Kate Alexander is the Senior Practitioner, Office of the Senior Practitioner (OSP) for the NSW Department of Communities and Justice in Australia. Kate leads the department’s work to inspire, influence and review child protection practice. This includes child death review work; leading evidence based child protection approaches, and facilitating learning through conferences, publications and coaching strategies.

In June 2018, Kate was awarded a NSW Public Service Medal for outstanding contribution to family and community services.

Kate has a Masters of Social Work (Family Therapy) and has worked in the field of child protection for more than 25 years in a variety of roles including therapeutic, casework and management. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Melbourne, focused on decision making in child protection. Kate’s research considered the impact of Response Based Practice on assessments of children at risk because of domestic violence. The research findings are exciting, clearly demonstrating the importance of approaches that uphold dignity and unearth resistance and how that changes the way practitioners make decisions about vulnerable children.