Dr Kwabena Frimpong-Manso
Senior Lecturer
- Phone
- +44 (0)1473338183
- k.frimpong-manso@uos.ac.uk
- School/Directorate
- School of Health, Sciences and Society
Dr. Kwabena Frimpong-Manso is an experienced academic in the field of child welfare, serving as a senior lecturer at the University of Suffolk’s School of Health, Sciences and Society. He holds a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast and is internationally recognised for his research on child welfare, care transitions, and the deinstitutionalisation of children in Ghana.
Dr. Frimpong-Manso has a proven track record of leading initiatives that bridge academic research with practical solutions, such as the development of culturally adaptive child maintenance tools and evaluations of Ghana’s care reform roadmap. He actively collaborates with global partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to advance cross-national studies on care leavers’ adult outcomes. His dedication to social justice, research-informed teaching, and fostering collaborative networks underscores his leadership in shaping innovative approaches to child protection and family-based care systems.
His extensive portfolio includes impactful projects funded by UNICEF and significant contributions to global policy through roles such as an executive member of the International Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood from Care (INTRAC) and as a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg.
Teaching Expertise
Dr Kwabena Frimpong-Manso teaches in the following areas:
- Social Work Research
- Research Methods
- Group Work
- Contemporary Issues in Social Work Policy and Practice
Research Interests
Child protection and child welfare; alternative care; care transitions; care reform and deinstitutionalisation and group work.
Current Projects
Exploring the potential of embedding a child maintenance assessment tool into a national web-based case management system for social workers in Ghana.
Selected Publications
Frimpong-Manso, K. (In Print) Social support for residential care leavers in Ghana: The perspectives and experiences of social workers and residential care youth workers, in E. Magalhães and S. Attar-Schwartz (eds) Social support of young people in and after residential care: Is someone there for you? International perspective. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Frimpong-Manso (In Print) Ghana, in T. Refaeli and V. Mann-Feder (eds) Leaving Care Around the World: Twenty Years of the International Network on Transitions to Adulthood from Care. London: Oxford University Press.
Journal Articles
Kelly, B., van Breda, A. D., Pinkerton, J., Frimpong-Manso, K., Chereni, A., & Bukuluki, P. (2024) “Youth in Transition: Exploring a Life Course Perspective on Leaving care in Africa,” Youth & Society, 56(5), pp. 926–945. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X231193708.
Frimpong-Manso, K. et al. (2024) “Deinstitutionalization of children in residential care facilities: Experiences and perceptions of professionals in Ghana,” Child & Family Social Work, 29(2), pp. 306–315. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.13081.
Abdullah, A., Frimpong-Manso, K., Cudjoe, E., & Agbadi, P. (2024) “When Social Workers Are Given Dual Mandates: Child Maintenance and the Complexities of Family Situations in the Ghanaian Child Protection System,” The British Journal of Social Work, 54(6), pp. 2415–2434. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae041.
Cudjoe, E., Abdullah, A., Frimpong-Manso, K., Agbadi, P., & Deliege, A. (2024) “Assessing Child Maintenance Cases in Ghana: What Do Social Workers Consider?,” Journal of Social Service Research, pp. 1–14. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01488376.2024.2362763.
- Registered Social Worker (Social Work England)