the use of algorithmic decision tools in child protection. I pursue a critical perspective on child protection; one that examines the intersections between structural conditions, policy contexts, systems, power and micro practice.

My practice background is in child protection social work, residential work with children, and family support social work. I have taught at the University of Otago since 2005, covering child and family social work, micro theories and skills, child protection decision-making and generalist courses.

I am a Registered Social Worker, an associate member of Child Poverty Action Group, and a founding member of the Re-Imagining Social Work blog collective. I am a member of the editorial collective of the Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work Journal, an associate editor of Qualitative Social Work, and on the editorial board of the BJSW sister journal: Practice.

Google Scholar: Emily Keddell

Teaching

I co-ordinate and teach:

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome approaches for supervision in the following areas:

  1. Many areas of child and family social work including: policy and systems design in the child welfare context, inequalities and the child welfare system, poverty reduction policies in the tax/benefit system, the use of predictive data analytics, decision-making and judgement, critical approaches to risk and safety, reunification and family maintenance, multiple child removal, and ethics.
  2. How people construct ethnic identities from multiple options and negotiate these in their family and social contexts.

Current and recent students

Gina Tompkins

MA: Human Services: Legislative changes to the Children Young persons and their Families Act.

Nathan Jaquiery

PhD: Stabilising factors in permanent placements for children or young people in the caresystem.

Sue Whyte

MSW: Self-Efficacy in Parents of Adolescents: Does attendance and completion of 'Tweens & Teens' alter parental self-efficacy?

Adele Parkinson

PhD: Adult and Child Clients' Views of a COPMI* Family Support Service: A Mixed Methods Study.

Monique Harvey

MSW: “Baby Mama” The daily life of being a teenage parent.

Monica Hannan

MSW: The Impact of Notification to CYF on the NGO Client-Worker Relationship.

Karlene Lee

MSW: New Zealand Non Government Organisation Social Service Manager's job satisfaction, job dissatisfaction and the implications for retention.

Karen Service

MSW: Women's views of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.

Jan Young

MSW: The Role of Mothers in Shared Care arrangements for children following relationship separation.

Jude Buckingham

MSP: Pre practicum service learning to enhance counsellor education.

Publications

Colhoun, S., Keddell, E., Hornal, L., Willing, E., & Norris, P. (2026). Experiences of being reported to child protection in Aotearoa New Zealand: Perspectives of whānau/family members. Kōtuitui, 21(3), e70050. doi: 10.1002/kot2.70050 Journal - Research Article

Keddell, E., Colhoun, S., Norris, P., & Willing, E. (2026). Understanding police ‘reports of concern’ in child protection: Implications for decision-making, systems and data. Journal of the Society for Social Work & Research. Advance online publication. Journal - Research Article

Keddell, E. (2026). Predictive risk decision-making tools in child welfare. In C. Fouché & L. Beddoe (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Social Work. (pp. 72-74). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. doi: 10.4337/9781035310234.00032 Chapter in Book - Research

Hyslop, I., & Keddell, E. (2026). Decision-making and bias in child protection systems. In C. Fouché & L. Beddoe (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Social Work. (pp. 136-138). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. doi: 10.4337/9781035310234.00054 Chapter in Book - Research

Cleaver, K., & Keddell, E. (2026). Decolonisation and the reduction of entries to care for babies in Aotearoa New Zealand: The ongoing challenge. In K. Broadhurst, E. Keddell, L. Cusworth, L. Griffiths & C. Mason (Eds.), Born into care: International perspectives on the removal of babies at birth. (pp. 243-264). Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press. doi: 10.51952/9781447374220 Chapter in Book - Research

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