ProfessorSusan Heward-Belle

Susan Heward-Belle is a Professor in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, where she also directs the Master of Social Work (Qualifying) program. Her career bridges more than a decade of frontline statutory child protection practice and over twenty years of scholarship, teaching and applied research. Before joining the University, she worked as a statutory child protection social worker and child protection specialist with the NSW Department of Community Services, led training and workforce development for the NSW Child Protection Council, and undertook investigative work for the NSW Ombudsman, experience that continues to anchor her research in the realities of practice.

Her research addresses gender-based violence, with particular focus on domestic and family violence, child protection, and child sexual abuse and exploitation. A consistent thread across her work is shifting attention toward the accountability of people who use violence, including the often-invisible parenting practices of fathers who perpetrate domestic violence, and understanding how services can respond safely at the intersections of domestic violence, mental health and substance misuse. More recently, her work has turned to survivor-led and co-designed system redesign, including projects such as Dignity by Design and the DICE (Disrupting Child Sexual Exploitation) project.

Professor Heward-Belle leads and collaborates on major externally funded research, with support from the Australian Research Council, the Attorney-General's Department, the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse, ANROWS and others. Her nationally recognised projects — including Invisible Practices, PATRICIA and STACY — have produced practice guides and frameworks now used across the child protection and family violence sectors. She has published widely in journals such as the Journal of Family Violence, Affilia and Australian Social Work, and edited Working with Families Experiencing Vulnerabilities (Cambridge University Press).

A dedicated educator, she is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy and has received the Social Work Educator of the Year Award and a Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. She supervises a large cohort of higher degree research students working across domestic violence, out-of-home care and child sexual exploitation. Beyond the University, she contributes to the sector as Co-Chair of the board of DV West, a Director of Barnardos Australia, an affiliate of the Sydney Institute for Women, Children and their Families, and an expert member of the James Martin Public Policy Institute's Domestic and Family Violence Review Group. She is also a regular media commentator on violence against women and children.